Title: Your Life Is Mine
Author: Nathan Ripley
Published: June 2019, Atria Books
Format: ARC Paperback, 304 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
Instant national bestseller Nathan Ripley follows up the success of Find You in the Dark with another suspenseful page-turner—this time about a woman whose notorious father died when she was a child, but whose legacy comes back to haunt her.
Blanche Potter never expected to face her past again—but she can’t escape it.
Blanche,
an up-and-coming filmmaker, has distanced herself in every way she can
from her father, the notorious killer and cult leader, Chuck Varner. In
1996, when she was a small child, he went on a shooting spree before
turning the gun on himself.
Now, Blanche learns that her mother
has been murdered. She returns to her childhood home, where she soon
discovers there’s more to the death than police are willing to reveal.
The officer who’s handling the case is holding information back, and a
journalist who’s nosing around the investigation is taking an unusual
interest in Blanche’s family.
Blanche begins to suspect that
Chuck Varner’s cult has found a new life, and that her mother’s murder
was just the beginning of the cult’s next chapter.
Then another killing occurs.
My thoughts: Last year, I read and loved Nathan Ripley’s debut novel, Find You In the Dark. So of course, I jumped at the opportunity to read his sophomore novel…and I thought it was a great slow-burning psychological thriller that is eerie and downright sinister at times.
I loved the Manson cult vibes that this book gives off. It definitely add an extra layer of creepiness to an already dark story. At it’s very basic level, this book asks the question, can you truly escape your past? That is what Blanche is presented with when she finds out her mother has been murdered and she returns home to her childhood home. Deciding the police are not doing their job effectively, she plays detective and starts nosing around, learning far more than she bargained for.
I loved the way this story was told, giving us just the right amount of information about Blanche’s past as needed at the right times. We would get flash backs periodically as they are needed, and see how she moved forward with her life and become a film producer. I also liked that it was just the right amount of suspense, mystery and even a bit of police procedural mixed together.
There are quite a few twists and turns that keep you glued to the pages, trying to figure out just where the story is going to end up. There were some twists I guessed at, and some I definitely did not see coming, but this all ended up coming together to provide a good, entertaining read and I know that I am definitely going to be keeping Nathan Ripley on my list of authors to read, for sure!
