Travel features frequently in domestic suspense novels. Husbands are always disappearing from flights, not on flights they were supposed to take, or dying in plane crashes, then showing up years later. Ladies, keep a close eye on your men when you’re traveling together!
In J.T. Ellison’s latest thriller, You Know Why, photographer Brooklyn Locke doesn’t lose her husband Trey until he misses their connecting flight in Atlanta, leaving her stranded with their two kids and no money. (The Atlanta airport is a nightmare. It’s easy to see how this could innocently happen.) On the flight is Eden Barrow, who claims that she and Trey went to high school together in Georgia. But that doesn’t make sense. Trey is from Connecticut, and why is she calling him Andrew? Does Eden have something to do with Trey’s disappearance?
When Eden tells Brooklyn that Trey was married to her sister Chloe and then murdered her, Brooklyn doesn’t believe it. But airport footage shows Trey leaving in an Uber, and now Brooklyn’s credit cards have been canceled and her bank accounts drained. Eden is the only person she knows in Atlanta, and the only person she can trust. But can she?
You Know Why begins like typical domestic suspense, establishing Chloe’s murder and going between Brooklyn and Eden’s first-person points of view. I dug in expecting a book similar to Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me. Instead, it’s closer to a police procedural—police officer Theresa Lee has her own (third person) point-of-view that dominates the investigative part of the narrative—and Trey’s POV pops up early on, revealing that he did not kill Chloe. For much of the book, Brooklyn is unable to investigate what’s going on, and the other points-of-view center around scary Russian hit men, cyber crime, drugs, embezzlement, and other elements not generally found in domestic suspense. Brooklyn’s own past comes into play, and she might not be as innocent as she initially seemed.
As a huge fan of domestic suspense, I was disappointed that You Know Why didn’t deliver the payoffs I wanted from the genre—an everyday woman protagonist who investigates the mystery and twists that come from relationships. But if you’re a reader who wants more thrills, chases, exotic bad guys, gun shots, and three letter agencies, you should find You Know Why appealing.
No matter what kind of fan you are, You Know Why delivers a powerful message: Never board your plane without your entire party.
Thanks to Over the River PR for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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