By Liane Moriarity (Amazon's #52 Best Book of 2021) ★★★★☆
The famous Delaney tennis family is at a crossroads. After decades of teaching, parents Stan and Joy have recently hung up their coaching whistles and are in the process of trying to figure out what to do with the abundance of time that retirement has delivered to them. When a shoeless, penniless, twenty-something stranger named Savannah knocks on their door one night, a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, Joy invites her in and cares for her immediate injuries. And while Savannah recuperates over the next few days, Joy comes to find she really enjoys having her around.
The four adult children of the Delaneys, all with their own unique quirks and issues, are naturally skeptical (Who is this woman? Why is she still staying with their parents? They don’t know anything about her!) and even veer towards jealousy (Does Mom love her more than us?). All of this is a prelude, however, to the central event of the novel: the mysterious disappearance of mother Joy.
Moriarity does a terrific job of establishing the unique voices and personalities of each character, along with the different family dynamics and interplay -- sibling rivalries and insecurities, spousal interactions after 50 years of marriage, the layer of dysfunction hiding just under the surface of an outwardly normal family. The continued evolution of these personalities plays out beautifully as the details leading up to Joy’s disappearance slowly emerge. They continue to evolve as what starts as a “oh, she’ll turn up in a day” reaction gradually begins to become more serious, and as father Stan emerges as the prime suspect in what increasingly is looking like a murder. Moriarity switches between the past and the present to help more fully develop the characters as well as the plot.
While this is slotted in “Mysteries and Thrillers”, it’s really a character study, and the central mystery is simply a device to more fully craft those characters. Moriarity does so deftly and artfully -- the buildup and payoff of the Father’s Day scene was especially brilliant -- and I enjoyed the layers she created in characters that will stick with me.
Previous Best of 2021: #12 - Lore
Next Best of 2021: #10 - The Blacktongue Thief