She Treads Softly: Getting Away with Murder

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Getting Away with Murder

Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena
7/28/26; 352 pages
Viking Penguin/ Pamela Dorman Books

Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena is a highly recommended domestic psychological suspense novel following an unlikable couple and a planned murder.

Ted and Jill Westcott enjoy living a wealthy, privileged life. They love their New York brownstone, with all of it's expensive touches and accoutrements. However, when it comes to light that they are broke after Ted made some poor investments and they have been living far above their considerable means, they come up with a plan. After asking him for a loan and being turned down, they decide to murder Ted's brother Greg, worth $45 million. Ted knows he will inherit a good portion of that as Greg's only relative.

They go sailing with Greg on his sailboat, Fortune Seeker, and implement their plan. Knowing Greg is too confident and arrogant to wear a life jacket even in rough water, the two send Greg overboard, wait for him to go under before calling the coast guard, and claim it was all a horrible accident. From all appearances, that seems to be the truth, only Paul Ramirez, a special investigative agent for the coast guard, doubts their story and begins asking questions. As Ted and Jill become more paranoid, and even less appealing, the number of people they suspect want to take them down increases, including Jill's best friend Lara, Greg's ex-wife Min, their cleaning lady Nadya, and shady business man John Burnley. Then everything escalates when they begin to receive blackmail threats and find a hidden camera.

The fast pace is relentless and there are red herrings and twists galore in this well-written thriller. It is full of suspense and surprises in every chapter as something new happens. Ted and Jill's suspicion, paranoia, and corruption intensifies as their greed and sense of entitlement escalates. The narrative will hold your complete attention even while Ted and Jill become increasingly unlikable and insufferable. The pages will fly by in this incredibly entertaining thriller.

Since Ted and Jill are both well-developed characters, this serves to make them even more unappealing because they are both so entitled and unbearable. With Officer Ramirez questioning them and their associates, the pressure is on them and he senses the cracks in their composure. Those who know them also sense their deception and this is clearly shown in the narrative as Ted and Jill suspect everyone of blackmail.

Getting Away with Murder is a great choice for anyone who enjoys a fast-paced novel of domestic psychological suspense and can tolerate an unlikable, entitled couple. Thanks to Viking Penguin for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.