Gone girl
Except Bryden doesn't show up at the daycare, because she's vanished without a trace.
Oh dear.
Tristan Ostler photo
Shari Lapena, who was a lawyer and English teacher before turning to writing, is the Canadian author of 11 books including nine thrillers.
And we're off again on another devilish mystery from Toronto lawyer turned bestseller Shari Lapena, a book full of nasty people all hiding scurrilous secrets in one of the most dangerous and depraved places on Earth: idyllic, affluent suburbia.
Panic soon sets in, because this is so out of character for Bryden, who's altogether perfect and loved by all. Her car is in the underground garage, her keys and purse and cell phone all sitting in their condo, nary a sign of any kind of a struggle.
The cameras show she didn't leave, and no psychotic strangers signed in at the concierge's desk.
Golly, what could have happened?
Lapena has made a fine career out of similar folks finding themselves in a real pickle, though she hasn't yet received the elbows-up memo, again setting She Didn't See it Coming in upstate New York, this time in Albany.
The plot details revealed so far are all you're getting. Brace yourselves.
There's no way adorable Bryden could be having an affair with another character, right? Same for Sam — nothing on the side for the faithful fellow? Oh, and that broken rib Bryden had a while back, everyone knows how dangerous doors can be, how they'll spring out of nowhere and have at you…
Characters… we've got characters. Bryden's parents show up after she vanishes; in the in-law tradition, they don't like Sam all that much. If they have secrets, Lapena doesn't further muddy the waters with them.
Bryden's sister Lizzie lives nearby. She's the sister who's not as good as Bryden at anything, but don't jump to conclusions that she resents that in any way — nope, don't start going there…
Lizzie also has a thing about going on the internet under a pseudonym to talk true crime with a bunch of whackjobs who think they're better sleuths than the police; she'd never disclose any clues, surely…
Paige is Bryden's BFF and Clara's godmother. Paige and Lizzie vie for Clara's attention and adulation, though assuredly, they're both adults about it. Sam and Paige, as you'd expect, just good friends, right?
Just down the hall live Henry and Tracy. Their marriage had a rough turn a couple of years back when a woman accused Henry of abducting and raping her, but police couldn't make the charges stick. Always handy to have someone like that living down the hall when a woman disappears.
She Didn't See it Coming
Then there's Derek, whose car Bryden rear-ended recently when she was late getting to daycare. Derek runs a cybersecurity firm and he's given his piece-of-work wife Alice a lot to be suspicious about. What would the chances be that sparks flew when Derek and Bryden exchanged licence particulars?
A sad backstory for Derek and Alice: only-child Alice's exceptionally rich mother was killed in a hit-and-run for which no one was ever charged. She inherited everything.
Throw into the mix that at least one character has murdered and gotten away with it — maybe more than once.
People are bed-hopping at a frantic pace. One person is cheating on the person with whom they're cheating on their spouse.
Weekly
A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene.
Members of your book club may be forgiven if they wonder if everyone else is casually walking out of the office in the early afternoon of a workday to experience astounding canoodling with a married person married to someone else.
This is Lapena's ninth thriller, and regular readers will see patterns emerging. How can so many scoundrels end up in one tiny corner of the suburbs and outwardly do so well?
She Didn't See It Coming may feel a tad familiar, but Lapena does this so well.
Just hope she hasn't based this tale on real life, or on anyone you know. Or on you.
Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin lived in River Heights, and has always favoured older neighbourhoods, where debauchery is unknown.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
34 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
British tourist pleads guilty to killing a man while drunk driving an e-scooter in Australia
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An English tourist who hit and killed a man while riding an e-scooter in Australia pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of dangerous driving causing death while under the influence of alcohol. Alicia Kemp, 25, admitted the charge during a hearing at the Western Australia Magistrate's Court, officials told The Associated Press. Kemp was riding an e-scooter with a passenger on board in the city of Perth on May 31 when she hit a 51-year-old man, Australian news outlets reported.
