Title: What to Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
In this ingenious stand-alone thriller from the internationally bestselling author and “razor sharp” master of suspense (People), a grieving wife is forced to ask: Which is worse—infidelity or murder?
Ellie Falkner’s world has been destroyed. Her husband, Greg, died in a car crash—and he wasn’t alone. In the passenger seat was the body of Milena Livingstone, a woman Ellie’s never heard of. But Ellie refuses to leap to the obvious conclusion, despite the whispers and suspicions of those around her. Maybe it’s the grief, but Ellie has to find out who this woman was—and prove Greg wasn’t having an affair. And soon she is chillingly certain their deaths were no accident.
Are Ellie’s accusations of murder her way of avoiding the truth about her marriage? Or does an even more sinister discovery await her?
Review:
What to Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French is a tense domestic mystery.
Ellie Falkner is devastated when she learns her husband Greg Manning has died in a car accident. She is also has complete faith that he is not having an affair with the woman his who also perished in the crash. Ellie is lost without Greg but unable to completely grieve his loss until she understands why Milena Livingstone was in the car with him. His friend and business partner Joe Foreman does not know who she is. Nor does his best friend Fergus Kelly. Ellie wants to get a sense of who Milena was in life, so she finds herself offering to assist the deceased woman’s business partner in organizing the party planning business. Will Ellie find the answers she is searching for about Greg and Milena?
Ellie tries not to lose faith in her beloved husband. She finds it impossible to believe he would have an affair but what other explanation could there be for Milena to be with him? Ellie tears apart Greg’s life and she still does not find anything that indicates an affair. So, when the opportunity arises for her to delve deeper into Milena’s life, she takes it. In between putting the party planning’s affairs in order, Ellie asks questions she hopes will provide her with a sense of who Milena was. She feels bad for the deception but she is desperate for the assurance that Greg would never betray her with another woman. As Ellie tries to extricate her from a suddenly complicated situation, a shocking discovery puts her in a bit of a precarious legal situation.
What to Do When Someone Dies is an engrossing mystery. Ellie is an interesting woman whose desperation for answers leads her to make very dubious decisions. The somewhat slow burning storyline is intriguing and it is easy to become invested in the outcome of Ellie’s quest. Although savvy readers will most likely guess whodunit, Nicci French brings this suspenseful mystery to an exciting conclusion.
