Every Last Fear

October 1, 2020
The Pine family was torn apart when teenage son Danny was imprisoned for the murder of a local girl, Charlotte Rose; then came the true-crime documentary that made everything even worse, portraying Danny's father, Evan, as unhinged. Danny's brother, Matt, is trying to get on with life as a film student when he learns that his family has been found dead in Mexico. With an FBI agent helping from afar, Matt and his ragtag group of friends must dodge those in his hometown of Adair, Nebraska, who want the remaining Pine son gone, and escape a (somewhat clich�d) frightening man who appears in the family's vacation photos and later in way-too-close proximity to Matt. Finlay's debut is a fast-moving, often-emotional portrayal of a family in turmoil, small-town nastiness, and what happens after the cameras are gone. Readers who sympathize with a character who just can't get it right will enjoy the flashbacks to Evan Pine's desperate, ill-fated efforts to reassemble his family, and fans of a good chase scene won't be disappointed, either.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

December 15, 2020
Debut novelist Finlay throws every last plague at a Job-like Nebraska family, and most of them stick. The troubles began seven years ago, when Danny Pine was accused of killing Charlotte Rose, the high school girlfriend who'd just discovered her pregnancy. Prosecutors swiftly convicted Danny on the basis of a confession the local cops bullied out of him, and although A Violent Nature, a Netflix documentary series, suggested that the real killer was Bobby Ray Hayes, the Smasher convicted of beating several other girls to death, it didn't change the minds of the Pines' neighbors in Adair, turning the family into celebrity pariahs. Taking his family from Nebraska to Chicago, Danny's father, Evan Pine, has worked ever since at another branch of the accounting firm Marconi LLP. Just a few weeks after he's laid off, however, comes the most crushing blow of all: On a trip to Mexico, Evan, his wife, Olivia, and their two youngest children, Maggie and Tommy, are all found dead, apparently from a gas leak in their cabin. FBI agent Sarah Keller, who's had her eye on Marconi for quite a while, wants to know why Evan was found outside the cabin; whether that red splotch near him is his own blood or someone else's; why the Pines decided to celebrate Evan's joblessness by taking a family vacation; and how all these developments are connected to the murder of Charlotte Rose. In search of answers, she leans on Danny, who refuses to talk, and on Danny's brother Matt, an NYU film student surrounded by people he can't trust who feels his family's history converging on him like a pack of hungry wolves. The author deftly juggles past and present and a wide range of viewpoints until the sadly predictable big reveal.

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January 25, 2021
In the pseudonymous Finlay’s solid debut, NYU student Matt Pine learns that his parents, Evan and Olivia, and younger siblings, 17-year-old Maggie and six-year-old Tommy, died while vacationing in Tulum, Mexico. The Pines’ oldest son, Danny, is seven years into a life sentence for murdering his pregnant high school girlfriend—a controversial conviction that was the subject of a TV documentary—so Matt must travel solo to claim the bodies. Local authorities believe the family succumbed to a gas leak, but FBI agent Sarah Keller has doubts. Not only was the recently fired Evan’s former employer laundering money for a Mexican cartel, but evidence suggests the Pines were chasing a lead that could exonerate Danny. When a series of near misses suggest Matt is also in danger, Sarah redoubles her efforts to uncover the truth. Though elements of the plot strain credulity and the denouement feels formulaic, Finlay imparts nuance via a prismatic narrative that jumps back and forth in time, examining both tragedies from multiple angles. Those who favor character-driven crime novels will find much to admire. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary.