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UNRELIABLE
by Lee Irby
Doubleday, April 2017
336 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 0385542054


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The recent trend in psychological thrillers is to have an unreliable character as the protagonist. But author Lee Irby has ramped that up with UNRELIABLE, a thriller in which the narrator confesses he can't be trusted. Or can he? College professor Edwin Stith tells the reader: "I'm conflating, confusing, and contorting reality, because who would want to read a book about a college professor who goes home for a wedding? Yawn!"

Stith travels to his hometown of Richmond for the wedding of his mother, who is marrying a younger man (not much older than Stith himself). His soon-to-be stepfather, Mead, sells weapons out of the basement to Russian men who definitely don't seem on the up-and-up, and Stith's soon-to-be-siblings are involved in activities almost as nefarious. Not that Stith is a saint himself. As the book unfolds, we learn he has a somewhat romantic, but twisted, entanglement with a student, Lola. Now, he's getting text messages that Lola is on her way from Maryland to see him. Oh, and Stith may have killed his ex-wife—or maybe not. Maybe he's killed a restaurant waitress—or not.

In any case, there's plenty of shenanigans to keep Stith—and the reader—occupied, as one after another improbable event happens in the day and hours before the wedding. He meets an old high school flame, whom he may or may not be in love with, and then Mead's sister, who also shows interest in Stith. Half the time, the reader doesn't know what think. That's OK, because, as one character says, Stith is unreliable, but "in an endearing way."

The book also pokes fun at the publishing industry. Stith is a failed novelist—his one book having been shopped around but never picked up by a publisher. Still, he got a few pointers from publishers, mainly: use violence to propel the plot, which is why Stith keeps us guessing as to whether he killed one or several women—or not. At one point, Mead tells Stith: "I read somewhere that publishers are looking for books that have something called a high concept. That's where the title and the story are the same and so the readers can figure out what the book is about without really thinking about it." To which Stith responds: "I don't write those kinds of books." Hmm.

The ending of UNRELIABLE is not a complete surprise or shock, but that's fine. By the time the reader gets to that point, it will have been one wild ride. Trust me.

§ Lourdes Venard is an independent editor who divides her time between New York and Maui.

Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, April 2017

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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