A Small Affair
A Novel
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4.0 • 14 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A seesaw of rising tension that ultimately delivers a raw, crashing conclusion… An intensely emotional psychological roller coaster.” —Library Journal on Nanny Dearest
A young woman’s life is torn apart when her wealthy ex-lover is found dead—along with his wife.
Vera is ruthlessly ambitious, beautiful, and knows how to get exactly what she wants—no matter who stands in the way. When she meets a wealthy older man on an exclusive dating app, she thinks nothing of the wife he tells her he’s separated from. But days later, when the man and his wife are found dead in their home, Vera is immediately blamed for their deaths and branded as good as a murderer.
A year later, she emerges from a cocoon of self-pity and tries to reenter the world, but the specter of scandal still clings to her. Then she’s invited to a memorial for the wife of her former lover. As she learns more about the family, and about the couple and their friends, she begins to suspect there was more to the story than an affair gone wrong. In a quest for redemption, Vera uncovers layers of lies and close-kept secrets held by an inner circle of filthy rich tech millionaires who will go to any lengths to protect their reputations.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this uneven domestic thriller from Collins (Nanny Dearest), 27-year-old Vera MacDonald, the cutthroat director of sales for a Manhattan fashion company, matches with 37-year-old Tom Newburn, who's separated from his wife and runs a logistics tech start-up, on a dating app. After their third date, Vera breaks up with Tom. A few days later, Tom and his wife, Odilie, are found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in an apparent murder-suicide; a note from Tom states that Vera's rejection left him no choice. Fired from her job and ostracized by the press, Vera moves to her mother's house in the Hudson Valley. A year later, Odilie's family invites Vera to her memorial service, which prompts Vera to try to regain her life and unravel the truth behind the deaths. Collins neatly doles out secrets as flashbacks chart the downfall of Tom and Odilie's marriage, but readers will struggle to root for characters who are hard to like, and the slow-moving plot builds to a rushed and unconvincing ending. Hopefully, Collins will do better next time.
