Tag:

Women

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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Review

Bye, Baby

by Henrietta Thornton

New Yorker Billie has never wanted children. But the series of hurts chronicled over the course of this frenemies story find her standing in the apartment below her former best friend, Cassie’s, place, holding Cassie’s baby while her friend upstairs wails that there’s been a kidnapping. Most of this absorbing tale takes place in the present, when lonely Billie tries over and over to regain the closeness she had with Cassie when they were teens. But Cassie, who’s now a famous Instagram mommy, wants little to do with her. We also flash back to those teen years, when a incident involving Billie’s stepfather, whose sexual abuse of the girl is graphically described, has been kept a secret by Billie and Cassie, leaving them emotionally tied but perhaps also causing their estrangement. As in her Can’t Look Away (2022), Lovering nails the bizarreness of obsessive love—Billie’s for Cassie and Cassie’s for Internet fame—and its twisted outcomes. This book will be a hit with fans of that previous work as well as of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love.

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Review

Darling Girls

by Henrietta Thornton

WHAT a rollercoaster. The “darling girls” in question–Jessica, Norah, and Alicia–are “foster children,” stuck being referred to that way even now that they’re adults. They aren’t biological sisters, but the mistreatment meted out at Wild Meadows by their foster mother, the psychologically cruel and unpredictable Miss Fairchild, has forced them into a lifelong bond. These days, Jessica is a housecleaner who steals her clients’ prescriptions and is being pursued by the relentless Debbie Montgomery-Squires, who wants her Valium back. Norah is on probation for her latest attack, one in a long string of anger-fueled outbursts. And Alicia is barely holding it together as a social worker who’s terrified to pursue a relationship with a female friend who could be more. The three are thrust back into their awful past when the police call to say that a body has been found buried at Wild Meadows, one that appears old enough to have been from their time at the “home.” What ensues are flashbacks to the children’s bizarre, cliff-edge lives as wards of a tyrant, while the darkly funny present-day tale looks at women who fight the system and their circumstances tooth and nail to avoid being victimized again. This is the rare story that’s equally character and plot driven, with the “sisters” portrayed as distinct and lovable and the plot just packed with twists. Hating Miss Fairchild is the icing on the cake

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Review

The Mayor of Maxwell Street

by Henrietta Thornton

Nelly Sawyer’s father is a Kentucky horse breeder and the richest Black man in America. The family is in prohibition-era Chicago for Nelly’s coming out, when she’s expected to meet the country’s most eligible young Black men and find one to marry. She doesn’t fit in at the events, disdains the whole charade, and just wants to be alone to grieve the recent death of her brother. She’s also eager to pursue a career in journalism, not easy for a woman, let alone a Black woman who’s been raised in genteel isolation. Outside the cotillion and other events are no better, as white Chicagoans take the young woman for a servant. Nelly is soon distracted, though, when she’s surprised by potential love interests: Jay Shorey, a mysterious, beautifully dressed speakeasy manager, and the more suitable, at least in society’s view, Tomás Escalante y Roche, a Marquis who is this season’s catch. When Nelly is challenged to find and identify the dangerous Mayor of Maxwell Street to keep the newspaper job she’s threatened with losing, both men and Nelly herself are thrown into a vicious game of deceit that adds high suspense and sometimes terrible danger to the politics-laden season. An evocative and thought-provoking debut, and just look at that cover!

