He Said He Would Be Late

October 1, 2022

Liz Bennet is suddenly not so happily married; she's discovered a suspicious text on her husband's phone, replete with kissy-face emojis, and she starts a deep dig into her husband's life to see whether he's cheating. Obviously, things are going to be more complicated than she expects. From debuter Sullivan; with an 80,000-copy first printing.

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January 2, 2023
In Sullivan’s diverting debut, a novel of domestic suspense, sleep-deprived novelist and newish mom Liz Bennett knows she should cut herself some slack—about lingering baby weight, less than Kardashian-level grooming, in fact the whole Pandora’s box of perennial self-doubts—while adjusting to the recent tectonic shifts in her life. Then she accidentally sees a flirty-sounding text on husband Arno’s phone from one of his hedge fund coworkers, sending her into high infidelity alert. And once subsequent social media sleuthing reveals the sender of the text to be Vivienne Wood, a gorgeous Harvard Business School MBA, Liz, whose sardonic narration may be the book’s greatest charm, starts to channel her considerable creativity into what approaches full-on stalking. Admittedly prone to what her therapist labels “catastrophizing,” Liz habitually puts the most damning spin on any hint the dashing Arno might indeed be straying while discounting evidence of his love, such as convincing her to agree to a nanny so that she can focus on her second novel. Though the twisty, if at times leisurely, plot may disappoint thriller fans expecting someone to turn up dead, the more romance-inclined should find this just their cup of chai.

January 15, 2023
The problem of the privileged but lonely new mother gets an interesting treatment in this debut novel. Liz Bennett's daughter, Emma, is just over a year old. Her husband, Arno, works long hours at a banking firm in downtown Boston while Liz and Emma are sequestered away in sleepy, static Wellesley. Liz exhibits some classic, troubling signs of extreme postpartum depression: She feels no connection with her daughter, feels smothered by the responsibility, and suffers from insomnia. Remembering her own, detached mother, however, she lashes out at anyone who suggests she is struggling. After finding a business-oriented text from Arno's female co-worker that includes a kiss-face emoji, Liz spirals. She focuses all her discontent onto the possibility that Arno might be cheating. And, with the addition of a nanny to her life, Liz is able to spend hours on this obsession, neglecting almost everything else and self-medicating the resulting anxiety with alcohol. There is a dark humor to Liz's version of reality. She sometimes seems to know how outlandishly out of control she is, while other times she is cringingly funny in her self-delusion. The source of her mental state is a multifaceted mystery--how much is attributable to her crummy past, how much is off-kilter hormones, how much stems from some truly strange and controlling behavior from Arno that nonetheless gives no actual clues to his fidelity? A therapist, a few loose ends, and some bad advice from neighbors and friends add to the tension. Sullivan's sly inversion of the cheating-husband story investigates the real beginnings and endings of such tales, though, in doing so, it pulls the punch readers might expect. A recursive, psychological suburban mystery.

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February 17, 2023
Liz Bennet has it all, a budding career as a published author, a handsome husband, Arno, who is working his way to a small fortune, and a healthy newborn daughter. Everything is seemingly perfectly until Liz discovers a flirty text from one of Arno's coworkers--could he be cheating on her? As Liz begins searching for the truth, her behavior starts slipping out of control as she drinks to excess, makes choices that put her in danger, and stalks Arno and his coworkers. Her actions call into question whether her suspicions are true, or if this new mother is having a mental health crisis. This debut novel builds slowly, and has themes of marriage and motherhood set within the world of the New England upper class. This psychological thriller demonstrates Sullivan's skill as a writer, although the story lands short on delivering a new twist to the genre. It is however a solid edition to a suspense collection and Sullivan should be considered an author to watch.

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