Carter Wilson is a thriller writer I’ve come to enjoy reading enough to acquire his new books on name recognition alone, as was the case here. Wilson isn’t the most consistent author, but, although he’s seldom great, he’s always, reliably, good and that’s pretty impressive in and of itself, a built-in quality control of sorts.
With his latest, he is, once again, good, very good. At least for the first two thirds on the novel, the last one can strike readers this way or that. So, the wealthy denizens of Bury are getting a new neighbor. Bury’s a place Wilson already created and established before, so this is a revisit, after all a town with a name that creepy deserves one. The neighbor’s name is Aidan, he’s a recent widower, his beloved wife suddenly died and now at 35 he finds himself devastated and unmoored, but since he has two young kids to take care of, he can’t allow himself to unravel, so he does the next best thing…buys a new life. The reason he can do this isn’t his prowess as a bartender, it’s his winning lottery ticket. The win he, eerily, finds out about on the day of his wife’s funeral. Now Aidan, who has always, at best, threaded water, is a multimillionaire, and so he goes out and buys a mansion suited for one. A place that used to belong to a family that had mysteriously vanished. Does that factor creep Aidan out? Apparently not. It puzzles him, though, makes him want to solve the mystery, until a mystery of his own crops up in form of increasingly threatening letters. Is someone merely after his wealth or is here something more sinister at play here? Well, read and find out. It stands to mention that Aidan in his grief (his multilevel grief spiked by guilt as it turns out) is something of an unreliable narrator, increasingly so as the novel progresses, so it adds to the general WTF*ckery of his situation. Staying authentic to his Irish blood, he drinks too much, which muddles his existence. But overall, he’s a nice guy, someone you want to succeed and so you read on. By now, with so many thrillers under his belt, Wilson has gotten the formula down perfectly. Short chapters, each ending in the way that you simply have to read the next, the novel zooms by, the last third in a somewhat hallucinogenic state of uncertainty, but still…There’s a nice plot twist in the end too. Likable characters, etc. Although it stands to mention one of Aidan’s seven year old twins, Bo, seems/talks almost distractingly mature for his age. Overall, a very engaging production that’ll certainly have you turning the pages. It is very disappointing the way a central mystery of Aidan’s new place is introduced and then left unsolved. I definitely would have loved more on that, it seems like a more interesting secret to uncover than Aidan’s own letters situation, in fact. But alas, the author chose not to. We’re given the story he wanted to tell, the mystery he wanted to solve, and that’s perfectly fine and mostly sufficient. Makes for a fun and entertaining character driven suspense thriller. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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