My introduction to Sarah Pinborough’s work came recently as a dramatisation of her book Behind Her Eyes on Netfilx. I was totally hooked and bought the book. After listening to her talk about her life and career on a podcast my fandom was complete. And so to Dead To Her published this month (10 June).
This is a very different book but there are some similarities not least in the quality of the writing and perfect plotting. Set in the world of the Savannah GA elite, Dead To Her introduces you to a world of glamour, secrets, voodoo, retribution, lust, love, loyalty, lots of sex followed by betrayal and deceit. You never quite know just who is pulling the strings, which makes for compelling reading.
Widower William Radford IV has returned early from his travels to Europe bringing a new Mrs Radford some forty years his junior. Close friends have been invited to an elegant soirée to meet Keisha and feelings are mixed to say the least.
Two worlds collide and ricochet apart. One guest, Marcie has the life she could never have dreamed of. As the second, younger wife to Jason Maddox she feels secure if not accepted but she immediately senses the interest between her husband and his business partner’s new wife from London.
Keisha is too young, too black, too coarse and too naïve to realise that her new husband would have checked out her past – to the finest and worst detail. She is haunted by her past and her culture plus disgusted by her much older husband with his unpleasant sexual demands once he has taken Viagra.
William’s saintly first wife haunts their home – with a nod to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca including a Mrs Danvers type character in the form of the devoted employee, Elizabeth – and the relationships within the friendship group some of whom have known each other since childhood. But nothing is what it seems in this multi-layered narrative and I love how the author plays with your assumptions and trifles with your allegiances as each twist and turn exposes one dark drama after another until a tantalising dénouement. Characters are brilliantly depicted and locations feed our lockdown souls.
Perfect summer reading wherever you are.
Sarah Pinborough is a Sunday Times Number One, New York Times and internationally bestselling author who is published in over 25 territories worldwide. A recent book Cross Her Heart is in development with World Productions and Dead To Her has been optioned by a major studio for development as a US TV series.
Sarah has been shortlisted for the Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella. She has four times been shortlisted for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.