Murder Grove

In the prologue of this gripping if flawed psychological thriller from the pseudonymous Adamson (Five Strangers), a fresh body, an apparent murder victim, turns up in an olive grove outside Val Verde, Spain, the new home of the novel’s two unreliable narrators, Mia Banner and Rich Ellis. Six months earlier, Mia and Rich, romantic partners since their university days, decided to pack in their jobs in London and move into the house that Rich’s eccentric actor mother left to him in Val Verde. The corpse’s discovery sends Mia and Rich’s lives spiraling in unexpected directions. Their dueling narratives tease at problems within the relationship and disturbing experiences in both their pasts, leading each of them to question just how many lies they’re telling themselves as well as how many lies they’re telling each other. The corpse is identified only late in the book, and most of the action and the murder’s resolution unfold toward its end, by which time some readers, tired of all the psychobabble, will no longer care about the fates of these two emotionally damaged people. Hopefully, Adamson will do better next time. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aiken Alexander Assoc. (Jan.)