He Started It

February 10, 2020
Beth Morgan’s wryly humorous narration belies the high-stakes skullduggery that awaits her and her two estranged adult siblings on the cross-country road trip they’re forced into taking with their grandfather’s ashes in order to claim slices of his fortune, in this deliciously devious psycho thriller from Downing (My Lovely Wife). According to the terms of the will, Beth, overbearing big brother Eddie, and frosty baby sister Portia must retrace the oddball odyssey westward from Atlanta they took 20 years earlier with gramps, a traumatic trip that was intended to give their parents some alone time to save their marriage but would tear their family apart. The reboot starts inauspiciously with a truck running the travelers off the road in rural Alabama and subsequently tailing them. As backstabbing, bizarre occurrences (including the disappearance of the ashes) and betrayals pile up, Downing discloses the clan’s deeply buried secrets. The journey ends in a shocking, if head-spinning, showdown in the Nevada desert. Those with a taste for suspense with a wicked kick will be rewarded. Author tour. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary.

February 15, 2020
A road trip to scatter their grandfather's ashes--and claim their inheritance--takes a strange turn for three adult siblings in Downing's (My Lovely Wife, 2019) sharp psychological thriller. It's been a few years since the Morgan siblings--narrator Beth, Eddie, and Portia--have all been in the same place at the same time. Now, they've been forced to re-create a nightmarish road trip from 20 years ago to satisfy their grandfather's demands and collect their share of an estate worth millions. Beth isn't thrilled by the presence of her husband, Felix, and Eddie's wife, Krista, and all she really wants to do is put the pedal to the metal and collect her money. Unfortunately, they're required to revisit every kitschy, and creepy, tourist trap from Alabama to Nevada. They're not about to take any chances, especially since someone might be tracking them. As the road unfurls ahead of the sibs and their spouses, Beth gradually reveals what really happened on that road trip so long ago, inspiring readers to become as invested in the past as they surely will be in the present. When the family notices a strange black pickup following them, Beth can't help but wonder if someone from their past has returned to haunt them. After all, they all have secrets, some more dangerous than others. Downing subtly ratchets up the tension while perfectly capturing the complex dynamics between the siblings, including all the little betrayals and slights and plenty of old wounds left to fester over the years. The droll, slyly funny Beth is a captivating (unreliable?) narrator, and the parallels that she draws between the past and present make for compelling reading, as do their visits to out-of-the way tourist traps, all of which take on a sort of dark meaning. Will everyone make it to the end? Readers will be turning the pages to find out. Buckle up and settle in for one diabolically fun road trip.

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Starred review from February 15, 2020
In her second psychological thriller (following My Lovely Wife, 2019), Downing has totally mastered the ancient rhetorical tactic implied in that familiar infomercial phrase, "But wait, there's more!" With our need to know ramped up through a series of teasers offering more to come, this tale is virtually impossible to put down. Siblings Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan, the sole survivors of an extremely dysfunctional family with violent, even criminal, tendencies, reunite for the mother of all road trips. The at-first likable Beth tells the story, sharing truly odd details about the others that draws us to her, an intimacy that slowly dissolves with revelations of Beth's own unstable self. The sibs' wealthy grandfather has died, and, to collect their inheritance, they must re-create the cross-country trip they took together as children after grandpa abducted them from their parents. Childhood issues resurface, and it gets nasty quickly, but they drive on, the rental car hurtling down the highway, fueled by their greed, with a menacing black truck in pursuit. It is difficult to relate more without endangering an immersive, albeit chillingly dark, reading experience or spoiling the shocking conclusion. Suffice to say that the family's obsession with the game of Risk has conditioned each of them to betray one another as easily as they once conquered continents on the game board.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)