Poison

September 18, 2017
In Niederhoffer’s engrossing fourth novel (after Love and Happiness), a journalism professor’s area of expertise becomes all too relevant when she starts to think her husband is trying to kill her. After Cass Phillips, a 40-year-old widowed mother of two, remarries Ryan, they relocate for a change of pace from New York to Madrona, a suburb of Seattle where Cass knows no one except for Nora, who sells them their new house. Cass teaches journalism at a local university, where she breaks down how prosecutors use institutional misogyny to destroy the accounts of female witnesses. Parallels begin to appear between the hypothetical victims in Cass’s lessons and her deteriorating relationship with Ryan—he gaslights her, verbally abuses her, and issues veiled threats. Niederhoffer handles this aspect of the narrative expertly: Cass finds hair that doesn’t belong to her in the drain and other signs (Ryan keeps buying her foods with high arsenic content) and, along with Nora, attempts to implicate Ryan without losing custody of her toddler, Sam. Though quite the page-turner, the story falters in its last act with a clunky ruse that Cass springs in hopes of nabbing Ryan. It also ends abruptly for a book that is otherwise meticulous in its explanations and details. Nevertheless, this is a chilling and entertaining novel.

September 15, 2017
A married mother of three young children enjoys a state of domestic bliss until she begins to suspect her husband is trying to poison her in Niederhoffer's (Love and Happiness, 2013, etc.) latest.Cass Connor, 40, a college journalism professor, has survived the death of her first husband, who was the father of her two oldest children, Alice and Pete. Cass is now remarried to Ryan, an architect and the father of her third child, Sam. The family lives in a two-story, four-bedroom Victorian home near Seattle. It's clear early on that Cass is addicted to her sexy husband, who likes to fall asleep to the "sporadic moans and shrieks" of violent zombie film clips. Cass forgives Ryan for all sorts of minor transgressions, but she soon begins to suspect that he's being unfaithful. She makes excuses for his manipulative and abusive behavior and overlooks his stated fantasies about killing her--but when she becomes ill, she starts to think his fantasies may be more than mere words. As her sicknesses pile up, it's not clear whether she's crazy or right to suspect Ryan. A too-perfect-to-be-true nanny, too-friendly-to-be-genuine neighbor, and assorted disbelieving attorneys, doctors, and police officers add to the creepy twists and turns. Apart from her obsessive passion for Ryan, Cass is a strong, take-charge sort of woman who's protective of her three children in all the right ways. The novel is ominous from Page 1, and with its slow-burn peril--both psychological and physical--building nicely, the suspense is sustained until the very end.

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November 15, 2017

Cass Connor appears to have a perfect life, complete with loving husband, three wonderful children, nice home, fulfilling career, fun-filled vacations, and a nanny. Despite her seemingly idyllic home life and career as a university journalism professor, Cass detects cracks in her two-year marriage to second husband Ryan. When she is introduced to Ryan's malevolent side, Cass suspects that he may be plotting her demise. Can Cass employ her investigative skills to unequivocally prove that Ryan is trying to harm her, or will she simply be dismissed as paranoid and delusional? As her suspicions grow and her physical symptoms intensify, Cass's life quickly becomes unhinged, and she's left to confront the biggest challenge--saving herself and her children--before time runs out. VERDICT Niederhoffer's (A Taxonomy of Barnacles) latest is a tense, addictive thriller. The abrupt ending might disappoint, but this nail-bitingly delicious read will certainly cause readers to think twice about marriages that seem too good to be true.--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2017
This gripping, insightful work dissects a marriage in which Cass, a wife and mother of three, believes she is under attack from her perfect-to-the-outside-world husband. Throughout the novel, Cass' racing thoughts, tormenting self-doubt, and fear for her family's safety lay bare the torture of being gaslighted by a lying narcissist. Readers will be gripped by the did-he, didn't-he plot: the mental gymnastics portrayed on the page are so spot-on that it is difficult to imagine that the novel isn't autobiographical. Niederhoffer's ending is a little too abrupt, but that's a small price to pay for a work that's otherwise thoroughly absorbing. This is a great read-alike for Chevy Stevens' Never Let You Go (2017); it will also be popular with readers of Niederhoffer's literary novels, such as A Taxonomy of Barnacles (2006). In addition, selections from Poison will be ideal for makerspace writing workshops in which participants learn how to turn a character's thoughts into prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)