Natalie

A damn solid murder mystery. Lots of twists and turns, but always honed in really carefully on the minds and emotions of the characters. Really, so much of the mystery *is* the minds and emotions—did Shelby truly love Laura, or was she just the latest among his conquests? Is the kindness Laura saw in Waldo genuine, or is his snide exterior his true face? In a lot of ways, this presages the more modern psychological thriller, especially in the Gillian Flynn tradition. Honestly, the whole thing feels like a novel in how much it lingers on moments, while still feeling fairly breezily paced—a consequence I suppose of the absolute number of plot beats being relatively low.