The Quiet Tenant
Clemence Michallon
Knopf, 2023, $28
This riveting and bracing psychological suspense novel is told from the perspectives of several women who are bound, by either circumstance or chance, to Aidan Thomas. Aidan is a young, handsome, well-respected family man in their small, rural community who’s also a predator leading a terrifying secret life committing unforgivable crimes sexually assaulting and murdering women. It’s a story taken straight out of the headlines of our modern lives: women missing, held captive, murdered, tortured, gone forever. Or, if found again, reclusive in their new lives as survivors, damaged in ways it is impossible to understand. Stories like this have become so common an occurrence today that we risk becoming immune to the impact of the deep and lingering tragedy of these brutal, life-altering events for the victims and their loved ones.
The Quiet Tenant, with its expansive plot, is much more than a crime story: it is a story of female strength, survival, and being human. Michallon’s vivid, powerful prose and the use of only the female voices, shares what it means to exist, love, and form relationships as a woman living in such disturbing, harrowing times. The perpetrator of these insidious crimes, Aidan, is given no voice to boast of his work as a serial killer, although his mere presence, sinister stalking, and the implied cruelty he inflicts on his victims is terror-inducing.
Unfolding in excellently structured, alternating chapters from the perspectives of his “tenant” and current victim, Rachel, his 13-year-old daughter, Cecilia, and new love interest, Emily, and intertwined with vignettes from the last moments of his nine nameless victims, suspense and psychological tension builds at a heart-pounding pace that will keep you up at night.
We meet Rachel in the opening chapter, “The woman in the shed,” a place where she has been held captive for five years and where she has convinced herself that “every woman has one.” A man who arrives at night, unlocks the door, tends to her most basic physical needs of food, water, grooming, and then rapes her. It is easier for her to survive thinking that; believing that no one is free. And, although her name is not Rachel, that is the name he gave her when he began to teach her the new rules of the world. “Your name is Rachel, he said, and no one knows who you are.” She became Rachel in order to save herself.
Aidan, the man who happens to be hers (he is nameless to her) is forced to find a new home for he and his daughter, Cecilia, to live when his wife dies. When he tells Rachel that her time in the shed is about to end, she convinces him to take her with him: knowing that if he does not, she will die. Having learned the rules for staying alive in the shed, she uses rule number two, “he is always right and I am always sorry,” to convince him that he needs her. He has no choice but to bring her along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay.
Aidan is confident that Rachel is too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. When Rachel, now chained in an upstairs bedroom, becomes “the woman in the house,” and is introduced to Cecilia, she realizes that Cecilia, who is experiencing her own teenage angst and grief, might be the lifeline she has been waiting for. As Aidan strategically integrates Rachel into their lives, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia.
Meanwhile Aidan’s new love interest, Emily, a young waitress at the local cafe, is succumbing to his charms and her budding curiosity about him draws her into Rachel and Cecilia’s world and closer to Aidan’s secrets. Throughout, insights are given into the lives of these women—which is where the power of this book lies. Rachel shares moments of her life as a young woman studying, writing, having a new boyfriend and dealing with family issues. She tells of a terrifying night out when she was roofied. “The glass didn’t have a lid. You were dancing.” An incident that ultimately, several months later, led her to the place where she was easily abducted. Emily shares the timeline of her relationship with Aidan, recalling Aidan helping her family when she was a child. Seemingly unconnected stories that showcase their vulnerability at the hands of a serial killer. Powerful, scary, and thought-provoking, I hope there is a sequel.
—Jane Kinney Denning
V is for Victory: Franklin Roosevelt’s American Revolution and the Triumph of World War II
Craig Nelson
Simon and Schuster, 2023, $32
At a time when the United States military was trained in bombing with bags of flour and equipped with no more than 300 planes to defend the entire country, President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw something that few others did: a path to victory by putting the US’s blue-collar workers back to work making arms. Nelson’s meticulously researched book dives into a frequently overlooked corner of World War II history in which global triumph began on US soil. It’s a familiar account enriched with fascinating details of how one president helped to end the Great Depression, subjugate fascism throughout the world, and create an economic and military superpower.
Lucky Red
Claudia Cravens
Penguin Random House, 2023, $27
In 1877, 16-year-old Bridget takes a job at a woman-run brothel in Dodge City and is heartened by the security and friendship that she finds there. Her comfort and community are soon threatened when a number of dangerous individuals arrive in town, one of whom is a famous female gunfighter who Bridget develops a deep passion for. Bard graduate Cravens strikes the Western genre with something entirely new, a gripping story of queerness, feminism, thrilling adventure, and the intensity of human connection.
Knowing What We Know
Simon Winchester
Harpercollins Publishers, 2023, $35
Math, map reading, and memorization—does anyone need these skills anymore? Is the treasure trove of facts at our fingertips depriving us of the ability to think critically and retain information? In the past few decades, humanity has gradually uploaded the information that once lived in our minds onto the internet, and the value of knowledge has begun to diminish. Winchester has published over a dozen books, including The Professor and the Madman, and spent a lifetime cultivating and sharing his own knowledge. The 78-year-old resident of Westchester, Connecticut, considers how humans discover, retain, and pass on information from one generation to the next.
How to Lose a Friend and Influence No One
Mary Giuliani
Golden Notebook Press, 2023, $20
When the whole world shut down in March of 2020, celebrity party planner Mary Giuliani found herself caught in a moment when there were no parties to be had. Born of the pandemic, part-time Woodstock resident Giuliani began to grapple with her constant existential internal dialog. With her personal wit and humor apparent from the very first line, this collection of essays offers Giuliani’s contemplations of the big questions like “What is it all about?” interwoven with anecdotes of the business she’s created, the relationships she’s cultivated, and the celebrities she’s mingled with.
3003 Days of Mike & Me / And the War Between Us
Martha Donegan
Independently Published, 2023, $21.99
When Martha Donegan reconnected with an old classmate at the Vietnam Veteran Memorial dedication in 1982, it wasn’t long before she was wrapped in a 3,003-day love story formed within the shadow of the war. Donegan’s memoir documents the wonders and tragedies of her relationship with Vietnam veteran Michael Creamer, living together in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut, as well as the long distance they endured during his three-year reenlistment in the army. Donegan’s writing, accompanied by letters from Creamer, create a painfully accurate tale of the direct and enduring impact of the Vietnam War on its veterans and their loved ones. Donegan will read and sign at the Wish House in West Cornwall on July 29, from 2 to 3:30pm.
—Lily Anninger
This article appears in July 2023.
