Claire Fontaine is convinced her ex-husband killed their teenage daughter years ago and believes he’s capable of killing again. When she sees him move in with another woman, to play step-father for a girl the same age as the one she lost, Claire tries desperately to warn the new bride of the danger. But when the woman dismisses her admonishments, Claire takes matters into her own hands.
Sloane Wilson left the LAPD to work as a “sin eater,” a contractor for hire who specializes in cleaning up inconvenient situations―situations better handled outside the law. Like the ex-wife who stalks her former husband and makes threats to his new wife.
As Sloane investigates, she uncovers a history of trauma that casts aspersions on Claire as well as Sloane’s client. Soon the truth becomes increasingly muddled. But Sloane knows one thing for certain: sometimes the only way to prevent a crime is by committing one.
“A piercing, high-speed nightmare best consumed in a single breathless sitting.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Remarkably polished…with a taut plot.” ― The New York Times
“Provocative.” ― A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“Beautifully, beautifully written and suspenseful from the chilling opening until the end.” ―James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Buelens will inevitably invite comparisons to Liane Moriarty and Gillian Flynn―a taut, gripping noir mystery that is as timely as it is ferocious.” ―Lyndsay Faye, award–winning author of The Paragon Hotel
Claire Fontaine is convinced her ex-husband killed their teenage daughter years ago and believes he’s capable of killing again. When she sees him move in with another woman, to play step-father for a girl the same age as the one she lost, Claire tries desperately to warn the new bride of the danger. But when the woman dismisses her admonishments, Claire takes matters into her own hands.
Sloane Wilson left the LAPD to work as a “sin eater,” a contractor for hire who specializes in cleaning up inconvenient situations―situations better handled outside the law. Like the ex-wife who stalks her former husband and makes threats to his new wife.
As Sloane investigates, she uncovers a history of trauma that casts aspersions on Claire as well as Sloane’s client. Soon the truth becomes increasingly muddled. But Sloane knows one thing for certain: sometimes the only way to prevent a crime is by committing one.
“A piercing, high-speed nightmare best consumed in a single breathless sitting.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Remarkably polished…with a taut plot.” ― The New York Times
“Provocative.” ― A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“Beautifully, beautifully written and suspenseful from the chilling opening until the end.” ―James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Buelens will inevitably invite comparisons to Liane Moriarty and Gillian Flynn―a taut, gripping noir mystery that is as timely as it is ferocious.” ―Lyndsay Faye, award–winning author of The Paragon Hotel
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July 27, 2020
French teacher Claire Fontaine, the unhinged protagonist of Buelens’s pedestrian debut, is convinced that her ex-husband, Simon Miller, a wealthy Beverly Hills lawyer, molested Melody, her daughter by her late first husband, driving the teenager to suicide. Simon claims Melody’s drowning death was an accident. Claire has now made it her mission to stop his upcoming wedding to Charlotte. Claire believes that Simon really is after Charlotte’s daughter, Emma, who’s about the same age as Melody when he first molested the girl. Claire considers more extreme actions after she has no success confronting Simon over the phone or persuading Charlotte, whom she confronts at the jewelry store where Charlotte works, to keep Emma away from Simon. Frustrated by Claire’s antics, Simon hires “sin eater” Sloane Wilson, a former LAPD detective who specializes in cleaning up situations best handled outside the law. A couple of clever twists near the denouement make up only in part for Claire’s wearisome paranoia and characters who elicit little sympathy. Psychological thrillers fans can safely take a pass. -
September 1, 2020
Claire and Sloane both had traumatic childhoods, and the trauma has lasted well into adulthood. Claire's first husband died a painful death, leaving her to bring up their daughter, Melody, by herself?until she meets charming, handsome Simon. They marry, but shortly afterward, Melody dies tragically, and Claire discovers a horrifying secret about Simon that changes her life. Devastated, she divorces him but decides to make him pay and to avenge Melody's death. Tired of Claire's paranoia and her continuing efforts to stalk and confront him, Simon hires Sloane, an ex-cop turned sin eater ?someone who cleans up messes, like a Mob fixer but without the brutality. But Sloane has her own dark secrets, and her efforts to find a way to stop Claire's campaign against Simon bring the two women onto a collision course that could have disastrous consequences. Buelens' story is riveting, with the tension ratcheting up until the end. With twists aplenty, vivid characters, and a palpable sense of looming disaster, readers will find themselves wondering whose story to believe.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.) -
Starred review from July 15, 2020
The inaugural title in Otto Penzler's new Scarlet imprint of psychological and suspense fiction is a razor-sharp debut that dumps two Los Angeles women with troubled family histories into a blender and cranks the speed up to liquefy. Freelance French instructor Claire Fontaine told everyone who would listen that her father tried to drown her as a child because the woman he was seeing hated children and that Claire's ex-husband, wealthy Simon Miller, had his eye on her teenage daughter, Melody, and may even have drowned her five years ago to cover up his predation. In the end, though, nobody would listen, and now Simon, tired of being labeled "CHILD MOLESTER" by the paint Claire has slapped on his house and car, wants to take strong measures against her. So he hires Sloan Wilson, an ex-cop-turned-"sin eater" who specializes in making people's problems go away, to make Claire go away. Sloan's own background is so dark--her father abruptly retired from the LAPD after his wife accused him of corruption and killed herself--that it's a marvel she isn't cracking herself under the strain. Or is she? After circling warily around her two leads as Claire shuttles from one disturbing pupil to the next and Sloan cultivates Destiny, a girl from the streets whom Claire had befriended, Buelens dives more and more intimately into the traumas that mark them as opposites even as they reveal their profound twinship. A piercing, high-speed nightmare best consumed in a single breathless sitting.COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Marilyn Stasio;The New York Times "My idea of a good psychological suspense story is one that messes with your head. No cheap thrills, just lots of disorienting plot twists that have you doubting your own mental faculties. AN INCONVENIENT WOMAN, a remarkably polished first mystery by Stéphanie Buelens, succeeds at these mind games with a taut plot."
- A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window One of the thrillers of the year [...] never loses its grip.
- Camilla Lackberg, internationally bestselling author of The Golden Cage A hangman's noose of a thriller, airtight and inescapable, each strand expertly braided, each loop perfectly knotted. Harrowing yet humane — a novel as provocative as it is suspenseful.
- James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author A dark and riveting thriller with unexpected twists at every turn. I loved the two women at the heart of the story.
- Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Never Game and The Bone Collector. An Inconvenient Woman is beautifully, beautifully written and suspenseful from the chilling opening until the end.
- Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author of 'Death in Focus' Absolutely stunning! A brilliant concept meets perfect execution in An Inconvenient Woman, a twisting thriller in which a looming tragedy and a horrific crime from the past are masterfully woven together. It's hard to believe that this is Buelens's first novel; I truly hope more are in the future—preferably the near future.
- Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Inside Old problems told by conflicting voices. A new, sharp view of psychological reality. Sin Eater! What a fascinating concept. I could not put it down!
- Lyndsay Faye, award-winning author of The Paragon Hotel Addictive, immersive, unputdownable. The powerful women at the beating heart of this beautifully-wrought thriller—women with grudges and looking for a certain brand of justice—give the old school noir vibe a thoroughly modern energy. As deep and human as it is rocket-paced, An Inconvenient Woman is a slick, accomplished debut.
