The Last Mrs. Parrish

May 15, 2017

Ragingly envious of golden couple Daphne and Jackson Parrish, Amber Patterson schemes to get the glamorous life she thinks she deserves by wending her way into Daphne's good graces. Alas, she's got secrets (who doesn't?), which could wreck everything. Another hotshot debut, with a 75,000-copy first printing and rights sold to 13 countries.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 14, 2017
To the pantheon of Gone Girl–type bad girls you can now add Amber Patterson, the heroine of this devilishly ingenious debut thriller. Coming from an impoverished background in Missouri, Amber sets her sights on Daphne and Jackson Parrish, a wealthy couple living with their two young children, Bella and Tallulah, in the tony coastal community of Bishops Harbor on Long Island Sound. With singular focus, Amber moves in on the glamorous couple, befriending Daphne and ultimately seducing Jackson as part of her master plan to become the next Mrs. Parrish. The reader watches with shock and delight as Amber cold-bloodedly manipulates Daphne and Jackson and lays waste to anyone else who stands in her way. Then, about halfway through, the point of view switches from Amber’s to Daphne’s, and we get a surprisingly different take on the story. To say any more would spoil all the twists that Constantine (the pseudonym of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine) has in store along the way to a surprising and entirely satisfying ending. Suffice it to say that readers would have to go back to the likes of Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying or Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley to find as entertaining a depiction of a sociopathic monster. Agent: Bernadette Baker-Baughman, Victoria Sanders & Associates.

Starred review from August 15, 2017
A wealthy woman with a handsome husband is preyed on by a ruthless con artist.One day at the gym, Amber Patterson drops the magazine she's reading between her exercise bike and that of the woman who happens to be beside her, Daphne Parrish. As she bends to pick it up, Daphne notices that it's the publication of a cystic fibrosis foundation. What a coincidence--Daphne's sister died of cystic fibrosis, and, why, so did Amber's! "Slowing her pace, Amber wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. It took a lot of acting skills to cry about a sister who never existed." Step one complete. "All she needed from Daphne was everything." Everything, in this case, consists of Daphne's outlandishly wealthy and blisteringly hot husband, Jackson, and all the real estate that comes with him; Daphne can definitely keep her two whiny brats. Amber hates children. But once she finds out that Daphne's failure to give Jackson a male heir is the main source of tension in the marriage, she sees exactly how to make this work. Amber's constant, spiteful inner monologue as she plays up to Daphne is the best thing about this book. For example, as Daphne talks about the many miseries her sister Julie went through before her death, Amber is thinking, "At least Julie had grown up in a nice house with money and parents who cared about her. Okay, she was sick and then she died. So what? A lot of people were sick. A lot of people died....How about Amber and what she'd gone through?" Meanwhile, poor, stupid Daphne is so caught up in the joy of finally having a friend, she seems to be handing Jackson to her on a platter. Constantine's debut novel is the work of two sisters in collaboration, and these ladies definitely know the formula. A Gone Girl-esque confection with villainy and melodrama galore.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2017
The twists keep coming in this psychological roller coaster from debut author Constantine, the pen name of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine. The novel, which portrays a complicated friendship between two women, opens with Amber Patterson worming her way into the affections of a guileless acquaintance, all the while seeking to leave her humble beginnings behind and bag a trophy husband. No spoilers here, but things don't go as Amber or readers expect. The surprises come amid a sometimes-too-lengthy tale of betrayal and abuseone wishes that Amber's part of the tale, particularly, would speed upbut overall this is a satisfying thriller that offers a window into the darker side of glamorous lives and powerful men.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)