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Women

Review

Village in the Dark

by Henrietta Thornton

Readers last visited the remote Alaskan town of Point Mettier in Yamashita’s debut, City Under One Roof, (Please note-the link is to a prior firstCLUE review) a title that perfectly describes the town that consists of a single apartment building with 205 residents, stores, and even a bar inside. This time, we are reintroduced to Cara Kennedy, a former Anchorage PD detective, as she’s having her husband’s and son’s bodies exhumed. She can’t stop suspecting foul play even though everyone is fed up that she won’t accept that they died of a hiking accident—she’s even lost her job because of her suspicions. But she’s now found a photo of her dead loved ones on a gang member’s phone. There’s no explanation for it, and her investigation is forcing her to visit the remote village of Chugach, with a trip through Point Mettier the only way in. Other wronged women are simultaneously facing pain and their paths are destined to meet: Ellie, owner of the Cozy Condo Inn in Point Mettier, gets a devastating call just as Kennedy’s on her way. We also meet Mia, a former Chugach resident who’s trying the outside world for the first time, meeting fears yet forging her way. These are fascinating characters and circumstances, and the story that brings them together and sees them struggling against inner demons, and very real danger, is gripping. For readers who enjoy offbeat tales and wilderness thrillers as well as for fans of the author’s debut.

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Review

Neferura

by Brian Kenney

With a doctorate in Egyptology, it would have been easy for Malayna Evans to have fallen down the bottomless hole of historical detail. But instead, this is a beautifully balanced novel, rich in the experiences of life in the backstabbing court of Pharaoh Hatshepsut while also focused on the engaging and ultimately tragic life of her daughter, Neferura, princess and high priestess of Kemet. Neferura lives to support the people, but she is often distracted by court machinations, especially those of her misogynistic half-brother, Thutmose, who wants to end her mother’s rule, become Pharaoh, marry Neferura, and produce an heir. Neferura’s interior thinking is powerfully engaging, and setting the novel largely among women, whose struggles to lead are always under scrutiny, is incredibly refreshing. But Neferura’s own story feels nearly revolutionary: to survive, she befriends the wisewoman, a much-tattooed priestess of sorts, who is in touch with a network of women who devote themselves to supporting Neferura, even to the point of risking their own lives. Add to this several standout characters, such as Neferura’s life-long tutor who helps guide her actions, and you have a cadre ready to protest their princess. Powerful and poignant, this is a treat for fans of historical mysteries.

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Review

That Night in the Library

by Henrietta Thornton

You know those cute programs where kids leave their teddy bear for a library sleepover? This is nothing like that. Instead, staying in the library overnight are student workers who have just completed a tough interview process for the one permanent job on offer in the university’s rare-books department (Jurczyk is mining a setting similar to her 2022 The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections), a toxic workplace if ever there was one. Also attending is non-student Ro, along because he can provide the drug, acid, that will kickstart a ceremony that student Davey has meticulously planned. Davey has invited Ro and five others to re-enact a Greek tradition around the Persephone myth, in which intoxicated pilgrims face either death or the thing they most fear, in order to conquer the fear. The tortured inner voice of narrator Faye, the shyest library employee, is used to wonderful effect by Jurczyk to chronicle a frenzied, terrifying night in a locked room—the library’s basement cage—that starts with a killing. The ending here is a shock, and along the way the author delivers chills that are packed with narcissistic venom and choking claustrophobia. This will be a hit with those who enjoyed Jurczyk’s previous work. If you like myth retellings, try one of the many versions of the Irish Tír na nÓg story, which mirrors elements of the tale of Persephone.

