Best Day Ever

In this slow-burning marital thriller, Rouda (The Goodbye Year) delivers a chilling, first-person portrait of a modern-day psychopath that delves into questions of how well we really know those closest to us. Paul Strom has planned the best weekend ever for his lovely wife, Mia. From the outside, he seems to be the ideal doting husband, with an amazing job at a big advertising agency in Columbus, Ohio. They have two beautiful boys, a wonderful home, and even a fabulous lakeside getaway by Lake Erie. Although it seems like they have it all, Mia hasn’t been feeling well and things between them don’t have quite the same spark—so Paul has decided to take her to the lake house for the weekend, just the two of them. Even as they drive away from the city and toward the idyllic cottage by the lake, a small thread of lies and deception begins to unravel, the tension building as it becomes clear that Paul is not everything he says he is and the weekend he has planned is not quite what it seems either. But Mia, though her voice is not the focal point of the novel, is not to be underestimated. A tensely written, shocking book that will hold readers on the edge of their seats to the very last page. Agent: Katie Shea Boutillier, Donald Maass Literary. (Sept.)

This review has been corrected to fix a typo in the publisher name.