Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger

Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger

Published by Park Row Books ISBN 9780778310150

Hardcover, $27.99 320 pages

Sometimes you just need a good, twisty psychological thriller to sink your teeth into. Lisa Unger's new novel, Confessions on the 7:45, fits that bill.

Selena is running late at work. She likes to be on the early train home so that she can have dinner with her husband and two young sons, but tonight she called home to say she would be on a later train. A sinking feeling made Selena put a camera in her children's playroom where she caught her nanny Geneva and husband having sex while the boys were in the other room watching television. And this was the second time she caught them.

She gets on the train and finds a seat next a young woman Martha, who befriends Selena and makes a confession - she is having an affair with her boss, who is married to the CEO of the company. After a few drinks, Selena confesses her tale of the nanny and her husband. Martha wistfully wonders what if they could solve each other's problems? Selena finds that disturbing, but she'll never see Martha again, even though Martha pushes Selena to exchange phone numbers. 

When Selena returns home, she confronts her husband who swears it was just the one time, and he is sorry, but Selena knows better. She is devastated because she really liked Geneva, she was wonderful with the boys and kept the house organized. 

Before Selena had a chance to fire Geneva, she disappears the night Selena confronts her husband. The police show up after Geneva's sister calls them, and Geneva doesn't show up for work the next day. Selena doesn't tell the police that her husband was having an affair with Geneva, and the tension ratchets up as the lies continue.

There is another story we get entangled with- a young woman named Pearl lives with her mother, a woman who owns a failing bookstore and has relationships with many men. Who is Pearl and how does she figure into the main story?

Unger has a lot of balls to juggle to keep the story moving and connected, and she does it expertly. With a nod to the classic Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train, we wonder what happened to Geneva and does Martha have anything to do with it?  Mystery/thriller fans who like to put their deductive skills to the test will enjoy trying to untangle all the knots of this intriguing story.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Fall Mystery Reads Tour.

Friday 5ive- October 2, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. It's hard to believe we are already in October, I'm not sure where I misplaced September.

1)  Many of us fondly recall the 1991 movie Father of the Bride, starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton as parents whose daughter is getting married, much to the dismay of her father who still thinks of her as a little girl. The charming movie was so successful it spawned a sequel, Father of the Bride 2, about the daughter and her mother both having babies. Director Nancy Meyer reunited the entire cast for Father of the Bride 3 (ish), which featured the Banks family getting together on a Zoom call while son Mattie proposes to his girlfriend, a lovely nurse quarantining in a hotel room. It was such a delight to see everyone, as well as new members of the family, Ben Platt and Florence Pugh, who play the babies all grown up. Kieran Culkin's performance as Mattie was so sweet, it brought tears to my eyes. You can find the video on Netflix's YouTube channel here , and while you're there, donate money to World Central Kitchen, who do an amazing job feeding people affected by natural disasters and the COVID-19 crisis. 

2)  I'm still obsessed with looking at people's backgrounds on TV, and trying to see what they books they have on their shelves. Author Eddie Glaude Jr. made it easy for me as he placed several of his books face out when he was on MSNBC, and I hope other people take notice and start doing the same.

3)  We have 300 apartments in our building, and three elevators. With the COVID restrictions, each elevator at maximum capacity of two people, and more people moving back into New York, the lines to get into the elevator are getting longer and longer. Now I have to be strategic about leaving the apartment. I go to the laundry room at 6:30am, and no one is on the elevator or in the laundry room. Running errands during the day, I have to plan to avoid the morning rush, the after school crowd and after work rush. I don't how office buildings are going to make this work.

4)  I watched the movie Just Mercy on HBO.  It's based on the book by Bryan Stevenson about his work in Alabama providing legal assistance to men on death row. Michael B. Jordan is fantastic playing the character based on Stevenson, and Jamie Foxx is astonishing as a Black man falsely convicted of murdering a young white woman. This is a movie that everyone should watch, about how the legal system can be so abused by people who are callous at best and evil at worst. Tim Blake Nelson's performance as convicted felon whose testimony was coerced to get a conviction is also terrific. The trailer is here. 

