Review_FICTION
fashion world. As Margot becomes
increasingly jealous and paranoid, Winnie
sets her sights on revenge and Maggie
schemes to make her temporary job perma-
nent. Each woman’s alternating narrative
offers her own perspective on the unfolding
events, from which no one escapes
unscathed. The author, the fashion editor
for The Times of London, movingly portrays
the fragility of friendship and the corro-
sive effect of mistrust and recriminations
in a wickedly funny psychological thriller
that’s in turn brutal and tender. Walker is
off to a fine start. Agent: Laura MacDougall,
United Agents (U.K.). (May)
Kill the King
Sandrone Dazieri, trans. from the Italian by
Anthony Shugaar. Scribner, $28 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-5011-7472-8
The bloody, convoluted conclusion to
Dazieri’s serial killer trilogy (after 2018’s
Kill the Angel) finds kidnapping victim
Dante Torre still missing and former
deputy captain Colomba Caselli recovering
in the countryside near Portico, Italy, where
the local carabinieri drag her into a double
homicide case. During her investigation,
Colomba discovers clues that enable her
to single-handedly locate and rescue
Dante. Colomba and Dante suspect that
his kidnapper was involved in the double
homicide and other murders that follow,
but they also come to believe that another
killer is at work. Even with Dante’s
Holmes-like ability to put together
disparate facts, and the on-again, off-again
help of intelligence services and police,
the pair remain behind the killers and their
accomplices. Dazieri ups the ante by con-
necting the psychopaths to multinational
security and pharmaceutical companies
wanting to profit on inhumane “research.”
The bizarre final reveal is a bit over-the-
top. This isn’t for the faint of heart and
runs too long, but fans of procedurals,
conspiracy theories, or serial killer thrillers
will be well satisfied. Agent: Laura Grandi,
Grandi e Associati (Italy) (May)
The Wife Stalker
Liv Constantine. Harper, $27.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-0-06-296728-2
Not even a late-breaking, game-
changing twist can quite salvage this
disappointing psychological thriller from
Constantine (The Last Mrs. Parrish).
Much of the fault lies in the story’s two
protagonists, alternating (and unreliable)
narrators Piper and Joanna, who are vying
for the affections of Leo Drakos, a depressed,
workaholic—but well-off—Westport,
Conn., lawyer and father of two. Glamorous
recent arrival Piper, who has bought a local
recovery center as part of a new identity to
distance herself from the suspicious deaths
of her husband and teen stepdaughter in a
sailing accident, quickly sets her cap for
Leo, never mind that Joanna is already
living with Leo. For her part, Joanna is
slow to recognize the danger posed by the
seductive interloper—and swiftly finds
herself on the outside looking in. Though
readers may root for Joanna as she delves
into the narcissistic Piper’s past in a race
to win back the family she loves so fiercely,
many of her actions are puzzling if not
downright off-putting—for reasons that
will only become clear with the flabber-
gasting final reveals. Constantine has done
better. Agent: Bernadette Baker-Baughman,
Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (May)★ Indigo
Loren D. Estleman. Forge, $25.99 (224p)
ISBN 978-1-2502-5835-9
Edgar finalist Estleman effortlessly
melds film history with a whodunit in his
gripping sixth mystery featuring UCLA
movie archivist Valentino (after 2016’s
Brazen). Valentino is devoted to locating
and acquiring “rare motion pictures so they
can be preserved for future generations to
see and appre-
ciate.” He gets
a unique oppor-
tunity from
Ignacio Bozal,
a wealthy man
with a shadowy
past, who gives
him the only
known copy of
Bleak Street, a
never-released
movie, in which an obscure actor named
Van Oliver starred as a gangster based on
Bugsy Siegel. Oliver disappeared and was
believed to have been murdered, possibly
by the mob, in 1959, before the picture
could be released. The PR department at
UCLA insists that Valentino try to shed
light on Oliver’s fate, to bolster the pub-
licity for the planned screening of BleakJOE PULIZZI
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