IF I DIE TONIGHT

For this tightly plotted drama of rumors and small-town gossip that can kill, Cassandra Campbell's beautiful cello voice is the perfect instrument. Jackie Reed is the divorced mother of one very squirrelly teenage boy named Wade, whose inner life has become opaque to her, and to Wade's likable little brother, Connor. When a popular classmate is killed during a bizarre carjacking, the social media gossip mill blames Wade, who makes it easy for them. Belief in Gaylin's complicated female characters--Jackie; Pearl, the police investigator; carjack victim Aimee En, a self-aggrandizing has-been rock starlet, among others--is crucial to the success of this high-tension plot. Campbell nails all of them, and the listener to the edge of her seat. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2018]