Library Journal
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Lutz (The Spellman Files) reminds readers of how little any of us can truly know about the people we love. Luna and Owen, the two primary characters, have known one another since college (when they became inseparable because of an unexpected death) Only the two of them really understand their deep connection. Luna is quiet, wary, and practical while Owen, a son of privilege, always projects charm. Each has a secret life. Those secret lives start to unravel when the police investigate the brutal murder of Owen's wife. Lutz, who between 2007 and 2013 wrote six rollickingly funny mysteries featuring the Spellman family of detectives, has since expanded into darker mysteries. Her plots and characters are lively, intriguing, and full of surprises. Lisa Flanagan (who shared narration duties on the 2019 audiobook for Lutz's The Swallows) is pitch-perfect. VERDICT With Lutz's plot twists and turns and Flanagan's masterful reading, this audiobook puzzler is highly recommended for mystery fans.—Pam Kingsbury

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

Owen and Luna develop a strong bond at college. Not sexual, just intense. Some might say odd. When a cloud of doubt surrounds the death of another student, Owen is targeted, although Luna is the one carrying around a dreadful secret from her past. Luna appears to have no family but is immediately accepted by Owen’s parents, who put themselves forward as warm and happy party people, although they have their own level of dysfunctionality. Luna and Owen drift apart after Owen takes off for London, but they are reunited years later, after Luna has had a relationship with Owen’s brother that did not end well. They become neighbors in the Hudson River Valley, and both seem to be happily married. However, when Luna finds Owen’s wife’s brutally murdered body while on her morning run, he falls under suspicion once again, and she owns up to her past in order to save him. But along the way she somehow begins to wonder if she ever really knew him at all. Lutz is the author of the immensely popular Spellman Files series and follows her successful stand-alone The Swallows (2019) with this atmospheric, well-plotted, and brilliantly narrated story, which is at once mysterious, suspenseful, and witty. Hudson River Valley–loving fans of Alison Gaylin and Carol Goodman will particularly enjoy the book's setting.

Publishers Weekly
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In 2002, gregarious Owen Mann and fiercely guarded (for good reason) Luna Grey, the protagonists of this darkly comic, fast-paced thriller from bestseller Lutz (The Swallows), immediately click as freshmen at Markham University, forming a profound, though strictly platonic bond. They also share a curious propensity for becoming persons of interest in homicide probes, as detectives in Deerkill, N.Y., the Hudson Valley town near where both are living with their spouses in 2019, discover when the police start to investigate the murder of Owen’s wife, whose body Luna reports finding while jogging through the local cemetery. The author employs this suspenseful whodunit as a springboard for graceful dives into the friends’ complicated shared history and secrets as well as a present—and a future—far murkier than readers expect. Quirky characters, humor in unexpected places, and a twisty but plausible plot keep the pages turning. Readers will be torn between eagerness to get to the bottom of the novel’s mysteries—and reluctance for the adventure to end. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary. (Jan.)

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Rich, cranky Owen and straight-shooting Luna have been practically joined-at-the-hip buddies since college, their friendship hiding the usual secrets—and one that's truly dangerous. So when Luna, who's lately been doing a lot of secret drinking with Owen, finds Owen's wife brutally murdered, a lot of ugliness pours forth and spells ruin for their tight bond. A stand-alone from the author of the New York Times best-selling "Spellman File" series.