A delightfully wicked read.
A widow, not particularly grief-stricken, tries to follow in her late novelist husband’s footsteps but
discovers that someone knows more about her than is safe for either of them.
Anna Williams-Bonner lacks a strong literary passion and feels no urge to immerse herself in work to cope with her husband’s tragic presumed suicide. However, a casual comment during her promotion of Jacob Finch Bonner’s posthumous final book leads her powerful agent—an asset she inherited along with Jacob’s royalties—to secure her a spot in an artists’ colony. With her previous experience working on a Seattle radio show and preparing her indifferent boss for author interviews, Anna underestimates the challenge of writing autobiographical fiction based on her supposed grief. Readers familiar with The Plot (2021) will recognize that Anna is far from what she appears, and this sequel presents a delightfully dark narrative (in third person but from Anna’s perspective) that chillingly reveals the psyche of a perpetually aggrieved, vindictive, and resourceful sociopath. During a book signing, a Post-it note inside one of her novels warns her that someone knows about the secrets she has tried hard to conceal. To address this threat to her newfound success and status, Anna must confront her past, unveiling the disturbing trail of misdeeds she has left behind. One cleverly ironic twist plays on the infamous slush piles of the publishing world—those unsolicited manuscripts that sit unread for years in editorial offices—while another highlights a rare error on Anna’s part. A host of sharp character portrayals—there are no heroes here—enhances the malicious enjoyment. The ending hints that Korelitz might follow in Patricia Highsmith’s footsteps, keeping her morally ambiguous protagonist around for more entertainingly amoral adventures.
A truly wicked entertainment.
