Review By Kayleigh
Hannah Mary McKinnon has written an edgy and dark thriller that will make you wonder how much you truly know and understand about the people you love.
Favourite Quote:
“Everyone has secrets. Everybody has done at least a few things they’re not proud of. Stuff they’d rather keep quiet because it could cost them their job, family, or reputation, perhaps all three, maybe even land them in prison. We’re all a little evil on the inside. Different shades of gray depending on circumstance, character, and predisposition.”
Goodreads Synopsis:
First comes love. Then comes murder.
Lucas Forester didn’t hate his wife. Michelle was brilliant, sophisticated and beautiful. Sure, she had extravagant spending habits and that petty attitude, a total disregard for anyone below her status. But she also had a lot to offer. Most notably, wealth that only the one percent could comprehend.
For years, Lucas had been honing a flawless plan to inherit Michelle’s fortune. Unfortunately, it involved taking a hit out on her.
Every track was covered, no trace left behind, and now Lucas plays the grieving husband so well he deserves an award. But when a shocking photo and cryptic note show up on his doorstep, Lucas goes from hunter to prey.
Someone is onto him. And they’re closing in.
Told with dark wit and a sharply feminist sensibility, Never Coming Home is a terrifying tale of duplicity that will have you side-eyeing your spouse as you dash to the breathtaking end.
Never Coming Home is told from the villain’s point of view. Lucas Forester is not a good guy. He admits to taking a hit out on her. He’s a con man and a thief. He’s charming and handsome. You hate him. But you also like him? Trust me, I was so confused with my feelings for Lucas throughout Never Coming Home. This is a taught, character driven novel that will make you feel uncomfortable. And it’s so good.
Set in the Boston suburbs, Lucas is a driven and successful British expat who married for money. His main goal when he married Michelle was to divorce her as soon as possible. Only when she gets him to sign a prenup does he realize the end of their marriage was going to have to be a bit more extreme. Lucas is gold digger who wants a better life that money can offer: he grew up poor, turned to crime to pay for his life and never looked back. Now, his wife, Michelle, doesn’t sound like the nicest person: self-centered, privileged, and beautiful, she comes through Lucas’s point of view as a real bitch. But I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as the story unfolded. She wanted a happy life and ended up with a monster.
Lucas had been planning his wife’s death for years. Never Coming Home opens weeks after his wife’s disappearance. He’s been playing the perfect grieving husband and thinks he’s fooled everyone. But slowly everything unravels when he starts to receive threatening anonymous messages and Lucas is running to figure out the truth. Who knows what he did? Is it his drug addicted brother-in-law? His dying mother-in-law? Or someone from the past he left far overseas? All Lucas knows is that he needs to figure it out before they get to him.
Never Coming Home is a fast-paced and brilliant tale that is somehow both dark and witty.
Thank you, Harper Collins, for the ARC in return for an honest review.
