Review by Booklist Review
Family secrets unravel in Stewart's (The Good Ones, 2023) second slow-burn thriller. Natalie Macready's family has always been known for the Felons' Ball they hold each year for her father Trey's birthday, but things take a dark turn when Ben Marsh, Trey's best friend and Natalie's secret lover, is found brutally murdered at this year's celebration. As Natalie searches to discover who would have wanted the affable local figure dead, everything her family has been trying to hide starts to come to the surface. While Natalie is faced with the dilemma of whether to protect those she holds dear, relationships with her parents and sisters implode. Setting the story in her home state of Virginia, Stewart has done a great job of creating a compelling and atmospheric Southern mystery. Natalie is a flawed but well-intentioned and loyal protagonist, and the relationships between characters are layered and genuine. Fans of Liane Moriarty's Apples Never Fall (2021) will enjoy this book's overarching themes regarding family loyalty, and subtle twists will hold readers' interest through the end.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The powerful Macready family of Ewald, Va., faces a crisis in Stewart's devilish sophomore thriller (after The Good Ones). Each year, 50-year-old contractor Trey Macready celebrates his birthday with the Felons' Ball, a raucous party that winks toward his history of moonshining with his best friend, Ben Marsh. This year, as usual, Trey regales his guests with tales of daring and deceit, but the night is tainted when Ben is found murdered. Trey's daughter, Natalie, is determined to find Ben's killer with the help of Lanny, his missing son--in part because she's secretly been sleeping with Ben. As Natalie and Ewald's new sheriff, Hardy Underwood, hunt for Lanny and the killer, Natalie learns that Trey and Ben's decades-old exploits were darker and deadlier than she suspected. As she sifts through a pile of family secrets, the sins of her father's past start to threaten her own future. An intriguing mix of murder, moonshine, and family drama makes this sing. It's perfect for fans of Kate White and Kim Michele Richardson. Agent: Denise Shannon, Denise Shannon Literary. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A violent family saga in which no one emerges unscathed. It's almost time for the Felons' Ball, an annual outdoor gathering held by patriarch Trey Macready on his spread in Ewald County, Virginia. The pre-Thanksgiving bash is facetiously named in recognition of the charges Trey and his best friend, Ben Marsh, managed to dodge when they were younger and running booze for the cutthroat family business. (Trey's brother, Leo, did once serve a light sentence.) The accumulation of dark secrets relating to the family, which was suspected of tossing dead moonshining foes into bucolic Lake Monroe, does not stop there. On the night of the big party, held on Trey's 50th birthday, Ben--who's sleeping with Trey's daughter, Natalie--gets stabbed to death on his boat. Did the murder have anything to do with the disappearance years ago of Ben's son, Lanny, Natalie's then-crush? As the vulnerable narrator of the novel, Natalie is putting together clues. The event reunites her and her sister Kaitlyn, with whom she runs a yoga studio in town, with their other sister, Cassie, a touring yoga teacher and podcaster who's in from Los Angeles. As the investigation of Ben's murder heats up--the unstoppable Natalie is soon sleeping with the handsome local sheriff--old family tensions flare up. Just how much have Mom and Dad been protecting their daughters from the truth and how much have they been protecting themselves? Everything points back to a 2011 boat accident that nearly killed young Natalie and from which she is still recovering mentally. Did the wrong helmsman serve time for it? Following Stewart's impressive debut novel,The Good Ones (2023), this is a breakout achievement. Even dealing with the trickiest family dynamics, a shifting cast of characters, and complex twists of fate, she is in complete command. A captivating, multilayered mystery by a rising star. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