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Review

The Deepest Lake

by Willy Williams

Noted for her historical and speculative fiction (The Spanish Bow; Annie and the Wolves), Romano-Lax ventures into suspense territory with this atmospheric, entertaining thriller about a grieving mother investigating her daughter’s mysterious death. Three months after her 23-year-old daughter was presumed to have drowned in Lake Atitlán, Central America’s deepest lake, Rose arrives in Guatemala. Although a six-week search failed to recover Jules’s body, Rose is unsatisfied with the official investigation’s conclusion. She wants to learn more about her daughter’s final hours and why Jules, who had a lifelong fear of water, was last seen swimming in the lake. A key but uncooperative witness is Eva Marshall, the best-selling memoirist and Jules’s literary idol, for whom the aspiring writer had just started working as a personal assistant before her disappearance. Frustrated with Eva’s refusal to schedule a visit or a phone call from Rose and her ex-husband Matt, a determined Rose signs up under her maiden name for an upcoming memoir-writing workshop taught by the charismatic Eva at her Guatemalan lakeside retreat. “Rose has no ambitions whatsoever as a memoirist, not even the tiniest desire to be published.…But you do what you must, after you’ve already tried everything else.” Despite the glamor and natural beauty of her surroundings, Rose senses something off both in Eva and in how she runs her workshop. Did Jules uncover a dark truth that led to her death? While crafting a taut tale of suspense, Romano-Lax also turns a gimlet eye on the sometimes-toxic writing-workshop industry and the social media demands that turn authors into marketers and branders. In spite of an epilogue that feels a bit forced, the author has written a satisfying tale about the sometimes-strained but always unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

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Review

Someone Saw Something

by Jeff Ayers

A parent’s worst nightmare comes true for news anchor Corina and her family in Mofina’s gripping thriller. Six-year-old Gabriel is playing in Central Park with his older sister when he vanishes after going after his model airplane. Initial searches show no evidence of how he disappeared, nor any witnesses to the abduction. With no ransom demand, the police and investigators are baffled. Since Corina is a celebrity, the case brings out some sympathetic thoughts, but those are few. Most of what Corina reads online are vicious attacks and conspiracy theories regarding Gabriel’s true origins that make her life, and that of her family, a living hell. It doesn’t help that her husband and daughter have secrets they don’t want the world to discover. Mofina intelligently crafts the story by never showing Gabriel’s whereabouts or who is responsible for his kidnapping, amping up the conspiracy and paranoia. Focusing on the family’s agony and quest for the truth puts the reader directly into the story, and the final payoff is terrific. Mofina is a number-one bestselling author in Canada—as he should be in many other countries.

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Review

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder.

by Henrietta Thornton

Prepare to fall hard for Lenny Marks, the awkward, overthinking, lonely character in Mayne’s emotional debut mystery. Helena, or Lenny, is an Australian primary-school teacher. She’s fine in the classroom, as her self-discipline means she sticks religiously to lesson plans. She also gets along well with kids, but the same can’t be said for her interactions with colleagues, whom she mostly ignores, except for Ashleigh and Amy. These are the women whom Lenny has decided will be her friends—social workers and a kind former foster-mom having long encouraged her to speak to others and get out more. (Meanwhile, Asheigh and Amy say things to Lenny like, “I love that you don’t care what you look like”). But she’s trudging along mostly fine until the letter. It arrives at the school from the state parole board and sets Lenny into a spin while Mayne, tantalizingly, lets us into the full, shocking story of Lenny’s early life. Be ready for some very sad moments, including scenes of domestic violence toward children. I just adore this character and this book and will be thinking of Lenny for years (once I finish crying). Mayne’s captivating work might bring you back to an old Oprah’s Book Club favorite, Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone.

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Review

Two Dead Wives

by Henrietta Thornton

This sequel to Woman Last Seen (2022) publishes the day after Christmas, but it’s far from your traditional holiday read. It does, however, provide more than ample entertainment for days off and/or fuel for thinking away interminable events. The main thought provoker is: how does a woman manage to be married with kids in one family while also married to someone else? How are the two husbands and the kids supposed to feel now that Kylie, also known as Kai and Leigh, the bigamist whom they thought they hated, has gone missing? And what’s the second husband to do, accused as he is of Leigh’s murder, when he knows he didn’t do it and nobody even knows if she’s actually dead? Leave this one up to the kids, who are sick of the media firestorm around them, not to mention tired of their mother’s best friend who has moved in just a little too quickly and whom they know visits Dad’s room at night. Philosophical questions quickly give way to a thrilling investigation and final pages that will keep readers on edge and rooting for justice.

