Vanessa Lillie’s debut novel, “Little Voices,” published last year, was a very tough act to follow. As I wrote in my review, the Providence resident “has arrived on the American literary scene with a flash of brilliance. Aficionados of mystery, thriller and horror will savor this intricately plotted page-turner that builds to a stunning denouement.”
Lillie was already at work on her next.
And with it, she easily escapes the dreaded sophomore slump.
While “For the Best” lacks the stunning ending that I (and many readers, based on the 2,000-plus Amazon reviews) never saw coming, her new title is in other respects the equal of her debut — and, in some critical respects, superior. More on that in a moment.
The setup is skilled, if basic, thriller/whodunit: a prominent man is found murdered under mysterious circumstances, and several suspects quickly surface. Suspect Number One is the narrator: Jules Worthington-Smith, another prominent Rhode Islander and leading figure in Providence, where much of the novel, like “Little Voices,” is set.
Worthington-Smith was blind-drunk the night of the murder and cannot explain, let alone remember, why evidence found at the scene belongs to her. Nor why she was at a seedy bar at a late hour being amorous with a man who was not her husband. The woman is clearly an alcoholic — a high-functioning one — who cannot seem to get through any stressful hour, never mind a day, without drowning in booze. Lillie captures the voice and actions of an alcoholic with disturbing precision.
Worthington-Smith’s father — with whom she and her mother, the man’s wife, have a bizarre and tormented but believable relationship — harbors a horrible secret. So does Jules. The revelations as the narrative plays out are deftly rendered and help build toward a plausible ending — one that I, at least, was certain was on the horizon. But that was no disappointment for me, as this page-turner powered me on to the final word.
Lillie has matured as a novelist since her debut, and “For the Best’ rises beyond genre to include explorations of social justice, racism, trauma and addiction — explorations that are not digressions from the tale but woven wonderfully into it. As a journalist who has written about such issues for decades, I can speak to Lillie’s authenticity.
Like her debut, “For the Best” mines deeply the Rhode Island landscape with the same so-true accents, personalities and situations. In her second novel, Lillie intersperses text with video transcripts — or, more accurately, mini screenplays. This seems to be a new trend in fiction, along with the inclusion of text messages (think: horror writer Paul Tremblay, a recent guest on “Story in the Public Square”). And I am starting to like it!
If you didn’t read “Little Voices” but recognize the author’s name, that’s because since March she has been writing “Home But Not Alone: A Coronavirus Diary” for The Journal. Some of the social-justice themes in “For the Best” have found their way into those pages, too.
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