Are you looking for a great mystery with a surprising twist? Samantha Downing's debut novel, "My Lovely Wife," is one such read.
Millicent, her husband, and their two teenage children are the dysfunctional family of all dysfunctional families. In their upscale suburban Atlanta home, appearances are everything, and appearances can be deceiving, particularly behind closed doors. As Downing suggests, any violence that happens in their neighborhood happens on the inside.
Narrated in the first person by Millicent's husband, Downing evocatively withholds his name from the reader with the exception of the alias he uses throughout the story: Tobias.
"Tobias" is a tennis coach, his wife a successful real estate agent, but as he himself admits, the children put them both through all the typical angst and anxiety of normal teenagers. Yet, his son catches him sneaking out of the house late one night, presumably to meet up with another woman. Unable to tell Rory the real reason for his late-night tryst, Rory cunningly begins to bribe his father, holding Tobias's cheating over his head. Their daughter, Jenna, the "smart" one, is unexplainably ill much of the time, then is driven into a deep depression and acting out when their community is haunted by the return of a serial killer, Owen Oliver, who had terrorized that part of the city years ago. Yet, it is Millicent, loving wife and mother, who is the centrifugal force in all their lives. Millicent, around whom swirls the dark events that sweeps them all up in its clutches.
As the saying goes, "the plot begins to thicken" when Tobias and Millicent, wanting to spice things up between them and escape the rut that has become their life, decide to commit a murder. Young women are beginning to disappear in Atlanta, one by one, keeping the city's citizens on tenterhooks, wondering who will be the next victim. From there, the plot propels the reader forward, delving into all the nooks and crannies of one family's life, their secrets and dark motivations that will ultimately split them apart at the seams. Using the infamous local serial killer, Owen Oliver, as their cover, "Tobias" and Millicent literally get away with murder while outwardly maintaining their mundane lives to the world, until the schemes they've concocted between them take an ugly turn that will change their lives.
This is an impressive first novel. Samantha Downing's writing immediately draws the reader into an intimate connection with her characters. Downing surprises with odd twists and turns, alerting the reader that there is more going on here than meets the eye, increasing our curiosity page by page. The story is fast-paced and a uniquely suspenseful page-turner.
Kimberly Bolton is a circulation clerk at Missouri River Regional Library.