Ghostwriter #3
This is the third book in a series that is strikingly original in many ways. In the first book, Donovan’s heroine was not even named. She was just functioning as a ghostwriter (and amateur sleuth) for a Hilary Clinton-esque politician, who had recently lost an election. In the second, after writing about the crime she and the Hilary character solved, she’s a mini celebrity, and she’s asked on a cruise as a writing instructor. By book two, she has a pen name – Belle Currer – though it’s made very clear it’s not her real name. In book three, Donovan has chosen to model his story on the heartbreaking 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart in Utah.
This novel is also set in Utah, and the Elizabeth Smart character, Genevieve, has asked Belle to help her write a memoir of the ordeal. While Genevieve has written many other books in the self-help genre, this will be the first straight up memoir of the experience. She lives in a walled compound with her husband, son, father and his boyfriend, as well as a Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper. Genevieve’s mother has just died and Belle is set to arrive for the scattering of her ashes.
She is picked up at the airport by Genevieve’s best friend, Abi, who is now dating the man Belle was briefly involved with in the first book. There are a roil of emotions going on, and when the news arrives that one of Genevieve’s kidnappers, who has just been released from prison, has turned up at the front door, everything goes even more sideways. The kidnapper is sent away but the woman is later discovered dead of an apparent fentanyl overdose within the compound the next morning.
The police, who treat Genevieve and her family with kid gloves, are willing to see it as an overdose, but Belle is not so sure, and she soon partners up with one of the detectives on the case, a stalwart Mormon who is also an excellent investigator. She’s willing to work with Belle because of her writing, in addition to the fact that she’s actually solved two murders. The two women make a cute pair, with the sophisticated New Yorker Belle sometimes underestimating Kay’s smarts. Kay’s homespun manner disguises a keen intelligence.
The investigation takes the two to the prison where one of the kidnappers is still incarcerated. They aren’t allowed to see him, but they interview the social worker at the prison who worked with the woman, who said she felt she was totally rehabilitated and very unlikely to have killed herself. The mystery part of this novel is extremely clever, and the only caveat I had with it was how easily Belle hops into bed with a prison guard she’s using for book background.
She and Genevieve bond over their childhoods and the heaviness of assuming blame – Belle has her own family tragedy and resulting estrangements – and the end of the book leaves a very tantalizing thread for the next novel. These novels are cozies with an edge: Donovan does not sheathe his claws, and it’s most often to the benefit of the story, making it fresh and interesting. I’m looking forward to knowing even more about Belle in the next book. — Robin Agnew