Under Your Skin

Starred review from December 16, 2013
In former newspaper editor Durrant’s gripping debut, morning TV host Gaby Mortimer’s enviably glossy London life starts to careen out of control after she finds a young woman’s body during her daily jog. Though a savvy Oxford grad should know better, Gaby impulsively breaks the cardinal rule of criminal procedure: don’t touch the corpse. Then she submits to police questioning without a lawyer—until it becomes clear that Detective Inspector Perivale regards her as his prime suspect. With her increasingly distant husband, a hedge fund honcho, on a business trip to Singapore, Gaby starts trying to extricate herself by investigating the murder, with the help of an unlikely ally: scoop-hungry freelance journalist Jack Hayward. But further complexities and creepy coincidences soon emerge. Why, for instance, was the victim apparently wearing Gaby’s T-shirt? As the suspense mounts, Durrant skillfully keeps the twisty story on track through convincing characters and domestic detail—right up to the shocking conclusion. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

December 1, 2013
Gaby Mortimer, anchor of a popular London morning show, is hoping an early morning run will clear her mind's jumble of career and marital problems. Then she spots a woman's body off a remote path. Within hours, Gaby becomes the lead suspect in a murder investigation despite her claims that she doesn't know the victim. In a disastrous domino effect, London CID finds evidence connecting Gaby to the victim, Gaby's alibi can't be confirmed, she is slammed with scandal sheet attention, and a stalker she hoped was dormant resurfaces. Her only ally is Jack Hayward, a reporter offering to help prove her innocence in exchange for an exclusive. Early blurbs tout this thriller as a sister to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (2012), and there are similarities, including a possibly unreliable narrator, disturbingly troubled marriage, and plenty of reflections on losing identities to marital compromise. But Durrant's novel has a different feel. London bustle ups the pace, and Gaby's inner dialogue has an efficient, practical bent, even when it turns nostalgic. This psychological thriller is recommended for fans of Gone Girl and of Lisa Unger's Fragile (2011).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)