Every writer has a story. Some are deadlier than others.Aspiring author Graye Templeton will do anything to escape the horrific childhood crime that haunts her. After a life lived in shadows, she’s accepted a new job as protégé to Laura West, influential book blogger and wife of an acclaimed novelist. Laura’s connections could make Graye’s publishing dreams a reality. But there’s more to Laura … more to Laura than meets the eye.
Behind the veneer of a charmed life, Laura’s marriage is collapsing. Her once-lauded husband is descending into alcoholism and ruin and bringing Laura nearer to the edge.
As the two women form a bond that seems meant to be, long-buried secrets claw their way into the present, and the line between friendship and obsession begins to blur, forcing each to decide where her loyalties lie. Running from the past is a dangerous game, and the loser could end up dead.
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Favorite Quotes:
She signs the visitor’s log, and the receptionist passes her a neon-green sticker to affix to her shirt. Proof that Graye isn’t some rogue criminal, there to ravish old ladies and steal pieces from the jigsaw puzzles.
She stares at him for a beat, struggling to remind herself of the man she knows he can be—when he isn’t being this one. It’s getting more difficult every day to bring that man to mind.
Whom you choose to be married to is your business, Laura. I decided a long time ago that love must be an evolutionary adaptation… It’s nature’s way of allowing even mediocre men to find a mate… Oh, child. How naive you are… If procreation were reserved only for extraordinary men, the species would have died a slow, sputtering death centuries ago.
A bad marriage is a forge. Once you’re in it, your only choice is to push forward and find your way out of the flames, scars and all, hopefully stronger for it… The alternative is to sit there and be burned to nothing.
She knows dwelling on could-have-been and should-have-been doesn’t change what is, but some days that’s a hard lesson to remember.
My Review:
This was a twisty, maddeningly paced, brilliantly plotted, and ingeniously written tale with a cast of intriguing and largely aberrant characters. While it was soon evident that one of the main characters was mentally disturbed as she noted concern with “losing track of what’s real and what isn’t;” I just hadn’t realized the extent or how far back the decimation went. Ms. Maxwell’s evocative writing was uniquely compelling, devastating, diabolical, and dauntingly engrossing. I was taut with tension and transfixed to my Kindle while nearly insane with impatience and driven to know every deeply buried secret past and present. I am on the hook and her devoted fangirl for life. I covet her advanced level of word sorcery and am greedily plotting to read her every word.
Tangled. Creepy. Devastating. Heartbreaking. Complicated.
Like all of Eliza Maxwell’s characters, The Shadow Writer’s doomed cast are complicated, flawed, and real with pasts and presents that fight each other for survival. There are a lot of secrets, relationships, and characters in this well-told story. And yet, Eliza Maxwell made it easy for me to keep up with all of it due to her talent of laying out a filler-free tale. She says exactly what needs to be said, no more, no less. And she puzzled this story together like a master, leaving me gratified at how all the incongruent pieces she snapped together made the unexpected picture complete.
She also has a deft ability to not only set the tone for each scene but to skillfully build an incremental sense of dread and menace in the reader. She drops me in her stories right next to each character–whether I want to be there or not. Her stories often take me down a troubled, dark path I never would have guessed I’d be traveling. And the gawker in me has no choice but to follow.
Very well done. As always, I am looking forward to what you write next.
Graye Templeton is a character, like many in everyday life, that you have to feel sympathy for even as you are exasperated by their helpless immersion in their problems. The wrong turns in their world are not motivated by hate or greed or self-defense – Graye reacts only with love and caring and a wonky fault line between right and wrong. You want to help her, to come to her defense but she is her own worst enemy and your fault line is hard-set, black and white.
As is the conscious of our primary protagonist, Laura West. Laura is a sought after speaker and workshop leader, a book reviewer and blogger who has promoted and supported many authors, including her own one-hit wonder hard-drinking husband Dr. David West. David’s temporary fill-in job as a guest professor at the same college where Graye is finishing up her own grad school requirements will also end with the semester. Graye’s mid-term employment as Dr. West’s TA will also stop at terms end, but she is honored to work for him. She loved his novel, Broken Home Harvest. It was gifted to her when she was much younger by Sister Margaret, a nun at the orphanage where she was raised, and Graye felt it spoke to her. But the David West who wrote that book is no longer in the house. His wife Laura, however, is a woman of class and kindness. She quickly becomes a good friend to Graye. It is a shame that Laura will be leaving almost immediately for Port Mary, a small coastal island in the Texas Gulf.
At the end of term, fate brings Graye to that self-same island, seeking a recommendation from David before her job interview with a Houston literary critic. Instead, she is hired by Laura as her personal assistant which is for Graye a job made in heaven.
