cover image Intrusion

Intrusion

Mary McCluskey. Little A, $24.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-5039-5306-2

In the wake of their teenage son’s death in a car accident, Kat and Scott Hamilton find themselves adrift, both individually and in their marriage. Kat abandons her job and indulges fantasies of having another baby. Meanwhile, Scott, a corporate lawyer, takes on a new client, Sarah Harrison, who happens to be a friend from Kat’s school days in England, and who is now a fabulously wealthy and beautiful widow. Somewhat uneasily rekindling their friendship in Los Angeles, Kat sets aside memories of Sarah’s prior betrayals, seizing onto this old friend who seems to empathize with her grief. It’s clear from the beginning of McCluskey’s debut novel that Sarah has a hidden agenda; the plot consistently subverts expectations about the nature of Sarah’s intentions. The close third narration on Kat skillfully portrays a grieving woman on the verge of collapse, oblivious to the friends and family who truly care for her even as she finds herself increasingly drawn into Sarah’s destructive orbit. A few plot points don’t quite hang together, and the conclusion is too quick and too tidy to balance out the tantalizingly mounting suspense that characterizes the rest of the story. The novel’s elegant, emotionally restrained prose, however, raises it above a crowded field of psychological thrillers about women’s friendships gone awry. Agent: Julia Kenny, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (July)