William Morrow, 304 pages, $27.99
“No One Will Miss Her” has been nominated for an Edgar Award.
This book would have been massively better (and more surprising) had I not read the inner flap description. As it was, given the glaring hint, I figured out whodunnit after the first chapter. Be that as it may, I soldiered on.
A body is discovered in a rental cabin in a rural community in Maine. Although her face has been blown off by a shotgun, there is no doubt among the male police officers present that the victim was Lizzie Ouellette. Why are they so certain? There is a quite visible mole on one of her breasts. Lizzie had "a reputation." Never mind she had a husband, Dwayne Cleaves — where is he, by the way? Bingo, case solved. Dwayne killed Lizzie.
It is disconcerting to discover that many of the chapters are written in the first person by Lizzie, à la “The Lovely Bones.” Through her narrative we discover what a painful childhood she had as she got older. Her father was a loving man who tried his best. When they were poor, he shot squirrels for dinner. Lizzie thought it was a treat. But he couldn’t protect her from the school bullies who called her “trash,” mostly because that was her father’s business, tending a trash heap. Kids are cruel. Then those kids grow up and find other ways to show their cruelty.
The local police think they’ve sewn up the case, but along comes hotshot Maine criminal investigator, Ian Bird. He starts poking his nose into things and looks hard at the last occupants of the rental cabin, Adrienne and Ethan Richards, from Boston. Ethan is a disgraced investment banker who lost gazillions of dollars in investors’ money. He is lucky he is not in jail. In fact, he is so lucky to still have massive quantities of assets still available to him. Adrienne preens for Instagram and Facebook and her tens of loyal followers. It sucks to be married to a criminal. Ethan is a non-entity but Adrienne has some hidden depths.
Readers only have to wait until halfway through the book for the plot to begin its twisty churn towards the end.
Kat Rosenfield is a competent writer. Although her locals sound brutish, they also sound very human in their nastiness. Poor Lizzie.
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