Or so she thought… But before long, the bodies begin to fall. And Graye is the prime suspect. Her history may catch up with her.
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Eliza Maxwell, and Lake Union Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.
I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review.
Eliza Maxwell’s previous novel, THE WIDOW’S WATCHER, was one of my favorite reads last year, so when I saw her newest book was a thriller involving a book blogger, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on its pages!
As a huge fan of the thriller genre, I have read many titles, and I must say that this one stands up there with many of the more widely known! Featuring unlikeable and unreliable characters with ambiguous agendas and a twisting and completely unpredictable plot, this book needs to find a larger audience in order to spread the word on how amazing Eliza Maxwell’s storytelling truly is! There were moments that I had to stop and reread chapters out loud to fully appreciate how beautiful and multilayered her use of language is, allowing her writing to simply flow right off the page.
“Question everything. [T]hings aren’t always what they seem. Trust no one.”
Though filled with subjects and themes regarding murder, manipulation, obsession, and lies, the content is never graphic or gratuitous, but rather the covert nature of the characters’ actions keeps the tension and suspense mounting until the absolute end. Despite being privy to multiple perspectives and personalities, all of which add their own complexities, including a story within the story, you never really have complete access to anyone’s motives or motivations. This all adds to the mounting sense that there is something quite dramatic and unnerving bubbling just under the surface, and it’s definitely going to be explosive when it finally breaks free if in fact it should have been revealed at all. Readers will have to determine that for themselves after reaching the story’s unexpected conclusion.
The best way to enjoy a thriller is by going into it with very little information or understanding. Let this story envelope you like a cozy blanket that suddenly wraps too tightly, yet releases in a dizzying and pulse-pounding fashion only to slowly welcome you into its loving embrace over and over again. What a reading experience this was and one that I look forward to returning to just to make completely sure I didn’t miss a thing!
“A person writes a book out of ego, reads a book out of hope, and recommends a book out of love.”
Intensely woven and compulsively riveting, this mind-blowing journey is a masterful train wreck of assumptions that I can’t recommend enough! A literary gift from an author that I highly anticipate each year!
Author Eliza Maxwell spun such an ingeniously complex web of mystery in The Shadow Writer that it took the last third of the book to unravel it in the climax!
This story takes the phrase “nothing is at it seems” to an entirely new level. Practically every character has a unique backstory and a closet full of secrets. Some secrets are revealed as we go along, but the most secretive secrets are saved (or should I say savored?) for later in the story.
Much like the other Eliza Maxwell novels I’ve read, this is a dark story. The further we get into the meat of the story, the darker it becomes. And just when you think things could not possibly get any darker – they do!
THE CHARACTERS OF THE SHADOW WRITER
Graye Templeton and Laura West are the two protagonists. Graye is an aspiring novelist with a dark and secretive past. Laura is a very successful book blogger. The only thing they seem to have in common is Laura’s husband – a successful novelist, who is also Graye’s idol and mentor.
Each woman has her own supply of ambitions and problems. However, when Graye accepts a position as Laura’s assistant, a string of events is put in motion that could not possibly be predicted (or stopped), culminating in murder.
Eliza Maxwell gives us some very brief looks into Graye’s earlier life, but that did not prepare me for what comes later. (That’s a good thing.)
AUDIO AND TECHNICAL ASPECTS
I’ve heard that you should never go to Alaska on your first cruise because it’s one of the better cruises. That’s how I feel about this audiobook. This was my first audiobook, but I have a hard time imagining anyone doing it better than narrator Karissa Vacker did in this story.
The audio was amazing!
Technically, the audio was well-balanced. It was free of any background noise. Further, the narrator’s enunciation was perfect. And then there were the voices! Oh – the voices!
Not only did Vacker change the pitch to differentiate characters, she also gave each character a unique voice. I very much enjoyed that!
The pacing of this novel is noteworthy. I think it takes a real talent to draw out a climax as long as Maxwell did here. But it doesn’t get boring! Just when things seem to die down, there’s another reveal to keep the reader FULLY engaged.
This is one of those stories where I didn’t see what was coming. I wasn’t even looking in the right direction! But once I finished and looked back, I saw the events of the story in an entirely new and original light.
I enjoyed this story very much!
This book will take you on a ride much like a roller coaster. It is filled with heart-pounding action and just when you think everything will be ok, along comes another turn that throws you for a loop.
