About the Book
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.
No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes.
The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect.
As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.
My Review
Not everything is as it seems, right? This book really took that quote to a whole new level, following a well-off neighborhood and the families that reside there. Zach and his wife, Amanda, seem to have an amazing life – the money, the house, the child, the strong marriage. But when Amanda is found dead in her home – with Zach in custody for her murder – not only is their life being questioned of how perfect it is, so are their friendly neighbors.
We also follow Lizze, college friend of Zach’s and lawyer who Zach is urging to get on his case. As Lizzie dives further into their marriage, the controversial party Zach and Amanda attended before her death, and the mysterious blackmailing the other families are enduring, she finds more questions than answers – and starts to distrust her client and former flame more and more.
I lost track of how many times my eyebrows went up while reading this one. I also lost track of how many times I was thrown off the scent of what really happened to Amanda, what really happened with the blackmailing situation, and who Zach really was. This is a provocative, domestic suspense novel that had me intrigued and needing to get to the end, but there were plot points that I do think could have been cut or condensed to keep the pace quick and not convoluted at times. There were a lot of players to keep track of so a few times I felt bogged down with minute details or scenes that didn’t add much to the story. Overall, I did really enjoy it though and the suspense element kept me hooked – I would recommend!
4 stars
