His & Hers

Starred review from May 11, 2020
Bestseller Feeney surpasses the dexterous deviousness on display in her 2018 debut, Sometimes I Lie, in this cunningly constructed psychological thriller centered on a bitterly divorced couple who are forced to cross paths again by a murder in Blackdown, Surrey, their hometown. Despite London BBC News correspondent Anna Andrews’s best efforts, she’s has been dispatched to the sleepy village to cover the case, whose investigation her former husband, Det. Chief Insp. Jack Harper, is leading. Both have conflicts of interest concerning the victim—Anna’s seductive former schoolmate, Rachel Hopkins—which, if known, would subject each of them to scrutiny. But before Jack and his crack second-in-command, Det. Sgt. Priya Patel, can make much headway, another body is discovered—by Anna—and potential links to the pair prove impossible to ignore. At this point, the plot quickens and thickens, and Feeney does a masterly job of folding in layers of several characters’ troubled shared pasts and explosive secrets. The breathtaking finale is sure to blindside readers. This is a masterpiece of misdirection. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown.

May 15, 2020
A news presenter and a police detective are brought together by murders in the British village where they both grew up. There is precious little that can be revealed about the plot of Feeney's third novel without spoilers, as the author has woven surprises and plot twists and suspicious linkages into nearly every one of her brief, first-person chapters, written in three alternating narrative voices. "Hers" is Anna Andrews, a wannabe anchor on a BBC news program whose lucky break comes when the body of one of her school friends is found brutally murdered in their hometown, a woodsy little spot called Blackdown. "His" is DCI Jack Harper, head of the Major Crime Team in Blackdown, where major crimes were rather few until now. The third is unnamed but clearly the killer's. Happily, none of the three is an unreliable narrator--good thing because plenty of people are sick of that--but none is exactly 100% forthcoming either. Which only makes sense, because you can't have reveals without secrets. In a small town like Blackdown, everybody knows everybody, so it's not too surprising that Anna and Jack have a tragic past or that each has connections to all the victims and suspects while not being totally free from suspicion themselves. Who is that sneaky third narrator? On the way to figuring that out, expect high school mean girls, teen lesbian action, mutilated corpses, nasty things happening to kittens, and--as seems de rigueur in British thrillers--plenty of drinking and wisecracks, sometimes in tandem. "Sadly, my sister has the same taste in wine as she does in men; too cheap, too young, and headache-inducing." Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.

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May 15, 2020
Suspense abounds in this whodunit: Was it he or she who murdered the young woman found in a wooded area in Surrey? Feeney uses the device of dueling narratives ( His and Hers ) here to tantalize the reader with clues/red herrings. Her narrators are Anna Andrews, a BBC anchor recently demoted back to reporter, and Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harper, who happen to be divorced from one another. Their paths cross again, though, when Anna is assigned to cover the discovery of the body and Jack is assigned to investigate the case. Both their narratives have enough references to psychological anguish and substance abuse to make them prime suspects. Their roles of journalist and detective protect them for awhile, but Feeney offers a brilliant cat-and-mouse game here: Which of the pair is the murderer; which is being investigated? Add to that mix the fact that the cop slept with the woman victim the night of her murder, and the fact that the anchorwoman who replaced our heroine goes missing the day after her return, and you have one volatile, tension- and thought-provoking mix.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)