July 4, 2022
This cleverly crafted psychological thriller from Dean (The Last Thing to Burn) explores the awkward and intense emotions of identical-twin dynamics. Anxious, cautious Molly Raven, though quite attached to her “prettier and funnier” twin, Katie, has always been envious of the attention given to her sister and was devastated by Katie’s choice to move from London to New York City to attend Columbia University on a mysterious scholarship. Then Katie turns up dead in her own bed, possibly a murder victim, during a visit from their parents. Molly manages to overcome her fears and travel to New York to investigate what was happening in her twin’s life, and maybe be brave enough to step into Katie’s world to try to make things right. Big mid-narrative reframes may leave the reader feeling misled by the protagonist’s internal monologue, but these shifts allow the story to ramp up in additional waves of tension as Molly’s attention to detail becomes a disturbing asset. This wild ride of a novel pulls its surprises at just the right moments. Dean remains a writer to watch. Agent: Kate Burke, Blake Friedmann Literary.
July 1, 2022
"Same, but different." Molly and Katie Raven are identical twins, but their personalities are polar opposites. Molly lives in London in a total fog of anxiety that borders on paranoia; Katie, older by three minutes, is living fearlessly in New York City, studying at Columbia on a scholarship and loving every minute of it. When Katie is murdered, Molly braves a terrifying flight across the wide, dark ocean to find out what happened. She begins to realize that she did not know her sister at all, even though they were in constant communication. Katie seems to have had an affair with one of her married professors and appears to have flown all over the world with a mysterious man in his private jet. The reader begins to realize that perhaps they don't know Molly, either, when a stunning twist about halfway through turns the whole story around. Dark, intense, and sometimes shocking (but at other times incredibly moving), this confounding thriller follows Dean's preceding stunner, The Last Thing to Burn (2021).
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