#39: Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

A hip young New Yorker, on the verge of marrying into an affluent family, is drawn back to a terrible incident during high school by the appearance of a documentary film crew in Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive.

Knoll seems to be another author taking a page from Gillian Flynn, penning a cold-blooded thriller whose protagonist seems to be pretty scheming and manipulative.  But as the story unpacks, the reader learns more about a horrific event that has never release its hold on the present.

A very solid read that perhaps wraps up a bit too neatly, but hits a lot of hard beats throughout.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#38: The Accidental by Ali Smith

A blended family, with cracks running through it, goes through tremendous changes when an uninvited houseguest appears during their summer holiday in British author Ali Smith's The Accidental.

Smith alternates several points of view in this interesting novel; the husband thinks the young woman who appears is his wife's friend, the wife thinks she is her husband's latest conquest, the son sees a potential girlfriend, and the daughter sees a dangerous confidant.  Who she really is remains enigmatic, but resonates through the family's summer and beyond.

I enjoyed Smith's voice and her shading of the different characters, overall finding this striking novel about tangled family lives interesting.  I think my enjoyment of this novel was magnified by listening to a very fine audiobook adaptation, read by multiple voices. 

I borrowed this from the Farmland Public Library in Farmland, Indiana and enjoyed it immensely.

#37: Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer

A young British man on the autism spectrum decides to take a medical course in order to understand death, after his father's passing; instead, he stumbles onto a murder that everyone else believes was natural causes in Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer.

Rubbernecker is a crackling good thriller which owes a debt to both The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as well as CSI.  Admittedly some of the plot's wheels creak a little bit as coincidences and happenstances fall into place, but as problems mount up for our flawed protagonist--including getting on the killer's radar--the book becomes a real page-turner towards the end.

I really enjoyed this thriller and will look for more of Bauer's books.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.