The first true crime book I ever read was called Fatal Vision by Joe McGinnis, about the Jeffrey MacDonald case in which a seemingly mild-mannered husband and father was convicted of brutally murdering his wife, unborn child, and two daughters. I read it when I was a teenager (which, when I think of it now, horrifies me, as it was pretty brutal). But what I remember most about the book wasn’t the gore and violence associated with the tragedy. It was the description of the family’s life together, the mundanities about pajamas and bedtime rituals, the hopes and dreams of a young family before the tragedy. That, to me, was where the tension existed. This simple life…that turned out not to be so simple when you pulled back the curtain.
For a long time, true crime was the only space where I could find that kind of tension in my reading life. Until I read a succession of books about family life gone wrong over a period of time. These books ticked all the boxes, had me turning the pages with the kind of hunger only voracious readers will recognize. These were the kinds of books I wanted to write. These were novels that created that same kind of tension found in true crime—and achieved only when you pair domestic bliss with human failures. The following seven books were hugely influential in informing the books I write now. They gave me permission, if you will, to create my unique tension, to pull back the curtain on my imagination and tell my own stories about the darker side of small towns and suburbia.
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy’s closest friends for what will be revealed.
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta’s thirty-something parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. There’s Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad dubbed “The Prom King” by the moms of the playground; Sarah, a lapsed feminist with a bisexual past, who seems to have stumbled into a traditional marriage; Richard, Sarah’s husband, who has found himself more and more involved with a fantasy life on the internet than with the flesh and blood in his own house; and Mary Ann, who thinks she has it all figured out, down to scheduling a weekly roll in the hay with her husband, every Tuesday at 9:00pm. They all raise their kids in the kind of sleepy American suburb where nothing ever seems to happen—at least until one eventful summer, when a convicted child molester moves back to town, and two restless parents begin an affair that goes further than either of them could have imagined.
House and Home by Kathleen McCleary
This is the story of a woman who loves her house so much that she’ll do just about anything to keep it. Ellen Flanagan has two precious girls to raise, a cozy neighborhood coffee shop to run, terrific friends, and a sexy husband. She adores her house, a yellow Cape Cod filled with quirky antiques, beloved nooks and dents, and a million memories. But now, at 44, she’s about to lose it all. After 18 years of a roller-coaster marriage, Ellen’s husband, Sam—who’s charismatic, spontaneous, and utterly irresponsible—has disappointed her in more ways than she can live with, and they’re getting divorced. Her daughters are miserable about losing their daddy. Worst of all, the house that Ellen loves with all her heart must now be sold. Ellen’s life is further complicated by a lovely and unexpected relationship with the husband of the shrewish, social-climbing woman who has purchased the house. Add to that the confusion over how she really feels about her almost-ex-husband, and you have the makings of a delicious novel about what matters most in the end…
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
From Jodi Picoult, one of the most powerful writers in contemporary fiction, comes a riveting, timely, heartbreaking, and terrifying novel of families in anguish—and friendships ripped apart by inconceivable violence. Until the phone calls came at 3:00am on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now 17-year-old Emily has been shot to death by her beloved and devoted Chris as part of an apparent suicide pact—leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.
Sister by Rosamund Lupton
When her mom calls to tell her that her younger sister Tess is missing, Bee returns home to London on the first flight. She expects to find Tess and give her the usual lecture, the bossy big sister scolding her flighty baby sister for taking off without letting anyone know her plans. Tess has always been a free spirit, an artist who takes risks, while conservative Bee couldn’t be more different. Bee is used to watching out for her wayward sibling and is fiercely protective of Tess (and has always been a little stern about her antics). But then Tess is found dead, apparently by her own hand.
Bee is certain that Tess didn’t commit suicide. Their family and the police accept the sad reality, but Bee feels sure that Tess has been murdered. Single-minded in her search for a killer, Bee moves into Tess’s apartment and throws herself headlong into her sister’s life and all its secrets.
Though her family and the police see a grieving sister in denial, unwilling to accept the facts, Bee uncovers the affair Tess was having with a married man and the pregnancy that resulted, and her difficultly with a stalker who may have crossed the line when Tess refused his advances. Tess was also participating in an experimental medical trial that might have gone very wrong. As a determined Bee gives her statement to the lead investigator, her story reveals a predator who got away with murder—and an obsession that may cost Bee her own life.
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she’s helping her mother make sure the literal family skeleton stays in the closet or turning scraps of fabric into nationally-acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle-class niceties. While Laurel’s life seems neatly on track—a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna—everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 13-year old neighbor, Molly Dufresne. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne’s backyard pool. Molly’s death is inexplicable—an unseemly mystery that Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia’s help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family’s guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly
Lisa Kallisto—an overwhelmed working mother—is the not-so-perfect model of the modern woman. She holds down a busy job running an animal shelter, she cares for three demanding children, and she worries that her marriage isn’t getting enough attention. During an impossibly hectic week, Lisa takes her eye off the ball for a moment, and her world descends into a living nightmare. Not only is her best friend’s 13-year-old daughter missing, but it’s Lisa’s fault. To make matters worse, Lucinda is the second teenage girl to disappear within the past two weeks. The first one turned up stripped bare and abandoned on the main street after a horrible ordeal. Wracked with guilt over her mistake, and after having been publicly blamed by Lucinda’s family, Lisa sets out to right the wrong. As she begins digging under the surface, Lisa learns that everything is not quite what it first appears to be.
