Long Way Down
A Thriller
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
She thinks she’s marrying the perfect man. But nothing is as it seems.
Perfect for fans of Rachel Hawkins and Darby Kane, this suspense-packed novel entangles readers in family lies and shocking secrets that will leave you breathless.
Deni Rydell believes her life is finally about to change for the better just as soon as she marries Cal Cooper Jr., heir to a massive California mining fortune.
When Cal and his parents perish in a plane crash, Deni’s dreams are shattered. She’s hoping to find solace with Cal’s brother Grant, who only recently returned to the small town of Gold Hills after a year’s stay in rehab. Too bad Grant is caught up trying to please Erika, the mysterious woman he brought home with him.
Meanwhile, Gold Hills detective Robyn Torres is assigned to investigate a vicious murder which she assumes to be a drug robbery that turned deadly. The deeper she digs, though, the clearer it is that she couldn’t be further from the truth. Soon enough, Torres begins to uncover a series of disturbing family secrets and dark lies connected to the Cooper family that threaten to destroy everything Deni knew to be true.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dark histories overlap within two California communities in this underheated slow-burn from Kusel (The Widow on Dwyer Court). Working-class Prosperity is separated from affluent Gold Hills by the Osbourne River Bridge, a "demarcation line between the have-nots and the haves." Deni Rydell lives in a modest house in Prosperity with her father and waitresses at a small café. When Gold Hills resident Cal Cooper, heir to a natural resource fortune, proposes to Deni, she's thrilled, though Cal's parents are openly disgusted by the news. Deni starts to grow wary, however, when Cal's older brother Grant returns home from an expensive stint in a Southern California rehab facility with a sexy new girlfriend, and everyone in the family starts acting strangely. Then Cal and his parents die in a private plane crash, and soon afterward, Deni's former high school friend, Luna, is brutally murdered. As Gold Hills police detective Robyn Torres looks into Luna's death, she digs up dirt on the Coopers that could ruin Deni's life. Two-dimensional characters, protracted pacing, and a predictable plot keep this small-town thriller from taking flight. It's a misfire.