5)  I finished two books this week.

Reading the memoir Becoming Duchess Goldblatt was a great tonic. Duchess Goldblatt is a fictional character who became hugely popular on Twitter for sharing her gentle insights and witty sayings. This memoir is by the woman behind the Duchess, who created her after losing her husband, her new home, her job, and most of her friends following her divorce. She shares her terrible year, and how creating the Duchess brought her a new sense of self, many gifts, and new friendships, including one with her musical idol Lyle Lovett. She shares many of her best tweets in this heartwarming book. If you are on Twitter, give the Duchess a follow. 

If you like twisty psychological mysteries, Lisa Unger's new novel Confessions on the 7:45 is for you. When Selena sees her husband having sex with the nanny on camera, she confronts him. Does the woman she met on the train ride home and shared this information with have anything to do with her now-missing nanny? There are so many moving parts in this story, if you can guess what happened, you are smarter than me. My full review publishes on October 5th. 

I hope you have a good week- remember to wear a mask, stay socially distant, wash your hands, and make sure you are registered to vote. Our democracy depends on our active participation, and voting is the most effective way to make your voice be heard.

You Think You Don't Know Your Husband...

In Lisa Unger's Die For You, Isabel thought she knew her husband, until the night he didn't come home. Married to Marcus for five years, and except for one brief indiscretion by her husband, Isabel thought they were happy. After alternating between anger and panic all night, she finally gets a phone call from his cell phone- and hears a violent struggle and a man scream on the other end of the call.

A call to the police goes nowhere, as a husband who doesn't come home is not high on the priority list. Isabel goes to her husband's office, a successful high-tech game software company, to talk to his partner. The partner is evasive, angering Isabel. Before she can get any more information, the FBI raids the office. Confusion reigns, and Isabel is knocked out.

When she awakens in the hospital, she finds out that it wasn't the FBI, and several people were killed, including her husband's partner. Her apartment has been trashed, and all of the money she and Marcus had in the bank is gone. Isabel discovers that her husband conned her brother-in-law Erik out of his life savings as well.

Police Detective Grady Crowe is wary of Isabel's claims of ignorance of her husband's activities. More bad news arrives when it is discovered that her husband is not the real Marcus Raine- that man was murdered years ago, and it appears that her husband assumed his identity. Did he also murder the real Marcus Raine?

Isabel is determined to discover the truth about her husband. Crowe warns her against that, particularly when more people show up dead, and Isabel seems to be the one closest to the dead bodies upon discovery. Is she a victim or a murderer?

Unger writes a fast-paced thriller, and she uses the setting of New York City to good advantage. Anyone familiar with the city will recognize the spot in Central Park where a confrontation takes place, and the Upper West Side area where Isabel lives. A journey to Prague brings that city to life as well.

Some thrillers/mysteries sacrifice character for action, but Unger's characters are fully drawn. The family dynamic between Isabel and her sister Linda, Erik and their kids is realistic and interesting. Erik and Linda's relationship is loving, even though both make big mistakes that threaten that relationship. Even Detective Crowe and his partner have a good chemistry.

One thing bugged me though. Isabel's actions frequently put herself in danger, but also endanger her family. Isabel's quest to find out the truth about her husband caused her family great pain, and I couldn't understand that. Was her need to personally discover the truth about her husband worth the agony she put her family through?

Isabel also knew nothing about her and her husband's finances. She signed papers he put in front of her, and agreed to use her name on all the paperwork for his company. Could she be that naive, particularly since her father left her mother, sister and her broke when he killed himself. Yet her sister makes a similar mistake. Perhaps this is a cautionary reminder to the reader to always pay attention to your family finances.

I didn't understand Isabel, but maybe that is the point of the story. Maybe we never really know anybody, even the person sleeping next to you for five years. I give Die For You three and half stars because Unger kept me turning the pages when I should have been sleeping.