Anatomy of an Alibi

by Ashley Elston ★★★★☆

Ashley Elston started her career writing YA novels, but she burst on the scene more prominently in 2024 with her first foray into adult literature, First Lie Wins. The twisty plot-driven novel with a number of interesting misdirections that keep the reader guessing about who is telling the truth (as a novel titled First Lie Wins should!) was chosen as a Reese's Book Club selection and suddenly put Elston on every thriller reader's radar. The success of First Lie Wins also opened the publishing door to more adult thrillers, and Elston returns to some of the same formula with her latest offering, Anatomy of an Alibi.

The novel opens with one of our protagonists, Aubrey Price, in the middle of impersonating our other protagonist, Camille Bayliss. The two women live vastly different lives: Aubrey is a poor bartender at rough-and-tumble establishment in Baton Rouge, while Camille is married to one of the highest profile lawyers in the city, focusing her time on the society circuit and rubbing shoulders with Louisiana's elite. An unlikely series of events has brought the two women into each others' orbit, and now they are reluctant partners in an effort to collect information about Camille's husband, Ben Bayliss.

When Camille returns from their fact-finding mission to discover Ben murdered in their home, suddenly the stakes have drastically increased, not just for Camille, but also for Aubrey. The remainder of the novel delves into the investigation of the murder, as well as a hit-and-run from a decade prior that could be in some way be connected.

Elston once again builds a multi-layered plot, with enough characters and cross-motivations to keep a reader riveted and guessing about the guilt of many of those in the book. An undercurrent of the novel explores family dynamics—both through blood relations, marriage, and found family—while also touching on class and a society and justice system that works differently for those with wealth and, as a result, power. But a weighty treatise on society and classism this is not; it is primarily a plot-driven whodunit with plenty of complexity. It's an enjoyable, fast-paced page-turner, and while I somewhat preferred First Lie Wins, those who enjoyed Elston's previous novel will almost certainly like this one as well. Recommended.