The Winter Girl

November 2, 2015
The bleak landscape of the Hamptons in winter provides the backdrop for this absorbing thriller from Marinovich (Strange Skies). Scott and Elise, a troubled couple who live in Brooklyn, are staying in the house of Elise’s abusive and dying father, Victor, in Shinnecock Hills, Long Island. While Elise tends to Victor in the hospital, Scott becomes obsessed with the purportedly vacant house next door. Hoping to forestall their marriage’s disintegration by sharing his adventures with Elise, he convinces her to join him in breaking into the house, where they discover a large, unexplained bloodstain on a mattress in the master bedroom. When Scott asks Victor whether he knows anything about a possible murder at the neighboring house, Victor mumbles something about the “winter girl.” Scott soon learns that Elise’s family—and Elise herself—harbor some malevolent secrets. The revelations about Elise’s character seem rushed at times, and Scott’s own motivations aren’t always clear. Still, this is an engrossing, disquieting read for a chilly night. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company.

September 15, 2015
The sophomore effort from Marinovich (Strange Skies, 2007) is a dark and ever darkening psychological thriller set in a bleak Hamptons winter. It starts with promise and with psychological finesse: young Brooklyn couple Scott and Elise have retreated to Shinnecock Hills to tend to her dying father. Elise spends days at the hospital with the captious, malevolent patient while Scott, a photographer, grows stir-crazy in the old man's solitary bayside house. Narrator Scott is smart about his floundering marriage: "misery is just another art form, as hard to perfect as any other craft, only we aim to leave nothing behind. We're the copper thieves of our own houses, ripping out our own wires." In a misguided quest for excitement, Scott breaks into an abandoned summer place next door, and when that venture provides the transgressive jolt he needs, he recruits his wife for a return visit. Their trespass leads to a grisly discovery and, from there, into a welter of interlocking scandals and intrigues involving the father, Elise, her jailbird brother, and the Winter Girl of the title. The novel's second half devolves into a noisy, almost parodic noir, with too much coincidence, too many nested secrets, and too many people acting according to motives that seem cooked up in a laboratory where someone's trying to purify blackheartedness. But it all moves briskly, and the beginning is compelling enough to keep the reader turning pages.

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September 15, 2015

Newly married couple Scott and Elise have relocated to Elise's dying father's home in the Hamptons. As his condition deteriorates, Elise spends much of her time at the hospital with her father, a volatile man who mistreated Elise as a child and disrespected the young couple even after marriage. During her days out, Scott becomes fixated on the seemingly vacant house next door. One night the couple breaks in together. After engaging in a spontaneous tryst in a spare bedroom, the pair attempts to clean up after themselves, and in horror they notice dried bloody bedsheets. What ensues is an unraveling of the couple's marriage and psyches. VERDICT Family secrets and marital transgressions weave a suspenseful Hitchcockian story of intrigue, mystery, and deceit. In a dark departure from his debut novel, Strange Skies, Marinovich offers a promising premise with a disturbing, fast-paced plot. While the ending may leave something to be desired, this is a quick read for fans of psychological thrillers. Recommended for readers of Gillian Flynn, Patricia Highsmith, and Tana French.--Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Lib., Macon, GA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Scott and Elise are spending a depressing December in the Hamptons, where Elise's father is dying a drawn-out death. Her brother is in prison, so Elise has the main responsibility for the old man's care. Meanwhile, Scott, an out-of-work photographer, becomes obsessed with the empty beach house next door. One day, to escape the gloom, he decides to break into the house as a lark. What he discovers is not fun and games. (Well, there are some games.) When Elise finds out what he's been up to and follows him over, they unearth evidence of a bloody crime. What exactly has been going on in the vacant home? And who is involved? This short, grim novel quickly spirals into depths of despair and violence that will leave readers seeking out their happy places, but the twists are clever and the pacing relentless. It contains very graphic depictions of sex and torture, so use caution when recommendingand perhaps offer a chaser of something nice: a few lighthearted cat mysteries, anyone?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)