cover image The Last Good Night

The Last Good Night

Emily Listfield. Little Brown and Company, $22.45 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-316-54091-9

A cautionary tale about trying to build a life on a marsh of secrets and lies, Listfield's fifth novel (after Acts of Love) is a solidly crafted, increasingly suspenseful narrative. At 38, Laura Barrett is living the American dream. Born in Germany to a trampy, teenage mother and later raised in a fleabag motel in Florida with a groping stepfather, she now has a loving husband, an infant daughter and a great new job: she's been tapped by the network execs to become co-anchor of the national evening news. But success exposes Laura's past. Threatened by a former lover who turns up in New York, and by various cryptic messages, she is terrified that certain unsavory facts (she was a teenage prostitute and was involved in a possible murder) may come to light. Neatly juxtaposing the contrasts between Laura's carefully reinvented life and her secret past, Listfield evokes both backgrounds with fidelity. The newsroom scenes are so detailed that readers will understand exactly what it feels like to be in the hot seat when a big story breaks. When her baby is kidnapped and Laura begins to realize that events could put her in the media spotlight, Listfield ratchets up the tension and fully involves the reader in her heroine's 's harrowing ordeal. (July)