Book Review: Locust Lane by Stephen Amidon
By Doreen Sheridan
February 14, 2023
Patrick Noone is drunk, an unfortunately not unusual state for him. As he’s driving around one night, trying to outpace his demons, he accidentally hits a dog wandering in the streets of his well-off town of Emerson, Massachusetts. He stops the car and gets out, even as he knows that this is probably a bad, or at least a self-defeating, move:
Go home, he thought. Finish the bottle, hit the sack. You know the drill. Dawn will come, followed by another barren day.
But he couldn’t do it. He’d injured a living thing. That made him responsible for it. He had to help. He didn’t need another item in the overladen shopping cart of guilt he was pushing around. He’d made a deal with himself not to abandon decency. He could leave behind everything else, but not that.
While attempting to tend to the dog, he spots a figure in the darkness. When the not-too-badly injured animal turns on him, Patrick flees, but can’t get the encounter out of his head.
The next morning, he wakes up and discovers that a young woman was murdered in the house right near where he hit the dog. Was what he saw last night relevant to the case? More importantly, will the cops believe him, given the shakiness of his story and, more damningly, his already poor relationship with the local police?
The murder victim is Eden Perry, the home companion and dog walker for the wealthy Bondurants. Bill and Betsy Bondurant are getting on in years, and after hearing of the friction between twenty-year-old Eden and her mother Danielle, offered their young relative a safe haven far away from the rough company she ran with in neighboring Watertown. Mother and daughter were both relieved by the offer, and Eden seemed to be thriving under their care. But now she’s dead, and Danielle is bereft.
Massachusetts State Police Detective Dorothy Gates tries to assure Danielle that she and the Emerson police are pursuing all avenues of investigation. But Danielle knows that getting to the truth about what happened to her daughter is really still up to her:
Danielle nodded. She’d go. She’d trust the smart woman with the gentle manner and the Glock on her hip. She had no choice. But Gates was wrong about one thing. They weren’t the ones looking after Eden. Danielle was. It had always been her, and only her. Just because the silly girl had gone and got herself killed didn’t change that. Not for one minute.
As Danielle and Patrick’s paths collide and merge, they begin to uncover the terrible secrets festering in the heart of the seemingly serene town. Eden hadn’t been able to completely outrun her taste for fast company, falling in with a group of local teenagers with complicated personal issues of their own. When it becomes apparent that at least one of those teens was responsible for her death, Danielle and Patrick will risk their very lives in order to make sure that the truth finally comes to light.
Interspersed with Danielle and Patrick’s points of view are the narratives of three parents who find themselves entangled in the case due to the involvement of their own children. Celia is the extremely proper matriarch of an old money family. Alice is her wild child best friend. Michel is the immigrant chef behind Emerson’s hottest restaurant. Their stories blend together in the Rashomon-style of storytelling that has understandably gained significant appeal in the domestic thriller field of recent years.
There are many twists as the story progresses, with characters coming together and falling apart. I was really rooting for Danielle and Patrick, two damaged souls finding a safe haven in one another, throughout. That said, there were plot developments I found difficult to believe, particularly in relation to the fatalism of the fall guy. I also found the constant references to a “good” sort of Arab off-putting. But as a bald faced examination of affluenza and the privileges wealth affords, Locust Lane is a highly realistic read, with an ending that will have readers ruefully wishing that we all lived in a better world.
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Didn’t know whether to love or despise the women in Locust Lane.And poor Patrick,he deserved better!
Very much agreed about Patrick! I was actually pretty frustrated with this story, but such is life!
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