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Review

Listen for the Lie

by Brian Kenney

One of the darkest, but funniest, novels I’ve read in a long time—largely thanks to the wonderful narrator, Lucy Chase. Lucy is taking a break from Los Angeles and heading back to her hometown of Plumpton, Texas. It’s been five years since she’s been in Plumpton, where nearly everyone, including her parents, is convinced she murdered Savvy, her best friend. After all, she was found leaving the scene of the crime, covered in Savvy’s blood, Savvy’s DNA under her nails, and suffering from amnesia. Kind of a downer, right? The one exception is her Grandma, who believes Lucy’s innocence and uses her 80th birthday party to lure Lucy home. It also seems like Ben Owens, the editor of the hugely popular true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie” is in town, with Lucy in his cross-hairs. Grandma is convinced that the handsome Ben will end up exonerating Lucy—and Lucy ends up sort of working with, and sleeping with, Ben, while also fooling around with a few other potential witnesses, like her ex-husband. The prose snaps and the plot speeds along in Tintera’s portrayal of small town, alcohol-addled, smiling-to-your-face-while-trashing-you-behind-your-back Texas. This would make a perfect series—and what fun to cast! For those who enjoyed Jennifer Hillier’s Things We Do in the Dark and Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family.

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Review

While We Were Burning

by Henrietta Thornton

Elizabeth is in a rut. Her job isn’t so satisfying, and her marriage is on the rocks. Her every move seems to trigger a report by her husband, David, to their therapist. She feels ganged up on and adrift, which is bad enough. That descends into depression, which others believe is paranoia, when she finds her neighbor Patricia dead. Others say it’s suicide, but Elizabeth is sure it was murder and is determined to find the culprit. She has a willing sidekick in her sleuthing in Brianna, the assistant that David insists his wife take on to help out at home. Brianna, who is Black, is all too willing to be white Elizabeth’s new best friend, Watson to her Sherlock, and de facto therapist, given that Brianna has a strong motivation to insert herself into her employers’ upscale Memphis neighborhood: someone there called the cops on her son and they killed him. As the plot twists and turns, deceptions build, and though readers have the benefit of a birds’ eye view of the story, surprises are in store. This is reminiscent of Elizabeth Day’s Magpie, with its suburban setting and overcrowded marriage; the effects of gentrification and racism also loom large. For fans of Magpie Murders and novels that pack in the psychological drama.

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Review

Midnight is the Darkest Hour

by Henrietta Thornton

Ruth Cornier is that rarity in fiction: a woman who had the chance to get out of the town that’s too small for her—in this case, Bottom Springs, Louisiana—but stayed. Growing up, everyone knew her as the preacher’s daughter, and nothing’s changed, except that she’s no longer under her father’s thumb. She is still, however, the subject of her downtrodden mother’s malice-filled plans to drag her back to the snake-handling church’s fold. What’s so objectionable about Ruth? It’s her firm friendship with Everett Duncan, her Heathcliff-reminiscent best friend, who’s returned to town after Ruth thought him gone for good. While Ever is the kind-hearted son of the mean town drunk, locals think he’s an apple from a no-good tree, and even suspect him of being the Low Man, a supernatural being who drags people into the swamp. When a skull is found in that same swamp, Ruth and Ever are thrown back into dark days of their youth while also desperately trying to find what really happened before Ever gets what locals think he deserves. As in Winstead’s In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, sharp writing, compelling dual timelines, and sympathetic characters will keep readers turning the pages.

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Review

First Lie Wins

by Jeff Ayers

Ryan Summer helps a young woman named Evie Porter with a flat tire, and shortly afterward, they are inseparable in Elston’s twisty thriller. He falls head over heels for her, but in Evie’s case, the relationship is an assignment from her mysterious boss she has never seen, Mr. Smith. Her orders are to get close and obtain information about Ryan’s business. As time passes, she finds herself falling for her mark, and one evening, while meeting some of Ryan’s friends, she meets Lucca Marino. Evie’s real name is Lucca Marino, and this woman is using Evie’s real-life identity and background. It’s clear her boss has put a target on her back, and she will have to use all her manipulative skills to stay alive, even if that means she has no realistic chance of returning to her old life. Retirement is not an option. Elston has crafted a story that stretches credulity a bit, but works. Readers will be dying to finish this fast enough so they can decipher what’s going on, and it’s a guarantee that they’ll find the truth unexpected. Fans of Hank Phillippi Ryan and Megan Miranda should seek this out.

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