Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A prank goes wrong in this disappointing standalone from bestseller Burke (Find Me). Law professor May Hanover jumps at the opportunity to meet her two best friends, commercial real estate heiress Kelsey Ellis and renowned musician Lauren Berry, for a weekend getaway in the Hamptons. Frustrated by a couple who steals their parking space at a restaurant, the women write a cryptic note ("He's cheating. He always does") on a napkin and leave it on the strangers' car. On the last day of their trip, they learn that David Smith, the driver of the car, has gone missing. When the NYPD show up at May's building in Manhattan, she attempts to clear the air, but the police remain suspicious--owing, in part, to each woman's involvement in heavily publicized scandals: Lauren has been engaged in a decades-long affair with a married Texas oilman; May suffered a breakdown on a New York City subway platform that went viral; and Kelsey's estranged husband was gunned down five years earlier by an unknown killer. Patient readers will enjoy the clever conclusion, but each woman's backstory is given so much space that it significantly slackens the narrative tension, and there's no one to root for among the unpleasant cast. Burke has done better. Agent: Sloan Harris, CAA. (Jan.)Correction: A previous version of this review quoted the wrong note written by the main characters.
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Review by Library Journal Review
In the latest stand-alone from Burke (Find Me), a girls' weekend in the Hamptons, a stolen parking space, and a note left on a windshield put into motion a series of events that leave one man dead and a trio of friends embroiled in a murder investigation. When the three friends learn of the disappearance of the man who took their parking spot, May, the nosy do-gooder of the group, wants to call the police, but Lauren and Kelsey convince her not to get involved. Hoping to determine whether she made the right decision, May takes it upon herself to make sure the parking-spot thief and the missing man were one and the same. It's a decision that lands her and her friends on a detective's radar. Then the missing-person case becomes a murder investigation, and Kelsey's relationship with the deceased comes to light. The novel gets off to a slow start but builds gradually, gaining momentum in the second half. Multiple perspectives and timeline shifts dribble out details that add context to the friendship as well as offering clues about the killer. VERDICT Burke's trademark style creates tension and suspense, but the deeply flawed protagonists might turn off some readers.--Vicki Briner
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A holiday in the Hamptons for three friends turns into an engrossing tale of murder. Typically, the worst aftereffects of a girls' weekend are nasty hangovers and swollen credit cards. But in this gripping thriller, much darker things happen. When May Hanover--a Chinese American assistant district attorney turned law professor in New York--agrees to spend a long weekend with two old friends in East Hampton, it's a welcome reunion, and for May, a break from prepping for the next semester while planning her wedding to fiance Josh. The trio first met about 15 years ago at an arts camp, and May has stayed in touch with Lauren Berry, an accomplished Black classical musician. But until recently, she hadn't heard from Kelsey Ellis, the golden-blond daughter of a rich man, since Kelsey married a rising star chef who was subsequently murdered--a death that many online true-crime aficionados attribute to her. That's not the only scandal in the trio's baggage: Lauren's longtime relationship with a married oilman got her fired from a plum job when it was exposed. And the usually rational May was the subject of a humiliating viral video of her threatening to call the police after a confrontation with a Black man on the subway. But this weekend is about leaving those troubles, and their long tail on the internet, behind. When the women drive to Sag Harbor to barhop, another car steals the parking space they were waiting for, and, among themselves, they make fun of the attractive couple in it. But Kelsey goes a little further, tucking a note on a cocktail napkin under the windshield wiper: "He's cheating. He always does." It seems like a prank, but then a tourist is reported missing who looks like the handsome driver. Questions are raised and tempers flare among the friends; in the midst of it, Kelsey's stepbrother Nate arrives. He's cool and charming--and May's ex-boyfriend. As the police start asking questions, May's compulsion to investigate kicks in, although she's digging into her own past, along with those of the friends she thought she knew. Burke builds an intricate structure of secrets layered within secrets, revealed for maximum suspense. The complex friendship among three flawed but engaging characters anchors this satisfying psychological thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
