Published March, 2024
I don’t recall reading anything by Dervla McTiernan, but I will probably check out some of her other books after spending much of the past couple of days engrossed in her novel What Happened to Nina? – which grabbed me from the start. Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review.
My husband and I have somewhat of a debate about books with multiple POVs and/or non-linear plots. He pretty much hates both, and I am less bothered by either than I am by books with a gazillion VERY SHORT chapters. This particular story has multiple viewpoints, all of which are characters who are central to the plot: Nina and her boyfriend Simon, her parents Andy and Leanne, his wealthy parents Rory and Jamie, and Detective Wright.
I admit I was less than 2% into the book when a HUGE red flag started waving: Nina and her boyfriend, together as friends since childhood and lovers since their mid-teens, have gone away to different colleges, and he gets VERY intense, wanting to know her every move, even to the point of expecting her to FaceTime him, then mute her phone and take it with her to classes, or prop the phone up next to her so he can – I don’t know, spy on her? Monitor her every move? It just creeped me out.
The couple goes to his family’s “cabin” in Stowe, Vermont, for a weekend getaway to go hiking, climbing, and just hanging out, but only Simon returns from the trip. Nina’s parents get busy pushing the police for hep and answers, while Simon’s parents hire PR people and expensive attorneys to manage the media campaign that they initiate to protect their son. The media frenzy that ensues brings a small army of “armchair investigators” to their small town, and soon conspiracy theories and accusations are flying. Reminiscent of the hoopla around the disappearance of Gabby Petito, the book provides a look at what happens to real people who get caught up in a real-life true crime drama. The characters are well developed, and I particuarly liked Jamie, likely because I related to her view that “Security and comfort are very, very attractive when you’ve never had either.”
TBH, I read this a couple of weeks ago, and I had already forgotten many of the details, but the feeling I had reading it remains vivid in my mind. As someone who tends to consume a lot of “crime entertainment,” I can easily get lost in stories in both the true crime and the mystery/thriller genres, and I tend to appreciate what I think of as “faction” – novels based on real people/events. This one shouts Gabby Petito from the get-go, and readers will likely find themselves thinking “GET AWAY FROM HIM – NOW!!!” Maybe it’s not literature, but it sure is entertainment. Four stars.