Traditional

Eustacia Rose, Professor of Botanical Toxicology, lives alone in London with just her extensive but exquisite collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her rooftop garden with meticulous care, buys the occasional rare specimen off the black market, and, Rear Window-like, follows the goings on of her neighbors through her super-powerful telescope. She even records the neighbors’ activities, giving it all the veneer of science. Until one day she hears a scream coming from across the street that is so terrifying it forces her to shift from voyeur to participant. The woman who screamed was the remarkably beautiful Simone, as Rose has named her, and days later, when Rose sees Simone being shoved into a car and driven off by a group of men, she becomes obsessed with saving the woman. But does Simone need saving? A fascinating novel that brings together the cops, friends of Rose from years ago, the use of toxins from poisonous plants, lost love, the nature of friendship, and the effects of the death of a parent. In the end, we see Rose begin to emerge from her cocoon and reenter the world around her, a transformation hugely satisfying to watch.

This is Estes’s debut novel, but far from her first brush with the TV journalism world portrayed in the book. Like her main character, Jolene Garcia, the author is a reporter in Phoenix, an Emmy winning one at that. Readers will get the feeling that she’s all too familiar with the pressure that’s on Jolene to do it all—investigate, write, present—all while looking fabulous on TV, then rinse and repeat on social media. Jolene is tired of the fluffy stories that the station runs to please the manager’s wife, and when a death occurs at a local radio station, she’s all over it. The deceased might be Alex Jones-alike Larry Lemmon, a talk-show host who divides his time between hating facts and hating immigrants more, a story that’s bound to draw viewers in droves. Dare she hope? And better again, maybe he was murdered. Her TV-news sensation dreams are fulfilled, but many questions remain. Assisting Jolene in getting the scoop on those is a reluctantly helpful police officer whose portrayal of departmental politics and ethics add narrative tension. But best is Jolene’s relentlessness and endurance of whatever it takes to get the story. Estes says that “J.A. Jance’s Ali Reynolds series planted the seed for my writing while Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Jane Ryland series helped it grow,” so fans of those series are a natural fit for this gritty thriller.