Kerry Hood was in publishing for many years, working in publicity for several publishers over the time, working on fiction and non-fiction titles. Crime and thrillers have always been those she turns to first, however, and the ones she reads late at night or when she has a quiet moment.
If you need an alibi, and if you are lucky, you choose someone well. And then there are the people you have to pick both around you and your alibi … they have to be trustworthy or the structure will crumble.
Thus, the whole business of alibis is complicated, and this is the crux of this intricately woven, highly entertaining and engrossing labyrinth that takes place over a few days during two months – with a look back in time to fill in some cracks.
In Louisiana, Camille is sure that her ambitious husband, Ben, is up to no good, but he is a controlling man and tracks her, so she needs an alibi if she is going to check up on him and his business.
Aubrey works behind the bar at a tavern called Doug’s and it was her phone number on a piece of paper in Camille’s husband’s briefcase that led the suspicious woman to her. One of the two women is wealthy, the wife of Ben, a high-flying lawyer and the daughter of a man whose power reach is extensive and violent. They are a family who take care of problems themselves, with, or without the law … the other is the penniless daughter of a couple who were killed on the road by an unknown driver. She has looked for the culprit for years, and now suspects Ben holds the key.
Both women desperately want answers, so when Camille approaches Aubrey to see if they could work together, the seeds of conspiracy are planted. Then Ben is found dead, and Camille’s alibi becomes crucial, because the police view her as an obvious suspect.
Aubrey shares a building with four others – and they have become her support system, even though they fly below the law. Meanwhile Camille is attempting to pull away from her family and their latent violent habits. It would seem there are few law-abiding citizens in this mixed-up collision of characters. Where are the white knights to come charging in to rescue the situation, if they even exist?
But this terrific novel is all about alibis – and they run through the excellent plotting, right to the end. Ashley Elston has written thrillers for children, but this reader wishes she had written more for adults.
‘Lines you couldn’t imagine crossing disappear when someone your love is at risk.’ Aubrey
