Review by Booklist Review
Newly pregnant, Nora Spangler is staring down a partnership review at her law firm while juggling parenting and domestic responsibilities, barely suppressing simmering rage at her husband, Hayden, who casually dismisses her burdens. When house-hunting leads the pair to Dynasty Ranch, Nora finds her Shangri-la, a suburban enclave inhabited by successful women supported by husbands happily taking on all of the household chores. To join in their domestic bliss, she just has to win the approval of the neighborhood's HOA recruitment committee and overcome Hayden's suburban aversion. When neighborhood power brokers ask Nora to take on the wrongful-death case of their friend Penny's husband, who recently died in a fire at Dynasty Ranch, Nora sees an opportunity to increase her appeal to the partnership panel and the HOA. But Nora's investigation reveals a grisly Stepford twist, and, before she knows it, she's forced to choose between her conscience and the temptations of Dynasty Ranch. Baker uses Nora's relatable sense of being overwhelmed to stoke suspense in this dark exploration of modern family dynamics. A prime choice for book groups.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
House-hunting Austin, Tex., attorney Nora Spangler, the protagonist of bestseller Baker's disappointing sophomore effort (after 2019's Whisper Network), thinks Dynasty Ranch looks like a dream come true, an "enclave community" of enviably accomplished professional women--and husbands who, unlike her own spouse, Hayden, seem to pride themselves on sharing domestic duties. But all may not be quite as idyllic as it appears. After Nora meets Dynasty Ranch resident Penny March, a renowned advice columnist, Penny retains Nora to explore a wrongful death suit on behalf of her husband, who was burned alive in the blaze that incinerated their home. Though wary of a potential conflict of interest since she and Hayden are weighing an offer in the community, Nora starts investigating--and grows increasingly suspicious about the fire. She also gradually becomes more and more uneasy about all the Stepford-like hubbies. While Baker puts everywoman Nora in frightening peril, she paints such a convincing picture of her stretched-to-the-breaking-point existence that the novel proves something of a downer, a situation its unbelievable final bombshell does nothing to improve. Hopefully, she'll return to form next time. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Following Whisper Network (2019), Baker is back with a second pulpy feminist thriller, this time set in an idyllic suburb just outside of Austin where all the women are high-powered and all the husbands are helpful--or at least, so it seems. Nora Spangler, up for partner and pregnant with her second child, is barely hanging on. She loves her husband, Hayden, she does, only why does everything, she can't help thinking, have to fall to her? In addition to her full-time job as a personal injury attorney at Greenberg Schwall, she is the packer of lunches and the keeper of schedules and the taker-out of trash. "It's like he thinks their house, their toddler, their lives are kept on track by magic," she thinks, trying to quell her constant rage and mostly failing. At least until, while house-hunting in advance of the new baby, Nora and Hayden discover Dynasty Ranch. Dynasty Ranch is not like other neighborhoods. Here, all the wives are accomplished and all the husbands are serenely doting--Stepford in reverse. When a few of the women approach Nora about taking on a wrongful death suit, the result of a devastating house fire that killed one of the husbands, her initial hesitation about taking a case involving people who might soon be her neighbors doesn't last. The case is a double opportunity: a way to prove her value to the firm and a chance to make the kind of new friends she so desperately needs. And it works. But as she begins to dig deeper into the house fire, she discovers that Dynasty Ranch isn't what it seems. Just to really hammer home her point, Baker periodically intersperses fictional online comment threads between chapters, a Greek chorus of anonymous voices ("TwinMommy," "WillWork4Cupcakes67") debating how much of their predicament is or isn't working mothers' faults. The novel isn't breaking new ground, in terms of social commentary; still, it's a delightfully cutting romp. A perpetually timely page-turner that is anything but subtle. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