Winnipeg Free Press
34 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
British tourist pleads guilty to killing a man while drunk driving an e-scooter in Australia
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An English tourist who hit and killed a man while riding an e-scooter in Australia pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of dangerous driving causing death while under the influence of alcohol. Alicia Kemp, 25, admitted the charge during a hearing at the Western Australia Magistrate's Court, officials told The Associated Press. Kemp was riding an e-scooter with a passenger on board in the city of Perth on May 31 when she hit a 51-year-old man, Australian news outlets reported. Thanh Phan hit his head on the pavement and later died in a hospital. Kemp and the scooter's passenger received minor injuries. Kemp was visiting Western Australia state from Britain on a working holiday visa, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Investigators estimated she was driving at about the maximum speed of a rental e-scooter, 20 to 25 kph (12 to 16 mph), when she crashed into Phan, the court was told at an earlier hearing. A charge of causing harm to the passenger was dropped when Kemp made the appearance via video link from jail on Monday. She was earlier refused bail. Mike Tudori, Kemp's lawyer, told reporters outside the court that his client was 'nervous and worried' as 'a young foreign national girl' in an Australian jail. 'She's obviously done something stupid at the time,' he said, according to Australian Associated Press. 'She obviously wasn't thinking, level-headed and there's consequences, and she just wants to get on with her life.' Phan's family described him as a 'beloved husband, father of two, brother and dear friend,' according to the AAP. Kemp will remain in custody until her next court appearance on Oct. 31, when a sentencing date will be set. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Officials in Perth suspended e-scooter rental in the city after Phan's death, which was the fifth involving e-vehicles in the state in 2025. The state's government also launched an inquiry into the vehicles. Melbourne, in Victoria state, was in 2024 the first Australian city to ban e-scooter hire. The move echoed prohibitions in some other cities worldwide, including Paris, France, where a ban was overwhelmingly approved in April 2023.
Canada News.Net
16 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
'Better Than Chocolate' highlights lost 90s decade of lesbian Canadian cinema
"If coming out of the closet was really as much fun as it is for the sexually adventurous youths in Better Than Chocolate, then everybody would be doing it, even straight people." So wrote film critic Bruce Kirkland in his 1999 review of the lesbian romantic comedy by Canadian filmmaker Anne Wheeler. Kirkland pointed out that real life for queer and trans community members was "tougher, harsher and nastier" than portrayed in the 90-minute romp, but also wrote: "To hell with reality, at least for an hour-and-a-half. This movie is a little treasure and offers a lot of pleasure." The endearing rom-com won audience choice awards at a number of gay and lesbian film festivals, including in its hometown of Vancouver. Today, more than a quarter century later, with hate crimes against queer and trans people on the rise and legal protections, especially in the United States, being threatened or ripped away, the film's lens on romance - and the joy, safety and complications of being in community - may resonate with contemporary viewers and offer a brief reprieve from the heaviness of the political fight. Like many Canadian lesbian-driven films from the 1990s, it also serves as an example of filmmakers working in queer communities to highlight once-censored voices, and reflects the sheer ingenuity and creative force of community collaboration in this moment - something that has been underrepresented in broader histories of queer and Canadian national cinema. In Better Than Chocolate, bookstore employee Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) and nomadic artist Kim (Christina Cox) start a whirlwind romance, moving in together within a matter of hours (echoing the classic U-Haul lesbian stereotype). Their love story is complicated by the arrival of Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson), a judgmental woman fresh off a divorce who doesn't know her daughter is a lesbian. Comedic chaos ensues as the two young lovebirds navigate romantic, familial and community conflicts, all of which are neatly wrapped up by the end. Though Better Than Chocolate may ultimately be a feel-good comedy, the film captures a community under attack from outside and within. Skinheads harass Maggie and Kim, culminating in