Till death do us part

This taut, twisty story focuses on two women--one desperate to discover the truth, the other desperate to hide the truth to protect her family. Nearly a decade ago, June met Josh, heir to a Napa winery, and fell instantly in love. A week after they married, Josh went for a swim and never returned. He was presumed drowned, but his body never surfaced. Traumatized, June believes she sees Josh on the street, on a train, in a park. As time passes, June accepts that Josh is dead, and she is finally ready to marry again. But on the eve of her wedding, she sees someone she's sure is Josh and decides she can't rest until she knows if he's really still alive. The story then shifts back to 1999, when winery owner Bev, Josh's mother, is struggling with her marriage, a dysfunctional family, and a difficult decision--whether to stay with her husband or run away with her longtime soulmate, Emilia. Multiple suspenseful, unexpected twists and turns later, the truth--dark, tragic, and shocking--emerges. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will enjoy this one.

In this half-hearted domestic thriller from Flynn (The Girls Are All So Nice Here), a woman has her impending wedding derailed by the emergence of her missing first husband. In 2012, when newlyweds June and Josh were on their honeymoon in San Francisco, Josh left their hotel one morning and never returned; unable to locate his body, authorities assumed he drowned after attempting to swim in rough waters. Ten years later, a 39-year-old June has opened a wine bar in Brooklyn and fallen for the stable and supportive Kyle. When Kyle proposes, June enthusiastically accepts, and they make quick work of their wedding prep--until June spots a man who looks exactly like Josh on the street one afternoon, and he disappears before she can confront him. Convinced that Josh is still alive, June grows obsessed with finding him, jeopardizing her relationship with Kyle. Meanwhile, chapters set in 1999 and written from the perspective of Josh's mother, Bev, gradually fill in key details about Josh's adolescence. Flynn serves up plenty of steamy sex and wrings emotion from June's plight, but the plotting grows sloppier as the novel wears on, and the denouement comes too late. This misses the mark. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Aug.)