I have only read a few of Eliza Maxwell’s books, but each one has left me wondering how in the world she (or any other author) can derive such diabolical scenarios. And very few characters are who they purport themselves to be in this book. Graye is the biggest mystery and the things we learn about her childhood says so much about her personality and thought process. Surprised is such an understatement for what I felt as her background was revealed to us over the course of the book. I think I can safely say that Graye is a master manipulator and she has had decades of training from life. Since I am trying to keep this spoiler-free, let’s just say that her childhood was more than I expected and as more stories were revealed it explained so much about her personality and actions.
Laura is the other main character and I have to admit I thought one thing about her and then was gobsmacked to realize perhaps she too wasn’t all that she portrayed herself to be in this book. Was her relationship with her husband on the rocks or would they pull through? How much pull did she really have as a blogger or was it her ties to the publishing industry through her family?
This book mixes a fairy tale with the actual events, but is it actually a fairy tale? Is it a peek into Graye’s past? The author did a marvelous job mixing in “fantasy” with reality. Or is it all reality and we just don’t know it yet?
There is quite a cast of characters that feed into the story and each adds their own twist to the story. Some characters held surprises for us and others just supported what we might have already known. There are a few parts that had me chuckling in regards to a love/hate relationship with another character that also happened to be an author. Apparently, she is not held in high regard by many that know her.
There is one section of the book that tickled my funny bone and that is the murder mystery dinner held at the hotel as part of Laura’s event. Some of the comments by those that were “murdered” cracked me up and they were quite dramatic in their “deaths”.
We have to give this book 5 paws up, it is just too good at keeping me in the dark and not guessing what might be revealed at the next turn.
I want to make sure this review is as spoiler-free as possible. This is all you’ll read about the plot from me: I DID NOT see those turns coming! The plot is twisty and well laid out. If there were clues in the narrative, I sure didn’t pick up on them. Great job there, Ms. Maxwell!
Instead of ruining the plot for you, let’s focus on characters and writing style.
I’ll admit that when I started listening to this book, I wasn’t sure if I could trust any of the characters. And by the end, I’m still not sure. Unreliable is a great adjective for the characters in The Shadow Writer. I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with any of them. (Though, that murder mystery themed blogger weekend sounded fun!) The characters are very multi-faceted, especially so Graye. I may not have empathized with her, but I certainly sympathized for her situation by the end of the novel. Laura keeps too many secrets for my tastes. But I always support an avid reader and book blogger. I adore these quotes from Laura:
“Don’t tell anyone, but it’s really not. I love reading days. I live for them.” [Regarding of working on Laura’s day off.]
“As my father likes to say, a person writes a book out of ego, reads a book out of hope, and recommends a book to another out of love.” [Referencing book bloggers as ‘tireless champions’.]
The Shadow Writer is multi-layered, well balanced, fast paced, and told from multiple points of view. The story works well with the multiple points of view. We discover small truths (or are they lies!?!) and histories of each character through their narratives. I enjoyed how the secondary story that Graye is writing is woven into the main story line. I did occassionally struggle while listening to the audio with the changes in timeline between past and present. I do wonder if that’s more a result of my thoughts wondering while listening, though, rather than the story itself.
The narration of The Shadow Writer is respectable. Ms. Vacker does a great job with inflection and intention of the characters, especially with the creepier passages. The narration really opens up the characters in the book for me. The voices of the female characters are easy to distinguish. I was really impressed with the voices of Alex and Laura. The conversations between these two women really showcases Ms. Vacker’s talents. However, I found myself challenged in separating the voices of the male characters. True, there are not many male characters, but I did sometimes struggle with remembering which one was speaking, especially in crowd scenes.
In general, I enjoyed The Shadow Writer. The equal parts mystery and thriller kept my attention. This is the first book by Ms. Maxwell that I’ve read. Based on what I’ve read on other tour reviews, it looks like such a serpentine writing style is a trademark of the author. I’ll certainly be checking out more of her books in the future.
Most books typically end with everything neatly wrapped up, all questions answered. However, sometimes the mystery tapers off, with the sad reality that lives are ruined or lost, memories are dealt with through storytelling, and some answers open up doors that are better left closed.
The Shadow Writer is a complex labyrinth of lies, manipulation, and characters that may or may not be guilty of heinous crimes or be victims of horrific family dynamics. Who’s really to blame once the dust settles and the blood stops flowing?
The murder mystery party at one point in The Shadow Writer reinforces the notion that no one is to be trusted when the crime game is afoot.Everyone has an agenda, a motive, an alibi. Pinpointing the protagonist in this story is not easy, probably by design. Actually, each person’s role shifts around a bit, depending on the point of view, making it difficult to determine who to trust, who to believe, who to like, and who to despise. The protagonist in any story is meant to be flawed, but can those flaws balloon out of control and cross over into the unforgivable? Does that mean that person has really been the antagonist all along? The Shadow Writer overflows with questions and clues, yet watching the mystery unfold is exhilarating, with the suspense swirling around you and buffeting you toward that next chapter.
