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When Ezra, a crazed teenager, bursts in through her basement door, Alice bashes him over the head with a stool. An art restorer with a young daughter and a supportive, agreeable husband named Jamie, Alice is briefly charged with murder but is let off with a verdict of self-defense. However, she still feels under attack. Nasty emails, stuff mysteriously disappearing, and silent phone calls plague her. She contacts Ezra's mother and his twin sister, hoping to find out what led Ezra to her house, and gets tangled up in their extremely complicated lives. Then Jamie goes missing, and she discovers his very disturbing secrets. This is a multilayered thriller set in London, in which subtle but pervasive class differences play out. Other characters, like the nanny and a ubiquitous reporter who's supposedly Alice's friend, roil the surface further. A tangled thriller, with suspense galore.
The opening of this captivating novel sets a mystery in motion. Who is that man who seems to be stalking Daphne and her husband, Jonathan, as they make their way through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC? Turns out it's Eddie, Daphne's stepfather, who played a brief but magical role in her life. When Eddie took 12-year-old Daphne on a joy ride to see the stars, it ended in a crash. Not life threatening either, but Daphne's mother ended the relationship abruptly and they hadn't seen each other for years. Now it's a chance to reconnect and find out the reason for the rupture. The book's title comes from a story about a horse that miraculously saved a rider, and the tale holds a specific resonance for Eddie and Daphne. Secrets unfold, along with a thoroughly satisfying tale. Patchett does it again
Here we have family dysfunction writ large. Catherine wrestles with her and her husband, Bud’s open marriage; Bud comes out better in the deal, but messiness prevails. Their little coastal town is dominated by the very rich Paul Alabaster; despite the purity of his moniker, he's involved in dirty doings. Youngest daughter, Harper, who's bright and observant, has started to talk about her suspicions vis a vis Alabaster’s real estate dealings. This creates considerable tension in the community, so her parents ship her off to an obscure camp in the wild. Stakes are high, which puts the benighted family at risk. In addition to suspense, there's lots of wit in this wild tale.
Five women meet in college where they formed a sweet connection. After graduation, they scatter geographically but keep in touch with an ongoing group chat. Now twenty years later, they meet in Palm Springs in person, at last. We learn about the complexity of their individual trajectories. A doctor, a lawyer, a writer, a politician, and a woman who's put her career on hold to get pregnant—each has her struggles. As the title suggests, clutching can create closeness but also holding on too tight can result in considerable pain. Their varied stories grabbed me in--yes--a tight clutch.
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