Publisher's Weekly Review
This moody, meticulously plotted suspense novel from Atkins (The Other Child) opens at a launch party held at London's Hunterian Museum for history professor Olivia Sweetman, who's celebrating the release of her scandalous new biography of one of Britain's first female surgeons, Annabel Burley. The book is already a bestseller, so Olivia should be on top of the world; instead, she's furious with her husband for some unspecified betrayal, anxious regarding an overcoat-clad figure lurking at the back of the room, and terrified that her research assistant, socially maladjusted sexagenarian Vivian Tester, will reveal "the truth" about what Olivia has done. Flash back two months. Chapters from Olivia's perspective are interspersed with journal entries by Vivian, painting a detailed portrait of the women's complicated relationship while chronicling the events precipitating and then succeeding Olivia's launch night angst. Evocative writing heightens the sense of impending doom created by the tale's structure, keenly rendered characters enrich Atkins' exploration of the pettier aspects of human nature, and the book's harrowing conclusion gratifies without feeling pat. Agent: Matthew Bialer, Sanford J. Greenberger Assoc. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An academic partnership turns sour in this tense and moody thriller.Professor Olivia Sweetman has it all: a happy family life with her husband and three children and a career on the rise as both an academic and popular historian frequently appearing on television. When she hears about a Victorian diarycontaining a scandalous confessionwritten by one of the first women doctors, she knows she's found the topic for her first book. The diary, however, comes with a catcha relationship with Vivian Tester, the woman who discovered it. Vivian is brilliant but mysterious and has a very different way of seeing the world than Olivia. She's an extremely competent researcher, and she and Olivia enter into a working relationship. As their work progresses, though, their relationship becomes increasingly fraught; both women keep secrets from the other, revealed to the reader in alternating chapters either narrated by Vivian in first person or from Olivia's point of view in third. Author Atkins (The Other Child, 2016, etc.) peppers every page with hints of things unsaid and dark underlying secrets. Sometimes the foreshadowing is a little overdone and heavy-handed, but it does not take away from the incredible number of twists and turns that appear as the novel stalks toward its ending. There's a ghost haunting the story, both literally and metaphorically, and that sense of unease keeps pushing all the way to the last, intense pages. A reckoning is coming, but why? The need to know what will happen when the inescapable comes to pass drives the reader ever forward even as a sense of dread pervades the narrative. Things must end, but they won't end well.With shades of Rebecca and The Secret History, Atkins has produced an eerie page-turner that will have readers guessing from the first. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Olivia Sweetman has hit the big time. She's worked hard to balance her marriage, her three kids, her career as a respected historian, and a high-profile TV personality. Now she's written a historical novel set to become a runaway best seller, but danger lurks. As her launch party nears, the atmosphere darkens. Vivian Tester, the socially inept researcher who led her to the Victorian diary that's at the heart of her novel, is about to drop a bombshell. If -Vivian reveals her deceit, Olivia's world will crumble and her reputation will be shattered. Can Olivia save herself? Will Vivian reveal the truth and destroy her? How many historians before her have lost sleep over just such a nightmare? Brace yourself for a breakout tale of hubris and deception with a shocking finale. VERDICT A deliciously creepy novel fueled by fraud, greed, and violence. This latest from Atkins (The Missing One; The Other Child) fits right in with the best of the psychological thrillers on everyone's lists. Readers of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn will love it.-Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.