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Review of HUSH by Kate White (see her website)
Harper, March 2010
Marketing consultant Lake Warren is going through a messy divorce. With her children at camp, she decides to let off a little steam with one-night-stand with a doctor at the fertility clinic where she's been consulting. But when the doctor is murdered while she sleeps on his porch, Lake realizes that her divorce will turn messier if she is implicated in the death. So, rather than call the police, she runs. When someone shaves her cat and tries to have her murdered, she's horrified, but not enough that she can undo the lie that has led her into a deeper and deeper hole. And then there are the rumors that there's something fishy going on at the fertility clinic.
I confess that I had a hard time with a character who's so self-absorbed that she decides it's a good idea not to bother reporting a murder, lies about her actions to the police, continues to lie when she's being threatened, and imputes all sorts of meaning into the cat-shaving (is this where the "Hush" title comes from?) and breeches patient confidentiality with no concern other than the chance she might get caught. A number of times, I nearly gave up on reading this book because Lake was so frustrating. At some point, however, the book turned around. I would have liked to see Lake having at least some moral qualms about searching patient records, but she went from a victim to a person who at least attempted to take matters into her own hands.
Author Kate White sets her story in upper-middle-class New York city. Fancy dining, out-of-town summer homes, all-summer-long camp for the children, and the huge dollars to be made from persuading women that they might become pregnant no matter how old they might be all ring true. Self-absorbed Lake also rings true, but not in a way I found especially admirable.
Two Stars
Reviewed 3/31/10
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