Cross Her Heart

July 23, 2018
Plot twists take precedence over psychological depth in this uninspired thriller from British author Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes). Single mother Lisa Buckridge, who works for a small recruiting company and lives in fear of someone from her past, devotes herself to her 16-year-old daughter, Ava. In turn, Ava feels smothered by her mother’s monitoring of her life and keeps from Lisa both her decision to lose her virginity to a casual boyfriend—and her obsession with a man she’s only communicated with online. The dark history that Lisa was covering up ends up exposed after Ava, a gifted swimmer, rescues a toddler who fell into a river at a fair in Elleston, England. In her relief at Ava’s safety, Lisa forgets to shield her face from a newspaper photographer, and the published picture leads to a revelation that shatters her connection with Ava. By pulling more than one plot punch, Pinborough weakens the impact of a story line that lacks the originality of her best work, the Thomas Bond novels. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Associates (U.K.).

Starred review from July 1, 2018

Ava and Lisa seem to have a normal mother-daughter relationship, especially when Ava turns 16 and teenage angst rears its ugly head. But then why does Lisa constantly look over her shoulder? Who is it she thinks she sees? And why is Ava so secretive about a new friendship on Facebook that is starting to become obsessive? Who is Daniel and what happened to him? Add in Marilyn, Lisa's best friend and coworker, who seems to have the perfect life, marriage, and husband. Yet something not quite right is bubbling under the surface. As the narrative weaves among these three relatable and fully developed characters, readers are pulled deeper into their connected webs of secrets and lies. VERDICT Fans of Pinborough's smash debut, Behind Her Eyes, won't be disappointed with this sophomore effort. A slow start builds into a fast-paced, twisty thriller that is hard to put down. Devotees of B.A. Paris and Ruth Ware will be fascinated as well. [See Prepub Alert, 3/26/18.]--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018
In Pinborough's (Behind Her Eyes, 2018, etc.) twisty, decade-spanning, multivoiced thriller, everyone has secrets: teenager Ava; her mom, Lisa; and Lisa's best friend, Marilyn.On the surface, all three women fulfill the roles expected of them, and they support and love one another, but they don't truly know each other. Ava, a competitive swimmer, is finishing up her exams and sneaking around with her first boyfriend while overly protective mom Lisa is about to clinch a big contract at work--and maybe even go on a date with a handsome millionaire client. Marilyn has been dealing with headaches at home, but she's still game for a shopping trip to outfit Lisa for that big date. Soon, however, they will discover that someone else in their lives has a secret much darker than any they carry. This person is a murderer who is stalking a childhood friend who, they believe, betrayed their deepest trust. There are a lot of plot twists and reveals within the novel, some of which are surprising, some of which are expected. Pinborough weaves several different time periods and several different narrative voices to create layers of character and conflict, but the characters are types often found in psychological thrillers, and while their problems are often relatable, at least at first, they aren't particularly engaging. It's clear which decisions, and which silences, are going to get them into trouble, and yet, as people do, they carry on anyway. The one element that sets Pinborough's novel apart from the slew of similar thrillers is the emphasis on female empowerment and the power of female relationships. These women need no one to save them, no knights in shining armor or handsome cops. As Marilyn succinctly puts it, "Fuck. That. Shit."Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and turns along the way.

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June 1, 2018
Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes, 2017) is back, throwing down the domestic-suspense gauntlet with this tension-driven page-turner. Opening with a prologue that announces bad things on the horizon, the story then turns to 40-year-old Lisa, a slightly overprotective single mom of teenager Ava. Lisa lives a quiet life in the suburbs and has a successful career and a supportive best friend, Marilyn. But it quickly becomes clear that all three women are hiding something from the others?and from the reader. Someone is toying with Lisa, threatening to resurrect her horrifying past from the dead, but who, and why? With the narration alternating between Lisa, Ava, Marilyn, and an obsessive antagonist, the anxiety builds relentlessly, with red herrings and tiny snippets of clues, as both Lisa and the reader wait for the inevitable twist. A satisfying counterpart to the girl thrillers, Cross Her Heart is unapologetically feminist, driven by the strong relationships between women, for better or worse. This will be an easy sell for fans of all domestic suspense, but you should especially target fans of Liane Moriarty and Megan Abbott.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)