HE SAID/SHE SAID

A shocking crime and its aftermath—and the blurred line between guilt and innocence—propel Kelly’s (The Burning Air, 2013, etc.) riveting new thriller.

Kit and Laura have been together for 15 years and are happy. After all, they’re finally realizing their dream of becoming parents after many failed IVF attempts and the anxiety that comes with the inability to conceive. Still, a cloud hangs over them, threatening everything they’ve made together, and it all began when they were only six months into their relationship. A shared love of eclipse chasing took them to a festival where Laura witnessed a rape. Or did she? She’d certainly swear to it, but Kit came on the scene after the suspect had already begun to leave, so he can’t back her up, but he does believe her. Little do they know that the crime—and the victim, Beth Taylor—will turn their lives upside down. Kit's and Laura’s first-person narratives alternate between 2015, during which Kit goes on an eclipse cruise while pregnant Laura stays home, and the events that began in 1999. Readers are given hints at the very beginning about how careful Kit and Laura are about keeping their whereabouts out of the media and the public eye, but what sounds like paranoia becomes very real as the story gets into the heart of the rape and the trial and how its effects have followed them throughout their marriage, coloring everything they do. This first-rate psychological thriller and deft exploration of the delicate dance of marriage and the secrets people keep works on multiple levels, and the passages about the early days of Laura and Kit’s relationship—filled with the gossamer promise of new love—make what's in store for them even more harrowing. A stunning conclusion will take more than a few days to fade from memory.

Spellbinding.