It takes immense talent to weave such a complex tale that won’t completely befuddle the reader because of the mosaic of characters interconnected by chance or by force and the plot filled with twists and turns and surprises around every corner. Eliza Maxwell definitely has that talent because The Shadow Writer mystifies, intrigues, tantalizes, and entertains, expertly providing the reader with plenty of reasons to keep turning those pages. Who is Graye Templeton? Does she even know? Is her identity blurred beyond redemption, or is it crystal clear and neatly compartmentalized? Who is actually authorized to tell, and even finish, her story? Graye is a puzzle for the reader but even more so for herself.
Whether you figure things out early or you constantly wonder what’s coming next, The Shadow Writer is more than riveting because the narration shifts around; the snippets of the fairy tale drop clues like breadcrumbs; and the main characters are often baffled, angry, and determined to trick the reader at every turn with their constantly changing temperaments. Who’s the bad one here, and who’s the victim? Sometimes they are everyone.
If you like a good mystery that doesn’t reveal its hand too soon, The Shadow Writer is for you. Prepare to read it quickly, but try to savor it. Allow yourself the pleasure of appreciating unique characterization, a well-crafted plot, and obscure circles of mystery that do eventually open up and reveal their justification, all in good time.
Audio book review. When I read the book jacket of THE SHADOW WRITER, I let out an audible “oooooh” and knew what I was getting into – a story that would be intriguing, multi-layered, and dark, as I’ve come to expect from Eliza Maxwell. I am happy to say that I am right about my initial appraisal (who doesn’t love being right?). However, a confession is in order: that is about the only thing I got right in reading this book.
“He smells of salt and booze, sweat and inadequacy.”
Talk about your complicated, convoluted, complex characters. Readers are led to make logical assessments of every character based on the parts we see. It’s like looking through a small hole in a fence; we’re given only a limited view of the personalities. There are some shadows looming just outside of our line of sight, and they make us nervous, and by the author’s design, we aren’t allowed to see the whole picture. We make assumptions, (many of mine wrong), and we learn that obsession has many disturbing iterations.
Author Eliza Maxwell is a master at leading readers astray, and I am a sucker for it every single time. The author wants readers to be as uncomfortable as her characters seem to be and wants us to be wary. Don’t get too close; don’t trust; don’t dare to hope for happy endings. Don’t even get comfortable with the alternating points of view from which THE SHADOW WRITER is told; we have unreliable narrators and then a couple of highly informative and disconcerting bonus POVs scattered among the chapters to keep readers off balance.
“Question everything … But remember—things aren’t
always what they seem. Trust no one.”
I had to include this quote because it’s from a scene with a murder mystery dinner. The double entendre isn’t lost, and the irony of the sub-setting of the murder mystery within the bigger story is almost stressful for the reader. There are twists and turns and stories inside of stories, and I found myself exhausted by furiously trying to figure out what was coming. I failed and failed and failed and finally, I gave up and just allowed the deliciously disturbing stories in THE SHADOW WRITER to unfold. Save yourself the trouble and let the plots wash over you.
In a cast full of unreliable and unbalanced characters, no reader wants to make a connection. We prefer to sit comfortably at a distance from those people. Those not like us people. But Eliza Maxwell’s story reads like messed-up truth we’d see in the headlines, and she makes it feel real by including lines that, even in the midst of insanity, allow readers to make connections. A few of my favorites:
“I’d never forgive myself for leaving you under-caffeinated.”
“Bad coffee she can live with, but bad cold coffee is one insult too many.”
“It’s my absolute pleasure to have the honor of working around books,
and by extension their authors. It turns out you’re as lovely
as the words you write and the stories you create.”
“That’s why God created make-up: to cover fine lines,
dark circles, and regrettable choices.”
“The more a person talks, the less they have to say.”
In reading THE SHADOW WRITER, the only predictable aspect is that it’s unpredictable – that’s how author Eliza Maxwell rolls, and I will go along for the ride any time.
ABOUT THE NARRATION: I cannot sing high enough praises for the masterful performance of narrator Karissa Vacker. AMAZING narration, pacing on point, and Vacker nails the nuances of each character’s personality – especially that little hint of a mind that’s tinged with something off. Male or female, balanced or unbalanced, creeper or innocent, Vacker does them all with panache. I listened on CDs, which isn’t my favorite format, but as a glass half full kind of person, it forced me to pause in the story and process what I’d just heard. A warning that on the final CD, when the story ends, it shows three tracks and some twenty-two minutes are still left (there’s not). That threw me for a loop (I WASN’T READY FOR IT TO END) and made me panic that I was missing something.
