Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Faulkner's ho-hum latest (after The Other Mothers) focuses on the fallout after stay-at-home London mom Alice Rathbone kills a home invader. When knife-wielding teenager Ezra Jones breaks into her house while her seven-year-old daughter, Martha, is having a playdate, Alice bludgeons him over the head with a stool and kills him. At first, she assumes it was a random attack, but after talking to Ezra's mother, she suspects the teen had been stalking her family. Alice turns to her new friend Stella, an investigative journalist, for help getting to the bottom of the situation. Then Alice's husband, Jamie, disappears, reigniting dormant rumors that he'd been involved in sex scandals--and possibly even murder--as a senior executive at a charity organization. Eventually, Faulkner knits everything together with a series of surprising reveals, unveiling hidden motives and unlikely links between her characters. She gets in her own way, however, with too much plodding exposition and characterizations too thin to earn readers' investment. It's a letdown. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In Faulkner's (The Other Mothers) rich and twisty thriller, art restorer Alice Rathbone has created the perfect life with her high-powered husband and their young daughter. It's all turned upside down when Alice kills an intruder who has interrupted a Friday night glass of champagne with her mom friends at the Rathbones' upscale home. Although they live in the gentrifying London neighborhood of Hackney, where property crime is not uncommon, Alice becomes obsessed with the idea that the intruder, 18-year-old Ezra Jones, targeted their house for a reason. Alice seeks out his family and starts a hunt for the truth, soon revealing not just Ezra's past but also a spate of secrets and lies among her own friends and family. Faulkner keeps the twists coming, in the style of Lisa Jewell, and shows how the psychological ripple effect of one crime can change multiple lives, as in the best of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels. VERDICT Faulkner demonstrates that she's in the top tier of literary thriller writers with this surefire hit. With surprises up until the last page, it will satisfy both beach readers and book clubs.--Jon Jeffryes
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The aftereffects of a break-in chafe on a London mother, leading to her stubborn pursuit of unanswered questions in this hair-raising thriller. When a frightening man breaks into her London kitchen one evening, Alice Rathbone leaps into action. She's hosting a playdate for her daughter and two other families, and when the intruder grabs a large kitchen knife and moves toward the room with the children in it, Alice goes into serious defense mode, grabbing a stool the man had kicked at her and fatally whacking him on the head. While waiting to hear from the police about whether she'll be charged or cleared of any wrongdoing, Alice grapples with the randomness of the break-in, wanting to know more about her attacker. By all appearances, he was visibly under the effects of drugs or alcohol--or perhaps both--and had forced his way into a high-value home in a still-gentrifying neighborhood bent on destruction. But Alice can't shake the desire to find out more about the person she killed, who turns out to be 18-year-old Ezra Jones. When, against her bail conditions, she wends her way into the life of Ezra's family, things go spectacularly awry, even as Alice fends off anonymous phone calls and bitter, threatening online comments. The people closest to her--her husband, Jamie, a high-powered executive, and fellow school-focused mothers--beg her to move on, though one friend, Stella, a journalist, reluctantly agrees to assist with Alice's investigation. Small items from Alice's household go missing, the once-perfect nanny gives notice, and Alice's life continues to fall apart. Skillfully spinning a taut, surprise-filled tale enlivened by multiple compelling characters, Faulkner keeps this highly charged guessing game going until the final page. A psychological thriller rife with pretzel-like twists, gaslighting galore, and revenge-fueled machinations. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
