Furious Violet

Walker (Dietland) triumphs with this sophisticated thriller centered on true crime writer Violet “West” Shelley. Raised in Colorado by her uncle Lawton, West has spent her career trying to escape the shadow of her mother, poet Juliet Bellwood, who died by suicide when West was a baby. After her death, Juliet gained an enormous following. Her fans, in turn, have targeted West and her brother Lawton as betrayers of Juliet’s legacy, because Lawton burned Juliet’s journals when she died and remained silent on her character while she was alive, and West dodges discussion of her mother at all costs. Before Trinity College’s annual Bellwood Symposium, West—now 50 and on deadline for her latest book, about a mother-obsessed serial killer—receives anonymous notes and menacing phone calls from someone claiming to be her child. Meanwhile, Margo Dyle, editor of Trinity’s Bellwood Studies journal, wants a reluctant West to appear at the symposium. As the threats from West’s stalker escalate, her grip on reality slips, leading to new questions about Juliet’s death all those decades ago. With much more on its mind than the average psychological thriller, this spellbinding descent into madness teems with insight about the complexities of motherhood. It’s a knockout. (July)