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Review

Missing White Woman

by Brian Kenney

This is one wild, suspense-driven tale, equally rich in characterization and plot. Breanna is on a mini-vacation with her new boyfriend, Ty, staying in a beautiful brownstone in Jersey City while touring Manhattan. Ty’s thought of everything, and the long weekend is 95 percent perfect, except for that five percent when Ty won’t stop with the work calls. But when Bree wakes up on their final morning, she can’t find Ty anywhere. What she does discover, strewn in the foyer, is the bloody corpse of a young woman that turns out to be Janelle, who has been missing for days. From here, things really take off, with Bree’s best friend—they’ve been estranged since college—arriving on the scene (she’s a take-charge criminal attorney), while Billie, a super-successful makeup influencer, rallies her thousands of followers into seeking #Justice4Janelle. Garrett does a great job of tracking the racism Bree experiences, from the neighbors’ microaggressions to the stereotypes purported about Ty to the national frenzy that only a white woman’s disappearance could generate (and thus the book’s title). A great cast, a wide-reaching narrative, and a resolution that will leave readers ruminating for days. Can’t wait to introduce this to a book group

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Review

The Last Applicant

by Henrietta Thornton

This novel takes place in the social black hole that sucks in (very) rich New York City parents: admission to the kind of private elementary school that costs the same as college. These institutions usually seem to be named with an eye toward Beatrix Potter characters attending—St. Bernard this, country that. This one’s called Easton but is nevertheless The School to attend. That’s why admissions director Audrey Singer is only surprised by the casual tone of a begging email from a mom who didn’t realize the application pool would be capped. Sarah Price is desperate, devastated, disconsolate, not to mention a little drunk, and fears she has “completely derailed” her son, Eli’s, future. Audrey makes the mistake of allowing an exception to the rules, and that’s all it takes: Sarah now begins to stalk the gatekeeper of her dreams for Eli, with her antics growing ever more unhinged as decision day grows closer. Fans of psychological thrillers and mysteries will lap up the tense moments created by the power imbalance between Audrey and Sarah; emotional ups and downs that stem from the women’s private lives add to the roller coaster effect. As the novel is episodic, cliffhangers will thrill readers at points, and there’s a completely unpredictable ending twist. Pick up this one if you enjoyed Chandler Baker’s Cutting Teeth or Sylvie Perry’s The Hawthorne School.

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Review

The Best Way to Bury Your Husband

by Brian Kenney

It’s early into lockdown in the UK, and Sally can’t take any more physical and psychological abuse from her husband—thankfully the kids are grown and out of the house. So she does the only thing she can do: she fights back, smashing him on the head with her iron skillet. But killing is the easy part. It’s disposing of the body that’s the challenge. Fortunately, Sally soon discovers that she’s not the only woman in the neighborhood with a husband rotting away in the basement, packed in cat litter (did you know? It absorbs both odors and fluids). Slowly, these women come together and create quite the self-help group, dubbed the Lockdown Ladies’ Burial Club, which is tasked with disposing of four bodies…and getting away with it. As impossible as this may seem—these women aren’t exactly hooked up with organized crime—they revel in their newly created freedom, gaining the strength to take on seemingly any challenge. As Sally says, “For too long I let a small man steal my joy and potential.” What’s remarkable is how Casale—with a decade of experience in the field of male violence against women—succeeds at moving between the women’s experiences with domestic violence in the past and the dark humor of their present situation, tacitly giving us permission to laugh at times. Well-written with plenty of surprises, twists, and turns to keep readers engrossed. Pair it with Bella Mackie’s How to Kill your Family.

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