The dead husband

Rose Yates has uprooted herself and her son and moved from Wisconsin to her hometown in New Hampshire. After her husband's death, Rose needs her family around, even though reuniting with her father and sister brings back some bad memories. Back in Wisconsin, a cop, Colin Pearson, can't shake the feeling that Rose had something to do with her husband's death. This seems like a straightforward premise for a thriller, but Wilson doesn't do straightforward, and, as he starts dropping revelations about Rose's relationship with her family and her husband, we start to wonder if this woman is the person she appears to be? Pearson, too, is no ordinary cop character: there are personal issues weighing on him that directly impact his ability to dispassionately investigate the case. Eventually we learn the truth, and it's even more shocking than we thought it might be. This is the author's seventh novel, and it's likely to prompt readers who haven't read him before to search out his previous books. A fine crime novel.

After Riley McKay overdoses on alcohol and sleep medication in Milwaukee, his widow, novelist Rose Yates, the narrator of this chilling standalone from Thriller Award finalist Wilson (The Dead Girl in 2A), returns home to the upscale town of Bury, N.H., the scene of a tragedy two decades earlier. From the moment the door of her father's mansion swings open, Rose, the family black sheep, and her 11-year-old son, Max, are forced to contend with the demons that once drove Rose away. The frosty reception Rose receives from her family deepens when copies of her new novel arrive; neither her father, Logan, a cutthroat businessman, nor Cora, her lovely and ruthless sister, know the plot of the soon-to-be published book is a retelling of the long-ago crime within their community. As Rose's past threatens to overwhelm her, the police detective investigating Riley's death closes in on her as a suspect. The tension rises as Wilson slowly reveals the unhappy truth behind the facade of a happy marriage. Psychological thriller fans will be rewarded. Agent: Pamela Ahearn, Ahearn Agency. (May)

A Milwaukee mystery writer recently and painfully widowed retreats to her childhood home in aptly named Bury, New Hampshire, to find even less comfort awaiting her there. The truth is that mostly unsuccessful entrepreneur Riley McKay's adultery had killed his wife's love even before a dose of sleeping pills washed down with alcohol killed Riley himself. Now Rose Yates has uprooted her son, Max, 11, from the only life he remembers and brought him into the orbit of her cruel, remote father, wealthy capital manager Logan Yates, mostly because she has nowhere else to go. Rose has been estranged from both her father and her older sister, Cora, for years. Some of the reasons are obvious from the moment Logan Yates shakes his grandson's hand for the first time; others await the cold-case investigation into the disappearance 22 years ago of the sisters' 16-year-old schoolmate Caleb Benner. What provokes that investigation, and what kindles Milwaukee Detective Colin Pearson's interest in Riley McKay's death, is Rose's disconcerting habit of writing fictional versions of these mysteries into the novels she publishes as J.L. Sharp--years after Caleb Benner's disappearance but well in advance of her late husband's death. It's clear that the Yateses are a memorably disturbed family, but is the root of the disturbance Rose's writing, Cora's bullying, or their father's abuse? Wilson unveils each revelation of some new betrayal with surgical precision en route to a bittersweet finale. A harrowing reminder that you really can't go home again. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.