For those who can withstand the difficult subject of infanticide, a suspenseful courtroom drama full of poignant flashbacks...
Two sisters re-examine their relationship as one of them stands trial for murdering the other’s infant.
Martha Blackwater’s 8-week-old baby, Layla, suffocated while she was under her aunt Becky’s care. The book opens several months after the baby’s death, as Martha attends Becky’s trial, desperately hoping to be convinced of her sister’s innocence. Becky had been working as a nanny for Layla, a plan the sisters hatched when Becky complained about her dead-end job as a set designer. Feeling as though she’s never measured up to her perfect older sister, Becky is determined to excel at being a nanny. Doctors hypothesize that Layla suffers from gastric distress, but they are unable to alleviate her symptoms, and the baby cries incessantly. When Martha leaves town on a business trip at the same time that her husband, Scott, is traveling, Becky is left to care for Layla, and to suffer her endless crying, for two nights. The prosecution now insists that the child’s interminable crying pushed Becky over the edge, leading her to smother Layla into silence. As Martha listens to the prosecution, she cannot believe that Becky would ever harm her child. However, with each witness’s surprising testimony, Martha begins to wonder whether she’s ever known her sister at all. As Martha and Becky take turns narrating this tale, they provide details on both the courtroom events and their personal histories, showcasing their deep bond and subtle resentments. The author also includes chapters told from the perspectives of several witnesses, with each of these chapters appearing immediately before the same witness testifies in court. Rather than feeling repetitive, this approach emphasizes the differences between real-life events and courtroom testimony, a medium through which facts can easily get warped. Through these varying perspectives, the author draws complex, nuanced characters while also illustrating the litany of emotions that can torment bereft parents. With fast-paced prose and several unexpected twists, the author skillfully weaves a web in which any of the characters might be the guilty party.
For those who can withstand the difficult subject of infanticide, a suspenseful courtroom drama full of poignant flashbacks and unique insights.Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-53939-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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