by Julie Clark

“If I left him, I’d have to do it in a way where he could never find me. Look what happened to Maggie Moretti.”

This was cleverly plotted and tightly constructed. Two beleaguered women from opposite ends of the social spectrum encounter each other at an airport. They are strangers but both are trying to escape life threatening situations. They exchange identities and flights in order to throw off their powerful pursuers. One gets on the plane back to the other’s home town, while her co-conspirator takes her place on a political relief mission to Puerto Rico. It was an off the cuff arrangement born of desperation, but if all works as planned, both will appear to vanish into thin air and be able to start normal new lives. But then one of the planes crashes with no survivors.

Both women and their stories share the focus in this novel. We go back and forth between the two. We trace Claire, who is the abused wife of a powerful political scion, from how she got to be in the desperate position she finds herself, to her meticulously planned escape which blows up in her face at the last minute, to her grasp at the last straw solution that Eva offers at the airport. Then we follow her to Eva’s home in Berkeley, California where she poses as a friend of the vacationing Eva. She tries to remain hidden from the long reach of her powerful husband who is starting to suspect that something fishy is going on and runs into those that are pursuing Eva. It soon becomes clear that Eva did not tell her the truth about why she wanted to change places. The focus of Eva’s story is her past life and how she got into the dangerous situation she finds herself in. As we become invested in Eva’s story up to the day of the crash, we learn that she may not have gotten on that plane after all, and may still be alive. This hope keeps our interest in Eva at a high pitch even though she is not as sympathetic a character as Claire.

There is more than one good twist as things come to their conclusion, one of which explains a coincidence that was just too far-fetched to be believed. It made the book a lot smarter than I thought it was. I was engaged in both women’s stories almost equally but probably Claire’s a little more as it is her we follow in present day as she tries to solve the mystery of Eva, navigates a new identity in a strange town, keeps tabs on her husband, and also must deal with the dangers and secrets in Eva’s life as well. There was just the right amount of tension and suspense for me which means occasional relief from unremitting anxiety. The ending was a bit bittersweet, which I usually don’t like, but it seemed right and was accomplished admirably. The sweet part of the ending thoroughly made up for the aspects that didn’t end up quite the way I wanted.

By Ashley Elston

I don’t have to know these people to know everything about them. They are the ones who started kindergarten together, their circle remaining small until high school graduation. They fled town in groups of twos and threes to attend a handful of colleges all within driving distance of here. They all joined sororities and fraternities with other groups of twos and threes with similar backgrounds, only to gravitate back to this small Louisiana town, the circle closing once again. Greek letters have been traded out for Junior League memberships and dinner parties and golf on Saturday afternoon, as long as it doesn’t interfere with SEC football.
I don’t fault them for the way they are; I envy them

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This isn’t your usual domestic thriller which is my preferred choice with my thriller reading. I’d call it an undomestic thriller, maybe. “Evie Porter”, one of many aliases, has been employed by the mysterious and menacing Mr. Smith ever since she was barely out of her teens. She is one of his operatives whom he assigns to infiltrate the life and environment of an unsuspecting target in order to get something he or one of his wealthy and powerful clients wants. She is a scam artist and, yes, engaged in criminal activities. But we like her a lot. She has “a particular set of skills,” but she is shown to have vulnerabilities, which means, the more her story is unfolded, the more we fear for her.

As the book begins, Evie has established herself as the serious girlfriend of a socially prominent small town golden boy who runs a very shady secret business on the side. Mr. Smith is very interested in this highly profitable business, and Evie’s job is to find out everything about it and report back to him. But there are two complications. The first complication is that Evie really really likes Ryan, and Ryan seems to be seriously in love with her. She wants this peaceful ordinary life in this idyllic southern town. It is the life she and her late mother used to dream of. The second complication is that even though she knows she is his best operative, she has been on seriously thin ice with Mr. Smith who has been displeased with her since she failed at her last job. She cannot fail again. Actually, a 3rd complication soon emerges. At a party with Ryan she is introduced to a new girlfriend of an old buddy of his who has recently returned to town. She bears a noticeable physical resemblance to Evie and she is introduced as Lucca Marino, which is Evie’s real name. Uh Oh. In fact, her whole closely guarded secret identity has been hijacked by this woman.

As Evie deals with “Lucca” and does her work for Mr. Smith, we get flashbacks of Evie/Lucca’s origins and how she came to work for him. We are taken through her previous missions for him: In no particular order, stealing a valuable painting from a burglar-proof safe room, framing a squeaky clean politician to make him vulnerable to bribery, retrieving damaging information that could bring down a crime boss, posing as a Nanny for a young family to retrieve a flash drive hidden somewhere in the house, and getting a successful college football coach released from his contract. The more we learn about Evie, the more we like and admire her. And the more we loathe and fear Mr. Smith. We also see that Evie is accumulating assets with each job she does, and even a friend or two. Clearly she is up to something behind the scenes. And who is Mr. Smith really? Can she ever escape this life or is she trapped until Mr. Smith decides to dispose of her?

There are, are like all good thrillers, much cleverness, many twists, and surprising reveals. I loved the ending with many threads coming together. All is revealed in great detail, which I loved and reveled in. And the final little twist….Well. I’d love a sequel.
And Bonus! No alcoholism!