Compulsively Readable Thrillers

Robin, one of the twin-sister leads in Seddon's sensitive and intricate thriller, is a semiretired British rockstar who seems to have transplanted herself into a remake of Rear Window, spying on her neighbors in nearby apartments as she tries to clear her mind of thoughts of...well, that's not immediately obvious. Meanwhile, her estranged sister, Sarah, is rebooting her life after being kicked out of her home and denied access to the child she loves dearly. Through the novel's flashbacks, we find out why the twins are so troubled: Their parents were involved in a 1970s marital swap that forced the girls to grow up separately, across the Atlantic from each other. Seddon deepens the tension as we learn more about the family dynamic—"a strange feeling," as Sarah puts it, "like we're on the edge of a cloud but the rain never falls"—and keeps the drama low-key, the better to explain how Sarah became the (supposed) good girl and Robin transformed into the (supposed) ungrateful rebel. Some clever shocks are tucked into the closing chapters, not only explaining the motivations behind the twins' actions but also revealing the lasting wounds of childhood trauma. A piercing story about the power of secrets, and how they can do more and more damage the longer they're kept.