Women Like Us

Lief’s bracing sequel to Invisible Woman further develops its predecessor’s themes of inherited trauma and loyalty between women. Five years after filmmaker Joni Ackerman got away with the murder of her abusive husband, her bullying con man brother, Marc, appears on her doorstep after a 20-year absence. Though Marc’s apparent reformation persuades Joni to leave him at her Malibu home to dog sit while she launches a project in New York, her colleague and best friend, Val, is unconvinced. When a chance encounter between Val and another woman reveals Marc is still swindling, Joni must try to stop her brother from finding new victims and untangle just how similar their shared blood has made them. Lief sometimes makes the emotional subtext of Joni’s struggles too explicit, but she atones for it by infusing Joni’s search for Marc and his accomplices with supremely satisfying tension. This is equal parts empowering and entertaining. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (June)