She Treads Softly: The Accomplice

Monday, January 17, 2022

The Accomplice

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz
1/25/22; 368 pages
Random House/Ballantine Books

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz is a highly recommended novel of suspense swirling around two best friends and two timelines.

Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen - these two very different individuals became fast friends after they first met in 2003 at Markham University. "Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic." Their platonic friendship continues into adulthood and the two live with their spouses near each other. Their friendship also seems to involve being questioned by the police in homicide investigations. The first unexplained death they are persons of interest in happens when they are in college. The recent murder in 2019 is of Owen's wife, Irene. Luna is jogging in the cemetery and finds Irene's body, making them again persons of interest and putting their friendship into question. Underlying these mysteries is a hidden secret Luna is keeping from her past.

Chapters in the narrative alternate between events in their college days and the current murder investigation in 2019. Both timelines are equally interesting and compelling. As the investigations unfold, we are privy to all manner of information and background concerning Luna and Owen. Neither is a particularly likable person, but they are complicated and interesting characters. They also drink a lot, in college and as adults, so expect that. Their family histories are convoluted.

The plot moves at a steady pace in both timelines, focusing more on the history and interactions of the characters along with the investigations. The alternating timelines worked very well in the exploration of these characters from then and now. We are also introduced to other characters Luna and Owen have known for a long time. There are twists and surprises in store for readers, some unexpected humor, and secrets that are going to be revealed. You won't know quite who to trust in this one as the line is always shifting.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House/Ballantine Books.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.