A Double Life

April 16, 2018
London doctor Claire Alden, the 34-year-old narrator of this engrossing psychological thriller from Edgar-winner Berry (Under the Harrow), remains obsessed with finding answers decades after the horrific night when her nanny was slaughtered in her family’s Belgravia townhouse and her mother, Faye, was left near death. The crime’s prime suspect, Claire’s titled father, Colin Spenser, vanished without a trace. Claire, who leads an almost hermitlike existence, can’t stop her sleuthing. She tails some of her father’s posh friends in a desperate hunt for clues to his whereabouts as well as why they hated her working-class mother so much that they would shield a murderer. Claire combs through her own memories and Faye’s extensive diary entries and other research to vividly imagine her parents’ relationship, then subsequently manages to befriend, unrecognized, the daughter of one of Colin’s closest chums in the hope of discovering further leads. The action builds to a shocking but satisfying conclusion. Berry tells this shattering story with surprising grace. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

May 15, 2018
Berry's (Under the Harrow, 2016) second thriller explores the effects of a brutal crime on the family of the alleged perpetrator nearly 30 years later.Claire's father, Lord Spenser, notorious for being one of the highest-ranking members of British society to be accused of murder, disappeared 26 years ago, after Claire's mother and nanny were both attacked. The police contact her when there is a sighting or a lead, but so far, these have all turned out to be false. Driven by her need for closure and her concern for her opium-addicted brother, Claire befriends the daughter of her father's best friend under false pretenses so she can be invited to the family estate and conduct her own investigation. Claire's first-person narrative alternates with a third-person account of her parents' early courtship and marriage and Claire's own childhood memories leading up to the murder. Berry is an expert at slow pacing, letting the characters' tension gradually build to a boiling point, but that's also a drawback. The mystery, and the characters, seems to lack true passion. By the time the climax comes around, the level of action and violence contradicts the tone of the rest of the novel. She does have a talent for setting, and the emphasis on the insulation of the arrogant, if declining, aristocracy resonates as a larger commentary on British society. The most fascinating side of the novel, implied but not openly developed, is that Claire's obsession with her father leads her to make some pretty shady choices of her own, and she strongly believes that the end justifies the means. She's not quite an unreliable narrator, but those patches of darkness in her character do add an extra layer that could have been explored more deeply.A competent psychological mystery that lacks greater human resonance.

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June 15, 2018

Claire Alden is a young doctor in London, obsessed with the disappearance of her father. The first lord to be accused of murder in nearly a century, he vanished when she was a child; her nanny also disappeared at the same time. Claire's father left no trace except the bloodstains in his car, which was abandoned near the sea. Claire's mother claims her husband was home when the murder occurred, but his titled cronies say no. Is he innocent or is Claire the daughter of a brutal murderer? She is consumed by her need for the truth, but how far will she go, and how much of her life will she sacrifice to find it? Calm and deliberate in its unfolding, the story steadily gains momentum to the snap of the very last page. VERDICT Loosely based on the infamous 1974 Lord Lucan case, in which a British lord suspected in the murder of his family's nanny disappeared, this second novel from Edgar Award-winning Berry (Under the Harrow) presents a polished psychological thriller that will be devoured by fans of Ruth Ware, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2018
Berry's debut, Under the Harrow (2016), won an Edgar for Best First Novel and garnered multiple best books listings, making it a hard act to follow. Critics praised Berry's striking, original voice and Hitchcockian twists, both in evidence again here, along with the themes of obsession and memory. The major difference between the two books is that rather than an abrupt and surprising ending, A Double Life features a somewhat protracted and shocking conclusion that will have nail-biters gnawing down to their nubs. Claire is a dedicated doctor living an insular life in London under an assumed name because she is the daughter of a notorious murder suspect. Nearly 30 years earlier, while Claire and her brother slept, their father was assumed to have killed their nanny and brutally assaulted their mother, then disappeared without a trace. She believes that his powerful and privileged friends are protecting him and goes to extraordinary lengths to ingratiate herself with them, recklessly blackmailing them for his current location. Bound to please Berry's fans as well as followers of domestic-noir masters of the be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale, including Hallie Ephron, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)