All the Broken People

April 27, 2020
Freelance writer Lucy King’s move from Brooklyn to Woodstock, N.Y., to escape an abusive relationship jump-starts YA author Konen’s solid first adult novel (after Love and Other Train Wrecks). Accompanied only by her dog, Lucy believes she can live anonymously in the idyllic-sounding town. Still, she fears each day that her controlling boyfriend, Davis Gutman, will find her. Cut off from her friends and with her parents dead, lonely Lucy becomes consumed by her charming next-door neighbors, artist John Nolan and his wife, Vera Abernathy, who manages their gallery in town. But a scandal involving a teenage girl has made the couple outcasts. The appealing Lucy, whose vulnerability makes her blind to John and Vera's flaws, agrees to help them fake John’s death so they can start afresh. But the plan quickly goes awry. Believable twists imbue the narrative’s urgency as each character’s secrets are spilled and as Lucy’s past catches up with her. Lucy’s credible fears about Davis elicit empathy. Konen should win a new set of fans with this domestic thriller. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group.