Women like us A novel

Lief's bracing sequel to Invisible Woman further develops its predecessor's themes of inherited trauma and loyalty between women. Five years after filmmaker Joni Ackerman got away with the murder of her abusive husband, her bullying con man brother, Marc, appears on her doorstep after a 20-year absence. Though Marc's apparent reformation persuades Joni to leave him at her Malibu home to dog sit while she launches a project in New York, her colleague and best friend, Val, is unconvinced. When a chance encounter between Val and another woman reveals Marc is still swindling, Joni must try to stop her brother from finding new victims and untangle just how similar their shared blood has made them. Lief sometimes makes the emotional subtext of Joni's struggles too explicit, but she atones for it by infusing Joni's search for Marc and his accomplices with supremely satisfying tension. This is equal parts empowering and entertaining. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (June)

In this follow-up toInvisible Woman (2024), Lief explores the effects of family trauma on a trio of strong, flawed women. Five years after she killed her husband, Joni Ackerman has found some modicum of peace: She's running a successful production company with her daughter, Chris, and best friend, Val, and she spends most of her time in her airy Malibu house, only returning to New York for business every now and then. She's not dating, or interested, but she's cultivating herself as a strong, independent, single woman, knowing that she'll never completely let go of either her guilt or fear of her own darkness. When her estranged brother, Marc, turns up on the doorstep looking for a place to crash, she's hesitant at first, as their relationship, grounded in a traumatic childhood, has never been close. But soon he's knitting with Chris and cooking gourmet meals. When Joni has to head to New York for a week, she feels okay asking Marc to stay in her house and dog-sit for her beloved goldendoodle, Stella. But then Val discovers what Marc is running from. For the rest of the novel, Joni's private detective pursues Marc, who seems to have a source keeping him one step ahead of the chase. Despite this drama, the novel, like its predecessor, is really about navigating the world as a woman of a certain age, now in a seemingly post #MeToo world: the challenges, the choices, and the freedoms. It's more noticeable in this novel, though, that the path is more easily walked by women of a certain socioeconomic class; Joni and Val undoubtedly have problems, but they also have the money to mitigate them. Still, their complicated friendship, their ability to both love and hurt each other, testifies to the message at the heart of it all: sometimes, friends are true soul mates, capable of accepting even the darkest parts of each other. Lief celebrates the power of female friendship, especially in middle age. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.