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Winnipeg Free Press

Gone girl

It's just an ordinary day for Bryden, doing more than her share of parenting, taking her three-year-old Clara to daycare while husband Sam goes to the office, she working from home in their upscale condo until it's time to do the daycare pickup while hubby works late — except… 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.