Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Two key members of the Locard Forensic Institute, Dr. Ellie Carr and Dr. Rachael Davies, combine their skills in order to bring home the daughter of a celebrated rock star.  In their latest case, Rachael goes to the mansion belonging to Billy Diamond, formerly the lead member of the famed band Chimera, where he tells her his teenage daughter Devon is missing.

Devon dropped out of Yale with her boyfriend, and together they decided to go to a “life retreat” at a remote location in Nevada.  At first she was in contact with her father regularly, but now she’s totally out of touch.  And yesterday Billy discovered that her boyfriend is dead, drowned in a river near the retreat.

Ellie Carr, a former FBI agent, goes to the retreat to find Devon and convince her to reach out to her father.

The retreat is called Today’s Enlightenment and run (controlled might be a more accurate term) by a man who calls himself Galen.  Ellie, calling herself Ellen, is greeted by Angela, to whom she tells her false background story–her dead mother, her absent father, her recent dismissal from work–all these being the reasons she needs to make a new start.

Taking a guided tour around the utilitarian retreat, Ellie meets Galen.  The first thing he does is change her name, which unknown to him is already not her real name, to Nell because he thinks it suits her better.

One of the first sessions is for participants to list things they fear, and Ellie makes certain to write things that she doesn’t actually fear–being enclosed in small spaces, public speaking.  She’s not certain why she doesn’t want to tell the group her real fears, but she feels certain she should keep that information to herself.

Rachael, meanwhile, is finding out more about Billy.  Her late sister Isis was an event planner whom Billy had hired for special occasions, praising her ability to get “stuff” for him.  That knowledge makes Rachael more curious about her sister’s life, and she begins to go through the boxes of forms, receipts, and several USB drives she brings from Isis’ condo.

Most are simply routine, but one item is odd.  It’s a bill for $650,000 for a major event at Billy’s home.  It lists liquor, entertainment, musicians, and tents among other costs, but something about it doesn’t make sense to Rachael.  The date on the invoice lists the party as having been held on Thanksgiving Day two years earlier, but Rachael knows that Chimera was performing at the Hollywood Bowl that day, three thousand miles from Billy’s home.  It definitely makes her curious.  Why would Billy have arranged for a huge party when he wasn’t home?

Not What We Expected moves from Ellie’s stay at Today’s Enlightenment to Rachael’s involvement in Billy’s life and back again.  The author’s characters are perfectly drawn, not only the two protagonists but the people surrounding them.  In Ellie’s case it’s the needy and self-doubting participants in the spa, and in Rachael’s case it’s Billy’s dependence on drugs and alcohol and the people surrounding him.  The plot is tense, the settings are realistic, and the twist at the end is one I did not see coming.

You can read more about Lisa Black at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.