Book Review: What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

What Have We Done is a question with an answer that is known by at least three people, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico, forever bound together because of shared adolescent trauma. Twenty five years ago, they lived at Savior House in rural Chestertown, Pennsylvania. Albeit a comforting name but Savior House, “a group home for parentless teens,” was a hell-hole. 

Twenty-five years ago

 

At the top of a knoll through a break in the trees, five teenagers stand at the edge of a shallow grave. A light rain falls, thunder rumbles in the night sky. 

 

One of the boys raises the gun. It was his idea, after all; he should go first. He aims into the hole, but the gun wobbles in the half-light.

 

“Do it,” another boy says.

 

But the kid with the gun stands there, arm extended, the rain beading his face, matting his hair. 

 

At last, the only girl in the group reaches for the weapon—the .22 they bought for twenty-two bucks. She swallows, looks at the rest of them. “We agreed,” she says. “We all have to.” Her eyes return to the pit, and the gun clenched in her hand makes a noise like a firecracker, a faint pop.

They fall in line, shooting into the pit, and passing the gun along to the next person. The last person to shoot, “the only gentle soul at Savior House group home,” has “tears streaming pale vertical lines down his dirty face.” After he takes his shot, they all drop to their knees and manually push the sodden dirt into the pit.

In the dark, the gentle boy utters the words none of them will ever forget: “What have we done?”

Alex Finlay skillfully circles around that question, parsimoniously sharing clues. Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were not traumatized just because they were orphans, they were also abused, exploited, and neglected at the group home. They banded together for comfort, friendship, and, to the best of their abilities, mutual protection. Following the disappearance of several residents (mostly young teenage girls) the house was shuttered for good and the three went their separate ways. That was then. Now, decades later, these once abused teenagers are targeted for murder. 

Jenna is asked forced to perform an assassination in broad daylight in downtown Washington D.C. It’s clear that this is not her first rodeo but she’s retired from the game. She’s married to Simon, a widower with two daughters, five-year-old Lulu and seventeen-year-old Willow. Jenna’s biggest problem is the tension between her and her teenage step-daughter. After the shooting, Jenna races home and pulls the defcon trigger, saying the words “Alas Babylon.” Per their disaster plan, Simon races off to grab Lulu and Jenna rushes to the Sidwell Friends School to pick up Willow. While Willow and Jenna make their way to Jenna’s hidden cabin hideaway, someone tries to kill Jenna. Drawing upon her deep knowledge of deflection and obfuscation, Jenna gets away safely, unites Willow with her dad and sister, and takes off. Her family is safe but it’s a temporary solution: Jenna must find out who is targeting her and why.

Donnie, aka Donnie Danger, is a musician with the band Tracer’s Bullet. He’s the band’s founder but inexorably Tom Kipling, another player, has taken over the band’s leadership and, through some nasty sleight of hand, ownership of the band’s music. It hasn’t helped that over the years Donnie has sunk deeper and deeper into a morass of drugs and alcohol. The band is playing on a Legends of Rock Cruise.  When Donnie shows up late to their performance, Tom fires him. Resigned and despondent, Donnie goes out on deck to look out over the ocean. A young woman comes on to him, flashing her ample cleavage, before suddenly pulling a gun on him. Jump, she tells him. “Five…four…” Certain death but what choice does Donnie have?

Nico stars in a popular television show featuring coal miners. It’s a surprise hit but Nico, who has a desperate gambling problem, is regarded as a liability by the show’s producers. He’s not exactly sure how he ended up in the belly of the beast but somehow he comes to consciousness deep in the bowels of the coal mine. He knows he’s going to die but where there’s life there’s hope. 

He’s never been so happy to see rats. Scurrying, dirty, disgusting varmints that will unquestionably tear his flesh down to the bone if he dies. But for now, they’re a welcome sight: They’re alive. There’s still oxygen.

The circumstances are mysterious, but it’s no coincidence that Jenna, Donnie, and Nico have been targeted to die. Fortunately, their assassins can’t close the deal: all three survive and eventually find their way to each other. They know the attempts to kill them will continue and they’re desperate to figure out why it’s happening. Does it have anything to do with the murder of their Savior House friend Benny? He was the best of them—kind, a seeker of justice, and intelligent beyond his years. A graduate of Harvard law, at the time of his death, Judge Ben Wood was a leading candidate to be an appellate court judge. Is his death the catalyst that triggered the killing attempts? Who was the fifth teenager at the pit those many years ago? To answer those questions would unfairly unravel a complicated, surprising plot. 

“What Have We Done is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and a gut-wrenching coming-of-age story.” Beginning with his nail-biting debut Every Last Fear, Alex Finlay continues to enthrall readers. He’s an author to be reckoned with; it’s impossible to stop reading his latest thriller.