The Day She Died

May 3, 2021
In the first chapter of this dreamy tale of sin and guilt from Canadian author Freedman (The Faithful), a car fatally strikes Vancouver artist Eve Gold on her 27th birthday. Flashbacks, many of them to birthdays, fill in Eve’s life story. Eve has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Donna, who puts her as a young teen into a psychiatric hospital, where she drifts in and out of consciousness. After Eve’s release, her best friend, Sara Adler, dies on Sara’s 17th birthday, but it’s unclear whether Sara’s death was an accident or Eve had a part in it. Sara’s brother, Leigh, to whom Eve is drawn, may also have had something to do with the death. A short time later, Donna is murdered on Eve’s 17th birthday, and her grandmother, who disapproves of her relationship with Leigh, ensures that she pursues an art career. Fully rounded characters compensate in part for the confusing jumping back and forth in time and the lack of clarity about what’s really happening and what’s imagined. This works better as a character study than as a mystery. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary.