April 27, 2020
Goldberg’s debut, a thoughtful meditation on gender-based violence, focuses on 12 people affected by the gruesome killing of 21-year-old Sara Rose Morgan, a college student who was murdered by her schizophrenic boyfriend, Blake Campbell, in 1997. Beginning with the philandering housewife in Upstate New York who discovered the body, the narrative passes from those who knew Sara to those familiar with Blake, who confessed to the crime, including Blake’s future wife and a local reporter who followed Blake’s trial and subsequent acquittal on the basis of insanity. A subplot about the trial of a serial killer, John Logan, touches on forgiveness, obsession, the lack of empathy for victims, and the glorification of mass murderers. Goldberg’s razor-sharp, intricately constructed tale, with its varied voices, will leave few readers unmoved. Fans of literary thrillers will relish this incisive account of murder and its aftermath. Agent: Julia Masnik, Watkins/Loomis Agency.
May 15, 2020
DEBUT On a winter day in 1997, college student Sara Morgan was killed by her boyfriend, fellow student Blake Campbell. Blake confessed but as a diagnosed schizophrenic was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. The murder received much more coverage than the simultaneous discovery that local serial killer John Logan had killed six women that few people cared about. But a number of strangers, all women, are affected by Sara's death. There's the woman who discovered her body in the woods and another who met Blake in a recovery center. A reporter covering Logan's trial wants to tell Sara's story. Blake's sister worries about her own daughter because of her brother's mental problems. Luna doesn't remember older half-sister Sara but tries to find a way into Sara's life and eventually Blake's. Told from multiple viewpoints and unfolding over several time periods, this creepy, disjointed story has a flat tone, as if Sara's death drained the emotion from everyone's lives and even the author's storytelling. VERDICT This unconventional psychological thriller is recommended only for readers looking for a more literary approach to murder depicting little emotion or passion.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2020
This highly original, somewhat unsettling novel, set in New York State's mid-Hudson region, transports the reader to a very dark place that stands in marked contrast to the celestial glow of those Hudson River School paintings. It more clearly evokes Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow environs. The sad tale of each of its myriad characters is told amid a nearly all-consuming air of the macabre and delivered with sinister wit. The various characters' narratives relate, in one way or another, to the murder of college student Sara Morgan, killed by her boyfriend and left in the woods, where her body is found by a woman whose sanity is already seriously compromised. Despite his confession, a young man is released on a plea of temporary insanity. The confessed killer's acquittal spark Sara's family, friends, and others throughout their upstate community to seek to avenge Sara's death, often by extreme measures. An absorbing read with an astonishing Did I miss something? ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)