JUST ONE MORE

A librarian’s closest friend turns sleuth to find her killer.

Single mother Becca Kalos has been babysitting Jenn Banks’ 5-month-old daughter while Jenn packs for a getaway vacation. Concerned when Jenn fails to pick Ivy up on time, Becca drives to her friend’s house and finds Jenn’s corpse in the bathtub. A series of flashbacks from Jenn’s perspective begin 17 months earlier, as her new surprise tattoo gets a less-than-enthusiastic reaction from Rick, her lawyer husband. When Jenn suspects that she’s pregnant, she’s devastated to learn that Rick doesn’t want children. These flashbacks, moving progressively forward in time, are counterpointed by Becca’s grieving and searching for answers. Once accidental death is ruled out, Becca determines to “find the monster” who did this and make him pay. The transparency and straightforward structure of the prolific Lyon’s first thriller are key to its potency. Two intimate first-person narratives run on parallel tracks, and suspense is added drop by drop against a backdrop of female bonding and contemporary women’s issues arising mainly from marital turbulence and work-life balance. Becca’s obsession with finding Jenn’s killer disrupts her home life with twins Maggie and Davis and puts a strain on her job with an ad agency. The reader receives pieces of the puzzle along with Becca, while Jenn’s revelations keep recasting these discoveries in a different light. Rick is clearly not an admirable guy, but could he have murdered his wife? Lyon provides a few welcome twists on the way to a satisfying finale.

Crisp, compelling, formulaic suspense executed with finesse.