neighborhood barbecues can kill you
In Nassau Court, outside of Washington D.C., three families shared their lives. They lived next door to each other. Their children went to school together. Sometimes they went on vacation together. They got together most weeks for to throw some meat on the grill or share some takeout. Their lives are intertwined, but their secrets are their own. Or, they were.
Aimee and Scott have 3 kids, twin boys and a first-grade girl who is neurodivergent. Aimee works as a landscape designer, and Scott is working to develop software to help regulate insulin dosing in diabetics. Lisa and Marcus have a son in middle school. Marcus is a successful lobbyist, so Lisa chooses not to work outside the home. But her frequent Pilates classes keep her in great shape.
Gwen and Anton also have twin boys. Gwen works part-time in a PR firm in Georgetown and works hard to curate her look and her home. Anton wrote a bestselling novel and is working on another while also teaching at a local university. They moved to the neighborhood a year ago, but they fit in and Gwen made friends with Aimee almost immediately.
When the police show up at Gwen’s house early one morning, everyone is curious as to what’s going on. Anton was killed the night before, a hit-and-run in an alley outside of a dive bar they had all been to. Aimee and Lisa step in at once to help Gwen with her kids. But as more information comes out about what happened, the women realize that the police are not looking it like it’s an accident. They are investigating it as a homicide.
Gwen didn’t realize that Anton had left overnight, and they have no camera at their front door. But Aimee does have a camera out front, and when the detective asks to look at it, Aimee sees that Anton had been at their place overnight, and Scott had met him out front. In the weeks that follow, the women discover all sorts of secrets, from money missing from their bank accounts to secret affairs. And then another husband goes missing.
What exactly is going on in this sleepy cul-de-sac, and how many secrets will these women have to unearth to get to the whole truth?
You Deserve to Know is a stunning domestic thriller about the secrets that live if our pasts and the damage they do when they finally surface. I was so impressed with this novel, because every time I thought I was getting to the real truth of what was going on with these families, there was another level of deceit. Over and over, this thriller took a left turn or took me up a steep hill or spun me upside down, making it a wild ride of secrets and revelations. There was not a dull moment in this entire novel. I loved it!
Egalleys for You Deserve to Know were provided by Forge Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.