Thank you to the author and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me Audio CDs in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. This full review and more special features on Hall Ways Blog.
I’ve read every book written by Eliza Maxwell, even though she writes the type of stories that I usually don’t read that often. However, I have become a fan of her writing and her great story-telling abilities. She really knows how to grab and put me on the edge of my seat. Her stories are suspenseful, mysterious and dark. They are unpredictable and you’ll always get hit by a twist that you don’t see coming. So when I started reading The Shadow Writer, I was expecting to feel the same way I did with Eliza’s previous books. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The book started really interesting and I couldn’t wait to figure out what was going on. Graye Templeton came across as very timid and awkward, but I like that in my characters. Laura was the opposite, and I liked that she warmed up to Graye right away.
However, I didn’t really feel a connection with either characters. The story didn’t feel complete, and it kind of jumped from scene to scene without it feeling finished. What I mean by this is that it felt like we only got to see part of the story. I just needed more to connect to the characters and to feel a certain way about them. My disconnect to them, resulted in not really caring what would happen to them. But I was still interested in seeing how the story would develop. It was mysterious and I wanted to figure out what was going to happen. However, when the secrets were uncovered it didn’t hit me as hard as I would’ve wanted to. I really enjoyed the plot but I just didn’t feel like it was executed to its full potential. Regardless of not loving this book, I still look forward to Eliza’s next book.
I liked Graye Templeton. I really did. Eliza Maxwell knows how to draw a reader in and let a story come apart like a cheap sweater. And I mean that in the best way possible. In The Shadow Writer we encounter Graye Templeton, survivor of horrific childhood trauma, as she attempts to put distance between herself and those events in her adult life. Unfortunately, noone comes out of that kind of tragedy without damage. The extent of that damage, and how it manifests, is the axis on which this story turns.
Graye is a sympathetic character. Her welcome into the lives of Laura and David West seems like a godsend. Then there is a murder and, for lack of better words, all hell breaks loose. I suggest you open a bottle of something strong as you read. You will need fortification to bear the secrets revealed in the pages of The Shadow Writer. Or maybe not. A clear head makes the impact of Graye’s story unflinchingly real and makes whatever trauma we think we experienced in childhood pale in comparison.
Those who are familiar with crimes and why they are committed may figure out some of Graye’s story, but this does not detract from the enjoyment of her tale and how it unfolds. However, if descriptions of child abuse and mistreatment of women upsets you this may not be the right book for you. There is nothing gory or gratuitous but the psychological impact is real. Please do not read and then criticize the author for the reality of these events.
In this finely crafted novel of psychological suspense Eliza Maxwell gives us a subtly drawn character who will affect you on many levels. She is unstable, unreliable at times, and no wonder. But Graye Templeton represents what happens when a child falls through the cracks in our society and she will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
For some crazy reason when I first started this book I was not expecting much. Even though I have loved this author’s work before I didn’t hold a lot of hope for this book. I have no idea why because it’s now in my top ten favorite books. From the beginning to the end this book held my attention. Made me want more. Made me want to know what was coming. What happens next. Who exactly is Graye/Grace. Why is she the way she is. Then wham, I got almost to the end and it all came together like you won’t believe. All the answers to who did what and why. What happened to little Grace that made her so afraid and timid all the time. What exactly in her life made her who and what she was.
This book is truly a very good thriller. It held me on the edge in so many places. Made me cry in so many places. I really truly liked Graye/Grace. I think she was a victim of circumstances starting at a young age. The abuse, neglect, hatred all made her become the woman she was.
The characters are so well developed and likable with the exception of a couple. I did not like David West at all. I loved his wife Laura. I liked Sister Margaret but she also made me a bit mad in a couple of places. She had her reasons for what she did though.
This book is like a book within a book. It is a story about a child who is a grown woman and it’s about a grown woman who was once a child. A child who needed to be held and loved. She wanted a friend. A true friend who would not leave her.
This book will definitely give you lots of emotions. It will make you wonder about what you are reading and keep you wanting more. Eliza Maxwell has written a beautiful story that will haunt you for a time to come. Make you feel for a child lost.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #Lake Union Publishers for this ARC. It’s my review in my words and my thoughts.
It’s a 5 star book by far. I loved it and HIGLY recommend it.
An intriguing premise with characters and a plot that centered around obsession. There were long, dry spells in between intriguing, heart-pounding scenes, so it was a bit of a mixed bag. The characters were well done with some surprising plot twists near the end.