violence. Judy (Peter Outerbridge) is accosted for being transgender and is consistently misgendered by other lesbians. The Canadian Border Services Agency purposefully targets neurotic bookstore owner, Frances (played by actor, author, playwright and Canadian lesbian icon Ann-Marie Macdonald), for selling queer literature. Better Than Chocolate is only one in a wave of lesbian-centred 90s films made in Canada. In this decade, creatives produced at least 12 narrative feature-length lesbian-centred films, several documentaries and over 400 short films. Some echo Better Than Chocolate 's romantic tone, but the wave includes a diversity of genres - including erotic thrillers, family dramas and experimental dreamscapes. Some of these films are well-recognized in the Canadian film canon, including Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996) and Patricia Rozema's When Night is Falling (1995), while others have been largely forgotten and prove hard to access today, like Patricia Rivera Spencer's Dreamers of the Day (1990) and Jeanne Crepeau's Revoir Julie (1998). Canadian economic, social and artistic contexts offered a vital creative ecosystem that facilitated such a vibrant era of lesbian-driven cinema. Feminist filmmaking collectives in the 1970s - like Women in Focus (Vancouver), intervisions/ARC (Toronto) and Reel Life (Halifax) - alongside the launch of Studio D at the National Film Board of Canada in 1974 - provided dedicated space for training talent and for producing films about women's issues. Wheeler came up through Studio D, co-directing the studio's first film in 1975. Canadian artists also had access to several funding sources, including federal, provincial and local arts councils. Beginning in the late 80s, such funding sources were soliciting more diverse content, a result of community activism driven by marginalized artists. Importantly, a growing network of queer film festivals aided the development of an invested audience willing to pay to watch queer stories. From 1985 to 2000, at least 11 annual queer festivals were founded in Canada, including Reel Pride (Winnipeg, 1985); Out on Screen (Vancouver, 1988); image+nation (Montreal, 1989); London Lesbian Film Festival (London, 1991); and Inside Out (Toronto, 1991). With increasing venues to screen queer work and growing audiences came the demand for more films. Alongside the broader Canadian context, local contexts also encouraged more filmmakers to tell lesbian stories. Wheeler had long been committed to making films about lesser-represented Western Canada. While most of her films were set in Alberta, Better Than Chocolate moved her focus to Vancouver and its local queer politics. The dramatic subplot between bookstore owner Frances and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a clear reference to the then-ongoing Supreme Court of Canada case involving Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver. Little Sister's, a queer bookstore, had been targeted for years by the CBSA, which would delay shipments while confiscating and sometimes damaging materials that it considered obscene. The film publicized the homophobia of the CBSA, with Frances comedically demanding to know why books such as Little Red Riding Hood had been confiscated. As we discovered in our archival research, Janine Fuller, the manager of Little Sister's, provided feedback on an early draft of the screenplay. A flyer from the film's production company was also used to raise the visibility of the court case. The film's community ties extended further. As noted in archival documents and the film's press package, Canadian trans activist and performance artist Star Maris inspired the filmmakers when crafting the character of Judy. Her song, "I'm Not a Fucking Drag Queen," was solicited for use within the film. Vancouver's lesbian community was invited to participate as extras in a bar scene, with an advertisement stating, "This is an excellent opportunity to meet new friends, party with old ones, have much fun being in a movie." Finally, as Anne Wheeler told Eye Weekly in 1999: "Right from the development phase on, we had a group of 12 young lesbian women whom we consulted with and they told us very specifically what they did and didn't want to see. ... So we set out very intentionally to break the mould and dispose of the old perceptions about gay women." In returning to Better Than Chocolate and other films, queer audiences may find entertaining gems, but may also be reminded of the power of survival of queer communities. Better Than Chocolate is now available on CTV. Don't stop there! In addition to films named above, check out these other Canadian lesbian-centred 90s feature films. Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks (1996) High Art (1998) 2 Seconds (1998)
