Not That I Could Tell

January 22, 2018
Early in this engrossing domestic thriller from Strawser (Almost Missed You), Kristin Kirkland disappears with her school-age twins. Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Dr. Paul Kirkland, an ob-gyn in Yellow Springs, Ohio, reports them missing. Kristin inherited a $1 million life insurance settlement when her first husband was killed in a tragic boating accident while she was pregnant with the twins. Has she vanished thinking that her money might be depleted in a divorce settlement, or is something more nefarious taking place? A search of Kristin’s computer reveals recent visits to websites advising victims of spousal abuse. Paul, already under some suspicion, comes under intense police scrutiny. As the investigation proceeds, women who socialized with Kristin begin to examine their own lives. Short passages threaded throughout the narrative, presumably written by Kristin, reveal the pain in her marriage and her need to escape before she is murdered. The mysteries of whether Paul is culpable, and, if so, how and whether he will be discovered, make for a taut tale. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary.

February 1, 2018
Yellow Springs, Ohio, was a close-knit town, and Clara's neighborhood was more closely knit than most. Kids roamed around, last-minute dinner invitations flowed freely, and doors were largely left unlocked. When Clara invited her neighbors over to help christen the new fire pit in her backyard, they figured a few glasses of wine and some local gossip would be shared. They never expected that Kristen, a doctor's wife, and her twin children would be missing by the next morning. Now the neighborhood is wrapped up in the mystery, and Clara's reliving memories she tried hard to forget. Full of slow-burning intrigue, Strawser's (Almost Missed You, 2017) second novel will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies (2014) and Jennifer Kitses' Small Hours (2017). With the same ripped-from-the-headlines feel as her first, this novel is narrated by an ensemble of women, giving readers a variety of perspectives on the disappearance. Strawser does readers an additional service by focusing on the nuanced realities of domestic violence rather than merely sensationalizing it for the sake of the plot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)