Unreliable

February 27, 2017
Writing instructor and failed novelist Edwin Stith, the narrator of this irksome suspense novel from Irby (The Up and Up), teaches at Notting College, “a leafy liberal arts school” in Ithaca, N.Y. Stith—who may or may not have killed his ex-wife and others—is a paranoid mess and envisions murdering women while waiting to be charged with a crime. His love-hate relationship with his ex-wife was complicated by another bond, this one with a former student who enjoys sleeping with well-endowed men and sending the impotent Stith the photographic evidence. His life becomes exponentially more convoluted when he meets his future family members at his mother’s wedding in Richmond, Va., and becomes entangled in a shady arms deal that may be connected to a domestic terrorism attack. The unreliable narrator shtick gets old fast, especially since Stith can be insufferable. The startling revelation at the end makes up only in part for the passages about Stith’s delusions and his obsession with the part of his anatomy he refers to as his phantom limb. Agent: Sharon Bowers, Miller Bowers Griffin Literary Management.

Narrator Kirby Heyborne recounts the life--real or possibly only imagined--of Edwin Stith, a failed novelist and college writing instructor. The plot revolves around Stith's description of his trip home to Richmond, Virginia, for his mother's wedding and the endless stream of characters he meets. Heyborne reads in a steady voice as the narrative depicts Stith's encounters with odd characters as well as his ruminations about his life and his daydreams about his obsessions. These recount in excruciating detail how he abused or killed several women--or did he? Heyborne fully captures Stith's unnerving internal dialogue about what he may or may not have done. Listeners will find themselves irresistibly drawn into the chilling world of this flawed, possibly unreliable, character. M.B.K. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine