I’ve not read Landay until now because I had always thought of him as a writer of court dramas, and I don’t especially like those. But then again, I heard good things, so I kind of meant to. When the ARC for his latest came to Netgalley, I downloaded it, and then, upon a strong passionate recommendation of a good friend moved it up on my reading queue.
Well, what can In say. I was missing out. That much was blatantly obvious from the first page. There’s this elusive, difficult to describe quality some writers have, like they were born to tell stories. The way their narrative just envelops you, the profound immersiveness of their books. Landay has that. Loads of it. The man can just take a deceptively simple tale that can be in theory summed up as A Man May or May Not Have Killed His Wife Forty Years Ago and make it sing. Make it wow. So how does he do it? Well, his writing is just that good. But also, he’s so clever about the narrative structure, about the subtleties of characters, about maintaining plausible deniability and suspense. The case is this: in 1975 a well-to-do lawyer’s wife and mother of their three children disappears without a trace. The suspicion inevitably falls on the man, because that’s just how it goes and because he’s kind of scummy, and with a girlfriend on the side. And yet no one can prove his guilt and so for decades him and his children and the wife’s sister are submerged in a sea of suspicion and mistrust. The following paragraphs may give away some of the plot turns, though I’ll take great care not to. Read at your discretion. You’ve been warned. The novel starts with a man writing a book about the case. The man has family connections and uses them, and of course not everyone in the family is happy about it. The eldest son maintains his father’s innocence or at least the right to be left alone. The youngest daughter is struggling with it all. Next up, a chapter from the dead wife herself. Just how that’s possible (and this is so freaking clever) you don’t find out until the next chapter wherein the family at last decides to get some form of justice and sues the father. Yes, now there’s a court drama and yes, it was my least favorite part of the book, but a. it was still compelling and b. it didn’t take very long. And then the last chapter, that sees the father as an old man with the youngest daughter as his devoted caretaker. And what did you expect really from an adult woman who never stopped calling his Daddy? Old age had mellowed the scum off the man and now he’s practically a decent if senile person, preparing to take his own life to avoid further degradation. Apparently, bygones have been relegated to bygone-specific places and some peace was found. And then, a bombshell of a revelation at the last moment. An ending twist that cuts like knife. Oh so good. Yes, that’s how you do did-he-or-didn’t-he novel. That’s how you do a novel period. What an awesome book. What an emotional powerhouse. One of the best reading experiences in a long while, and given the amount of books this reader/reviewer goes through, that’s no small praise. Great read. Recommended. I mean, read this book. Go. Do it. Thanks Netgalley.
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