Review by New York Times Review
Just in time for our real-life eclipse comes Kelly's heart-pounding novel, which is structured around the primal fear such an event can elicit. The panic of her heroine, Laura, practically rises off the page. And what at first seems overblown - occasionally verging on hysteria - becomes more and more justified as the story unfolds. For years, Laura and her husband, Kit, fearing unspecified threats, have been hiding out in the northern suburbs of London. But in order to witness an eclipse, his defining obsession, Kit is leaving his pregnant wife home alone as he travels to a remote island in the North Atlantic. Laura is terrified, convinced that something will happen to him because it will be easy to guess his whereabouts for the next few days. The couple's troubles date back almost 16 years, to an eclipse-watching festival in Cornwall. Kelly recreates the counterculture festivities with offhand expertise, and among them are foreboding signs. Cloudy skies have kept some people away. Laura studies Kit's twin brother and his girlfriend "like a vice-squad cop: their eyes were pin-sharp, so not dope: their jaws were still, so not E; so acid, which meant they were good for nothing the rest of the day." After a glimpse of the eclipse through a break in the clouds, Laura spies a purse dropped on the ground. Attempting to return it to its rightful owner, she follows a trail of spilled coins. Would she still pick it up, she asks herself, knowing what she does, all these years later, about the events that would follow? To create suspense, Kelly is liberal with hints and predictions and Cliffhanger chapter endings. And while at times she overdoes it, such enthusiasm is hard to fault. Although her prose can be rough, it's always energetic, encompassing an abundance of inventive descriptions and striking metaphors. The novel's title seems to refer to a rape that occurs early on, but the possible referents multiply until it comes to suggest a distrust of objective truth that marks all the characters' relationships. The most interesting final reveal is a trivial fact by most measures, but by then we know enough to understand its devastating consequences.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 27, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Kelly delivers another tale full of lies, obsessions, and richly drawn characters. Married couple Kit and Laura have been together for 15 years and have spent most of them in near seclusion, hiding from a stalker. When the pair were first dating, they attended the 1999 Lizard Festival in Cornwall, a three-day hedonistic music fair centered on the solar eclipse (Kit is an obsessed eclipse chaser), where they stumbled across a rape in progress. The victim, Beth, insinuates herself into the couple's lives but quickly proves to be unstable. Jamie, the accused, protests his innocence as they all become consumed by the trial. When Laura and Kit try to distance themselves from Beth, bad things happen, leaving the couple constantly looking over their shoulders. Eventually, Kit decides enough time has passed, and he can brave a cruise to Denmark to view an upcoming eclipse, leaving pregnant Laura alone back in London. Sure enough, once again, bad things happen. Kelly teases out the story via flashback chapters, alternating between Kit's and Laura's points of view, which meticulously lead to an astonishing denouement. All four main characters are unreliable, each desperate to hang on to their own secrets and lies. This is a sure bet for readers who like their psychological suspense heavy on character and full of twists.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This riveting psychological thriller from British author Kelly (Broadchurch) explores the extremes to which people will go to conceal a lie. While celebrating the 1999 solar eclipse at a festival in Cornwall, eclipse-chaser Christopher "Kit" McCall and his girlfriend, Laura Langrishe, interrupt the apparent rape of Beth Taylor. They call the police, and their testimony leads to the capture and conviction of a man named Jamie Balcombe. Beth showers Kit and Laura with gratitude, but then her behavior takes a strange turn and they decide to distance themselves. Come 2015, Kit and Laura have changed their names and are living as ghosts, only risking travel to see the moon cover the sun. The couple share the narration, which moves back and forth in time to fill the 15-year gap. Kelly's pacing is deliberate, but patient readers will be rewarded with airtight plotting, mounting tension, and shocking twists. Attempts to match the beats of the story with the phases of an eclipse feel somewhat contrived, but overall, this is an affecting tale of infatuation, desperation, and betrayal. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A shocking crime and its aftermathand the blurred line between guilt and innocencepropel Kelly's (The Burning Air, 2013, etc.) riveting new thriller.Kit and Laura have been together for 15 years and are happy. After all, they're finally realizing their dream of becoming parents after many failed IVF attempts and the anxiety that comes with the inability to conceive. Still, a cloud hangs over them, threatening everything they've made together, and it all began when they were only six months into their relationship. A shared love of eclipse chasing took them to a festival where Laura witnessed a rape. Or did she? She'd certainly swear to it, but Kit came on the scene after the suspect had already begun to leave, so he can't back her up, but he does believe her. Little do they know that the crimeand the victim, Beth Taylorwill turn their lives upside down. Kit's and Laura's first-person narratives alternate between 2015, during which Kit goes on an eclipse cruise while pregnant Laura stays home, and the events that began in 1999. Readers are given hints at the very beginning about how careful Kit and Laura are about keeping their whereabouts out of the media and the public eye, but what sounds like paranoia becomes very real as the story gets into the heart of the rape and the trial and how its effects have followed them throughout their marriage, coloring everything they do. This first-rate psychological thriller and deft exploration of the delicate dance of marriage and the secrets people keep works on multiple levels, and the passages about the early days of Laura and Kit's relationshipfilled with the gossamer promise of new lovemake what's in store for them even more harrowing. A stunning conclusion will take more than a few days to fade from memory. Spellbinding. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
