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A gleefully sociopathic read, featuring Hannah, our first person POV narrator, who is best described as a sort of female Mr Ripley, – as emotive as a lizard, for Hannah is as self-obsessed and calculating as she is stunningly beautiful.

Hannah’s curves, her glossy hair, her absolute focus, and her finely-tuned acting skills, coalesce to fabulously equip her, with very little effort, to attract men (all men, virtually, or any man, young or old). These skills have allowed Hannah, now pushing forty, to enjoy a life replete with luxuries. So much so that Hannah, in fact, has led her entire adult life with no other means of financial support – finding, using and discarding wealthy lovers, as needed, without the need to worry further.

All this, until the day Hannah finds herself on the receiving end of a violent encounter she is ill-prepared and helpless to control.

As Hannah, in response, finds herself retreating, seeking to relive a lost and memorable time with a former lover, Mark, who cherished her (a married man now, last encountered twenty years ago), it’s not at all clear if Hannah will find what she is looking for.

Meanwhile, a different POV, adding dimension to the intensifying plot, is provided by Susan, the dull and emotionally needy long-time wife of Mark. Susan, dealing with empty-nester syndrome as her son escapes to University, struggles to enact her belief that some marriages are worth fighting for. And some, perhaps are not.

A terrific read with a humdinger of an ending, I read this book in an easy afternoon, enjoying pretty much every minute of it (a reader’s inevitable annoyance with the clingy wet blanket who is Susan, in stark contrast with stonyhearted Hannah, in all her glorious amorality).

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.