He Said/She Said

March 6, 2017
This riveting psychological thriller from British author Kelly (Broadchurch) explores the extremes to which people will go to conceal a lie. While celebrating the 1999 solar eclipse at a festival in Cornwall, eclipse-chaser Christopher “Kit” McCall and his girlfriend, Laura Langrishe, interrupt the apparent rape of Beth Taylor. They call the police, and their testimony leads to the capture and conviction of a man named Jamie Balcombe. Beth showers Kit and Laura with gratitude, but then her behavior takes a strange turn and they decide to distance themselves. Come 2015, Kit and Laura have changed their names and are living as ghosts, only risking travel to see the moon cover the sun. The couple share the narration, which moves back and forth in time to fill the 15-year gap. Kelly’s pacing is deliberate, but patient readers will be rewarded with airtight plotting, mounting tension, and shocking twists. Attempts to match the beats of the story with the phases of an eclipse feel somewhat contrived, but overall, this is an affecting tale of infatuation, desperation, and betrayal. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency.

April 15, 2017
A shocking crime and its aftermath--and the blurred line between guilt and innocence--propel Kelly's (The Burning Air, 2013, etc.) riveting new thriller.Kit and Laura have been together for 15 years and are happy. After all, they're finally realizing their dream of becoming parents after many failed IVF attempts and the anxiety that comes with the inability to conceive. Still, a cloud hangs over them, threatening everything they've made together, and it all began when they were only six months into their relationship. A shared love of eclipse chasing took them to a festival where Laura witnessed a rape. Or did she? She'd certainly swear to it, but Kit came on the scene after the suspect had already begun to leave, so he can't back her up, but he does believe her. Little do they know that the crime--and the victim, Beth Taylor--will turn their lives upside down. Kit's and Laura's first-person narratives alternate between 2015, during which Kit goes on an eclipse cruise while pregnant Laura stays home, and the events that began in 1999. Readers are given hints at the very beginning about how careful Kit and Laura are about keeping their whereabouts out of the media and the public eye, but what sounds like paranoia becomes very real as the story gets into the heart of the rape and the trial and how its effects have followed them throughout their marriage, coloring everything they do. This first-rate psychological thriller and deft exploration of the delicate dance of marriage and the secrets people keep works on multiple levels, and the passages about the early days of Laura and Kit's relationship--filled with the gossamer promise of new love--make what's in store for them even more harrowing. A stunning conclusion will take more than a few days to fade from memory. Spellbinding.

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Starred review from May 1, 2017
Kelly delivers another tale full of lies, obsessions, and richly drawn characters. Married couple Kit and Laura have been together for 15 years and have spent most of them in near seclusion, hiding from a stalker. When the pair were first dating, they attended the 1999 Lizard Festival in Cornwall, a three-day hedonistic music fair centered on the solar eclipse (Kit is an obsessed eclipse chaser), where they stumbled across a rape in progress. The victim, Beth, insinuates herself into the couple's lives but quickly proves to be unstable. Jamie, the accused, protests his innocence as they all become consumed by the trial. When Laura and Kit try to distance themselves from Beth, bad things happen, leaving the couple constantly looking over their shoulders. Eventually, Kit decides enough time has passed, and he can brave a cruise to Denmark to view an upcoming eclipse, leaving pregnant Laura alone back in London. Sure enough, once again, bad things happen. Kelly teases out the story via flashback chapters, alternating between Kit's and Laura's points of view, which meticulously lead to an astonishing denouement. All four main characters are unreliable, each desperate to hang on to their own secrets and lies. This is a sure bet for readers who like their psychological suspense heavy on character and full of twists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)