The first book I read from this author was "Every Last Secret"   back in 2021, which was a really enjoyable domestic thriller that I read at a time when I was researching for a book I was going to write in the same genre. Then I read "A Familiar Stranger"   in 2022 and that one was a little weird because she introduced a random supernatural element and some organized crime elements into an otherwise mundane domestic thriller. She returns a bit closer to her roots in this one where she's ditched those superfluous elements, but has decided to set the story in Hollywood featuring famous actors, and as someone who works in the industry, I both love and really get nit-picky about stories written in my industry.

Unfortunately this was one where the author clearly had no actual understanding of how Hollywood works, and just wrote essentially a fantasy of what she imagines it's like. Two of my biggest pet peeves about stories in this industry are ones that act like fame and success are just a matter of hard work, and when characters are total Mary Sues (i.e., someone who is inexplicably competent across all domains). So the fact that Nora and Hugh are both basically nobodies who crafted movie star careers for themselves out of nothing more than sheer tenacity and gumption leads to an unrealistic feeling about their stardom... which is further complicated by the fact that they're supposed to be the most gifted (and financially successful!) actors of their generation. Staggeringly beautiful, talented Academy Award winners who also earn $20 million paydays for also acting in blockbuster films and are beloved by the entire world. Oh, and Hugh has a twin brother named Trent who's basically the same except he's a "bad boy" whose offscreen antics are the only thing keeping him from being just as good as Hugh and Nora. Being the most critically and commercially successful actor in the world is so easy! You just have to want it enough!

There are also way too many point of view characters in this book. There are both Hugh and Nora. There's the detective investigating the murder discovered at their house. There's an independent journalist looking for a story on the world's most famous celebrity couple. There's the victim's family. All in all, it's just a lot of stuff to follow along with and with a book that's only 313 pages, it felt like it was a pretty thinly-veiled attempt to fill pages in an otherwise not very complicated story. When in doubt, add more POVs!

The final issue I had with the book was that, when you have twin characters, you just know there's a switch coming at some point. Which I can't get into without spoilers, so fair warning.


SPOILER ALERT FROM HERE ON OUT


Everyone assumes bad boy Trent is the one that murdered the victims (he's found dead with the woman that was also killed, it was in the guest house he uses on the property, etc.)... but that dead body was actually Hugh!



Turns out, Hugh has actually been a serial killer for years, and Trent has been covering for him. But now that Hugh finally got what was coming to him, Trent took his place and is now pretending to be Hugh, so he can leave the bad boy image behind and be with Nora (who he loves) and have the life he always wanted if his own demons didn't so often get the better of him. Oh, and Nora knows about it and is cool with it, AND it turns out that Trent has doubled Hugh for years. Every time Hugh needed to go off and satisfy his murdery impulses, Trent would cover for him. It was Trent who acted in that scene that got Hugh his Oscar! Really, playing his twin brother Hugh has been the role of a lifetime and proves that Trent is an even better actor than the best actor in the world!



So, yeah, this book was a little disappointing to me. Now that I've read three of her books, I'm pretty sure that the author is actually a really good domestic thriller author... who really understands how interpersonal dynamics create tension, and is able to write quite well from a technical perspective... but she has a tendency to try and layer stuff on top of that (supernatural elements, Hollywood glitz and glamor, etc.) that she either doesn't understand, doesn't really have a knack for, or kind of half-asses, and it makes for less compelling stories. I almost wish she'd go back to writing generic domestic thrillers without all those extras because she definitely has the core skills a writer needs in that genre.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of A Fatal Affair   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jan 18, 2025 at 2:19pm • Submit your own review...