Starred review from April 26, 2021
Adams follows his debut, 2019’s No Exit, with another dazzling thriller. Cambry Nguyen, 24, was wrapping up a yearlong odyssey across America when highway patrolman Raymond Raycevic found her dead beneath Hairpin Bridge, a derelict structure off a now-closed road 60 miles from Missoula, Mont. Unconvinced by the verdict of suicide, Cambry’s identical twin, Lena, drives from her home in Seattle to Montana. Raycevic reluctantly leads Lena to the bridge and begins to answer her increasingly pointed questions. Was it coincidence that Raycevic pulled Cambry over for speeding only an hour before her death? Why did her last text to Lena read “Please Forgive Me. I couldn’t live with it. Hopefully you can, Officer Raycevic?” Though Lena, who believes Raycevic murdered her sister, tells Raycevic that she wants revenge as well as answers, he assumes the small minimum-wage electronics store worker poses little threat. Instead, she’s a superb marksman prepared for every eventuality. Skillfully entwined third-person narrative, posts from Lena’s blog, and passages from the book she’s writing about Cambry reveal the sisters’ past and Cambry’s final hours. Adams is a writer to watch. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management.
