The Golden Couple

December 6, 2021
Risk taking has helped make Avery Chambers, the protagonist of this suspenseful if not always credible thriller from bestsellers Hendricks and Pekkanen (You Are Not Alone), the hottest mental health professional in Washington, D.C., but her maverick approach, at times incorporating techniques more typically employed by PIs (like tailing patients to check up on them), does have its dangers. Already on edge after making a whistleblower call to the FDA concerning a pharmaceutical company’s malfeasance, the recent widow starts to experience unsettling events, like what looks to be a professional break-in of her home, around the time she begins treating lawyer Matthew Bishop and his wife, boutique owner Marissa. Avery senses there’s much more going on with this power couple than their stated infidelity issue—but can even someone as resourceful as Avery get to the bottom of a relationship stretching back to the pair’s teens, and to the murder of Marissa’s best friend back then, in time to avert disaster? Though several of the twists seem forced, the authors keep the pages turning. This one represents a return toward the high standard of their early nail-biters. Agent: Margaret Riley King, WME

February 1, 2022

Unlicensed marriage counselor Avery Gordon refuses to alter her unprecedented, oft-ridiculed methods, even after the revocation of her license. Her confrontational 10-session couples' counseling strategy has strict rules but garners results for those who can adhere to her terms. When Marissa and Mathew Bishop arrive for their first session with Avery, they seem, at least on the outside, to be the proverbial golden couple, with money, beauty, a child--everything they could want. But behind the Bishops' perfect exterior is a relationship filled with secrets, lies, uncertainty, and cheating. As Avery employs her unconventional, hands-on methods to investigate the Bishops' problems, she begins to unravel their carefully curated lives. Told from two points of view, this novel unfolds chronologically, with a few flashbacks. Karissa Vacker and Marin Ireland masterfully narrate, with subtly changing inflections for each character (Avery's no-nonsense style; Marissa's often-unsure and scared voice), so listeners will always know who's speaking. Most impressive is Vacker and Ireland's ability to deftly mimic the voices of characters whose dialogue is heard from another character's perspective. Hendricks and Pekkanen's fourth thriller (following You Are Not Alone) has lots of twists--not all of them unexpected; not-so-subtle hints appear early on but are stubbornly ignored by the novel's protagonists until they realize much later what's been going on. VERDICT Fans of Gone Girl and Woman on the Train will enjoy the surprises, unreliable witnesses, and slow reveals in this thriller.--Lisa Youngblood

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