Title: Who Is Maud Dixon
Author: Alexandra Andrews
Narrator: Therese Plummer
Published: March 2021, Hachette Audio / Little Brown and Company
Length: 9 hours 11 minutes / 336 pages
Source: Audio – ALC via Libro.fm / Print – ARC via Goodreads
Summary:
For readers of The
Silent Patient – a taut, twisty, character-driven suspense novel about a
famous novelist and a small-town striver locked in a struggle for
fortune and fameFlorence Darrow is a small-town striver who
believes that she’s destined to become a celebrated writer. When she
stumbles into the opportunity to become the assistant to “Maud Dixon,” a
celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think: Elena Ferrante), she believes
that the universe is finally providing her big chance. The arrangement
feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom
on both writing and living. She even invites Florence along on a
research trip to Morocco, where her new novel is set. Florence has never
been out of the country before; maybe, she imagines, she’ll finally
have something exciting to write about herself. But when Florence wakes
up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she
begins to imagine what it might be like to ‘upgrade’ into not only
Helen’s life, but also that of Helen’s bestselling pseudonym, Maud
Dixon…
My thoughts: This is one of my most anticipated March reads and let me tell you…it absolutely delivers on every level! This is such a smart, twisted psychological thriller and I cannot recommend it enough!
Right from the start, I found myself completely engaged and immersed in this book. It’s one wild ride and introduces us to characters that you have to meet to believe…or not. I love characters where you aren’t quite sure if they are reliable and the choices they make definitely have you questioning everything. Both Florence and Helen are like that and it just hooks you so that you don’t want to stop reading. I finished this in a day…I just couldn’t put it down!
I loved the pacing of the book. The first half really sets things up, introducing us to the characters and then the second half takes off, and between the twists and turns and all the secrets that keep popping up, you won’t know what hit you. And then there’s the setting, which comes to life like I’ve never seen before. I’ve never been to Morocco, but I felt like I was transported there. It was as if I could feel the heat and sun beating down on me alongside the characters…that’s how vivid the writing was.
This
is such a clever, brilliantly plotted story and I am shocked that it is a debut novel. I
cannot wait to see what comes next from this talented author – you can
be sure I will be keeping an eye out, for sure! In the meantime, I
highly recommend picking this one up…you will not be sorry!
Audio thoughts: I was able to snag a copy of the audio and it was perfectly narrated. Therese Plummer did a fantastic job bringing this book to life. Her narration of this book really did the job, her pitch and intonation was spot on and I found that I was so into the book that I ended up listening to it in one day…I just could not put it down.
