The poison bed

Lost and profoundly myopic souls abound in Tanen's tale - the Y.A. author's debut adult novel - of two dysfunctional families. Marty Kessler, a 75-year-old retired movie producer who "made the geeks the heroes long before that idea had occurred to anyone else," is a mess. As are his adult daughters, Janine and Amanda. The cause? Perhaps Hollywood, an industry Marty considers "fundamentally corrupt and immoral," or perhaps the Kesslers' own tendencies: They have always "glossed over the horrors" of their lives. And there are many. His fortune is dwindling, a manipulative girlfriend wants what's left, and family unity eludes him. His daughters have been at loggerheads ever since Janine was a child television star. At 41, Janine is fragile and reclusive, avoiding both the world at large and that of "fallen celebrity." Amanda functions, but is jealous, divorcing and raising competitively bratty twin girls. To top it all off, Marty's addicted to opioids. Is this a way to kill time, because he's old and nobody cares "how decent a man he'd once been, how dedicated a father he was, or how many Academy Awards he had"? Bunny Small, newly 70, is the rich and famous author of a supremely successful Y.A. series. Biting and cruel, she's been hiding in her London flat, stricken by the writer's block she doesn't believe in, drinking uncontrollably. "Bunny wasn't dead but she wouldn't have minded if she had been." Her only child, Henry, decamped to Los Angeles at 22 after "a life of humiliation and parental neglect," and he's now an art history professor. Bunny explains the separation as her son's "decades-long hissy fit because she'd named the little hero in her novels after him." Where do the orbits of these families intersect? Marty and Bunny, wedded briefly long ago, end up at the same Malibu rehab, setting up a romantic-comedy-style meetcute involving their respective offspring. The oft-mined tropes here would have benefited from more original insights and deeper humor, and the novel's tone never fully settles; still, one wholeheartedly hopes that they all find some measure of future happiness.

Fremantle is the author of several novels examining the vicissitudes of life for women including Lady Jane Grey's surviving sisters and Catherine Parr during treacherous times in British history, including Lady Jane Grey's surviving sisters and Catherine Parr. This latest offering, set in the autumn of 1615, features two lesser-known figures of the Jacobean era, Lord Robert and Lady Frances Carr, both imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of the murder of Frances' former lover and mentor. The captivating Frances was rescued from an abusive relationship by court favorite Robert. They both had an equally strong motive for wanting the man gone. The story is structured with dual narrators Him and Her Richard and Frances each giving their evidence in turn. Rich in historical detail, much of which is clearly speculative, but bound to please fans of court intrigue.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2019 Booklist

Set in England during the reign of James I, this craftily constructed historical from Fremantle (Queen's Gambit) makes deft use of a real-life crime that provoked "a scandal that rocked the Jacobean court and was one of the initial cracks that would eventually lead to the devastation of the Stuart monarchy," according to an author's note. Fremantle creates suspense by delaying the revelation of the poisoning victim's identity, unfolding the story through alternating sections told from the differing perspectives of the two main suspects: Robert Carr, who may have been James I's secret lover, and Carr's wife, Frances Howard. The origins of their relationship and the resulting intrigue that led to the fatal poisoning is recounted in flashbacks, as Carr and Howard are introduced while prisoners in the Tower of London, interrogated separately in the hopes of eliciting a confession that will implicate both of them. Fremantle does a masterly job of recreating the feel of the period, along with making the atmosphere of suspicion and plotting palpable. Readers will eagerly await her next historical. Agent: Jane Gregory, David Higham Assoc. (U.K.). (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.