THE DARKNESS OF OTHERS

Less than a year into the pandemic, a wealthy filmmaker is shot dead and his wife goes missing, exposing the “deep darkness” at the heart of marriage, friendship, and professional relationships.

As bitter weather ushers in the first full winter of the pandemic, restaurants are hurting for business, and masks are still the normal accessory for any social interaction. Fear is already a bosom companion of most people’s lives—fear of illness, fear of eviction, fear of debt—so when a cleaning lady discovers the bloody body of movie director Nate Walker in his Brooklyn Heights town house, it’s another sign of how far removed people are from any sense of safety. Suspiciously, at least to the cops, no one can find Nate’s wife, Melissa, so her best friend, Imani Banks, steps in to break the news to their daughter. Meanwhile, Tonya Sayre, a single mom and struggling waitress, finds that a closely guarded secret about her daughter’s parentage may not be enough to guarantee her financial stability, so she throws herself on the mercy of the man who owns the restaurant where she works. The owner—Imani’s husband, Philip—is already dealing with his own financial troubles. Over the course of the next week, despite several misdirections and misunderstandings, Imani will fight to find Melissa and to clear her of suspicion. The chapters switch perspectives among many of the characters, but with a small cast, there’s not much mystery, really—or satisfying motive—to drive the action. The more interesting and psychologically engaging parts of the novel explore the pandemic’s effects on social and economic stability. The human capacity for selfishness and evil is a well-established reality, but the realities of loving and surviving in the midst of a global pandemic are still fresh and evolving themes.

Aims for biting commentary but falls short of revelation.