Reviews for The dead ex : a novel

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Vicki Goudman has finally found some peace in her life, living near the seashore and working quietly as an aromatherapist. But when her ex-husband, David, disappears, she may well lose everything, including her freedom.Although their relationship ignited fast, Vicki and David's marriage flamed out fairly quickly, too, particularly after Vicki discovered that his business trips to the Caribbean and Paris were actually liaisons with another woman, Tanya, his former assistant who's now his wife. She also suspects that David may have been involved in some white-collar crime. Worse, during their marriage David was adept at gaslighting Vicki, often telling her that his unexpected disappearances were business trips she had simply forgotten about. His vanishing into thin air might point to murder, but maybe he's simply slipped off the grid again. If only Vicki's epilepsy hadn't left everyone convinced that she just can't remember killing him. Corry (Blood Sisters, 2018, etc.) toggles chapters between Vicki's story and that of Scarlet Darling, the young daughter of an impoverished drug addict and trafficker. When Scarlet's mother lands in prison, Scarlet is placed in foster care. Longing to be reunited with her mother, Scarlet endures abuse from the other children, not to mention the adults, in her first foster home. Her second foster home offers stable, loving adults, but Scarlet has trouble connecting. Her distrustfulness eventually leads to her, too, being snatched up by police. How Scarlet connects to Vicki remains deliciously murky as the two stories alternate and the tension ratchets up. Under suspicion and hounded by the police, Vicki must soon reveal secrets long buried about her former job, how she developed epilepsy, and the real reasons for the breakdown of her marriage.An electrifying, page-turning thriller simply begging to be filmed. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

At first blush the only thing middle-aged aromatherapist Vicki Goudman and scrappy eight-year-old delinquent-in-training Scarlet Darling seem to share is that each faces a crucial turning point in their lives at the start of this slow-building but ultimately gripping psychological thriller from Corry (Blood Sisters). In February 2018, Vicki's quiet life in the seaside resort of Penzance, England, is about to implode with the arrival of two detectives investigating the disappearance 15 days earlier of her ex-husband, David, a wealthy property developer. In March 2007, Londoner Scarlet will soon be placed in a Dickensian foster home after her beloved single mom's imprisonment for drug dealing. The dual narratives alternate-revealing Vicki's startling past in a very different profession-and eventually converge with devastating impact. For those willing to press on through the somewhat deliberate first half, Corry delivers several satisfying plot twists as well as a meditation on the nature of family. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

A self-employed aromatherapist trying to control her recently diagnosed epilepsy, Vicki Goudman is piecing her life back together after a painful divorce and career troubles. Her former husband, David, has been missing for weeks, and Vicki who still pines for him even after he left her for his secretary, Tanya falls under suspicion. So Vicki confronts Tanya for information about David, a meeting that turns physical and leaves Tanya dead and Vicki arrested for murder. Chapters about Vicki alternate with chapters about Scarlet Darling, whose single mother, Zelda, uses Scarlet to deal drugs until Zelda goes to prison and Scarlet to foster care. As information about Vicki's marriage and career is gradually revealed, and Vicki acknowledges her potentially faulty memory because of seizures, the two plot threads inevitably intertwine, delivering unexpected twists to the final page. Corry's skill at building suspense and creating characters with secret pasts, as shown in her earlier novels (My Husband's Wife, 2017, and Blood Sisters , 2018), is on display again here.--Michele Leber Copyright 2018 Booklist

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