Alys Always by Harriet Lane

I usually dislike blurbs that compare books to other books, as if they can ride the tail wind of another bestseller, but this book’s blurb is spot on – “Howard’s End meets All About Eve”.

On a bitter winter’s night,  Frances Thorpe comes upon the aftermath of a car crash and, while comforting the dying driver, Alys Kyte, hears her final words. The wife of a celebrated novelist, Alys moved in rarefied circles, and when Frances agrees to meet the bereaved family, she glimpses a world entirely foreign to her: cultured, wealthy, and privileged. While slowly forging a friendship with Alys’s carelessly charismatic daughter, Frances finds her own life takes a dramatic turn, propelling her from an anonymous existence as an assistant editor for the books section of a newspaper to the dizzying heights of literary society.

That’s the storyline, and one would think oh yes, another run-of -the-mill psychological, stalker thriller – but no, this book is much more.  Frances starts to infiltrate Alys’ life, romancing her husband, charming the children, even wearing the same clothes…the book gets more and more compelling as you plunge with Frances into her new and manipulative world.  At first she appears harmless, but it soon becomes clear that Frances is a schemer and a creepy one at that.  Now that she’s discovered a wholly more attractive life, she will do anything to keep it hers.

The humor is wry, the characters are flawed, the atmosphere unsettling and I spent two late nights with the “just one more chapter” syndrome.   A debut novel, Alys Always is beautifully, yet sparsely written and what the author leaves out tells as much as her writing.    This is a tautly-written, mesmerizing read.  And best of all, there is nothing pat about the ending — it requires some thought from the reader.

Some of my favorite writing from this very talented author.

“A wall of coats, slumped there like so many turned backs”

“Her extraordinary talent for happiness was not always best served by the world around her”

“My mother has never been an engaged listener.  Other peoples speech is useful mainly as a prompt”

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