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White bodies : a novel /

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Touchstone, 2017Description: pages ; cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501165085
  • 1501165089
  • 9781501165092
  • 1501165097
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 823/.92 23
LOC classification:
  • PR6118.O24 W48 2017
Other classification:
  • FIC019000 | FIC031000
Summary: Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless facade, not everything is as it seems. Callie, Tilda's unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix's domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix's uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister's arms. Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies--or was he murdered?
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Item type Current library Home library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Standard Loan Tri-Community Library Adult Fiction Tri-Community Library Book ROB (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 50610018465737
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING "GREAT READ"

"A deliciously creepy psychological thriller." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review

This chilling psychological suspense novel--think Strangers on a Train for the modern age--explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind twin sisters together.

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful, up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems.

Callie, Tilda's unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix's domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix's uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister's arms.

Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies--or was he murdered?

A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another--and ourselves.

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless facade, not everything is as it seems. Callie, Tilda's unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix's domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix's uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister's arms. Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies--or was he murdered?

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

White Bodies 1 Autumn 2017 The he evidence suggests that Felix showered. Beyond that, I know practically nothing about his final hours on this earth. All I have is the odd scrap of information and the patchy impressions of the bystanders, and it's like I'm at the theater, looking at the stage and seeing only the supporting cast, the scenery and the arrangement of shadows. All the important elements are missing. There are no principal actors, no stage directions and no script. The receptionist said this--that Felix's last morning was fresh and cold, that there was a frost on the lawn outside the hotel and a mist in the distance, where the woods are. She'd watched Felix sprinting out of the hotel, down the gravel drive, then turning left at the gate. "I was arriving for work and I called out 'good morning!' " she said. "But he didn't reply; he just kept running." Forty minutes later, he was back, dropping his head to catch his breath, panting and sweating. He straightened up and, now noticing the receptionist, said that he'd sprinted all the way to the golf course, running the perimeter and the long path through the woods back to the hotel. He thought that the sun glancing through the trees had been magical, as though life was just beginning (how extraordinary that he should say such a thing!). Then he took the stairs up to his room, two at a time. He didn't come down to breakfast or order anything to be sent up, not even the continental breakfast that was included in the room rate. His colleague, Julio, said he was surprised when Felix failed to attend the first session of the conference. At the midmorning break, Julio carried a cup of coffee and a biscuit up to the room, but found the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on the door. He thought Felix was unwell, sleeping maybe, so he drank the coffee himself and ate the biscuit. "We missed him at lunch," he said, "and again in the afternoon session. By three o'clock I was calling his phone many times, but my calls went to voice mail." Julio felt uneasy. It was so unlike Felix to be unreliable; so he went upstairs one more time to hammer on the door, then he summoned the hotel manager, who arrived with a key. The two men were struck by the unnatural stillness of the room, its air of unreality; Julio said it seemed considered, or planned, like a tableau vivant with Felix as the centerpiece, lying on his back on the bed in a strange balletic pose, right arm cast out across the duvet, left leg bent, bathrobe open like a cape, gray eyes gazing at the ceiling. His left arm was dangling down the side of the bed, fingers suspended above the floor, and the hotel manager, who had a degree in the history of art, was reminded of the Pre- Raphaelite painting of the suicide of Thomas Chatterton. Except this didn't look like suicide, there were no pill bottles or razor blades or other signs. Dr. Patel arrived, and the receptionist stood by the door while the doctor conducted her examination. Her professional opin-ion was that Felix had suffered a heart attack or had some sort of seizure after his morning run. She left, and the receptionist took photographs of Felix and of the room--the bedside table, the pristine bathroom, the opened shower door, the view from the window and, finally, the untouched hospitality tray. "I know that was weird," she said. "But it felt like the right thing to do, to make a record." Maybe she thought her photos might become important, that they'd suggest that something about the scene was wrong. No one else had that sense, though. When the results of the postmortem came through, they were in agreement with Dr. Patel--Felix's death was due to heart disease. As simple as that, he had collapsed and was gone--and for a while it seemed that he'd simply vanished. The world had swept over him like the tide coming in. But then the funeral happened. I trekked out of London that day to a pretty Berkshire village with a Norman church sitting amongst gravestones and windblown copper-colored leaves. When I saw it, I thought that Felix, who was born and raised in America, was having a very English final moment, though the mourners who were arriving in small solemn groups were from his international life. Solid men in sharply cut suits; flimsy, elegant women in heels. I watched them from a distance, in fact from a broken bench set against the churchyard wall, where I was trying to calm down. Eventually, I slipped into the church and stood at the back. My sister, Tilda, was the person on show, and she walked slowly up the aisle like a melancholy bride. I tried hard, really hard, to get inside her head at that moment, and I conjured up a spectacular array of emotions--from profound grief and loss, to exhilarating release and relief. But nothing felt right. As always, I found her confusing, and I was reduced to noticing her expensive clothes. The black silk dress, the tailored jacket, doubtless costing a thousand pounds or more. And I watched her take a place in the empty front pew. On her right, in front of the altar, was Felix's coffin, under a cascade of white lilies; and to her left, on a wooden stand, a giant photo of his smiling face. A few minutes later, Felix's mother and father slipped in beside Tilda, and then his brother, Lucas. There was the slightest of nods towards my sister, who sat perfectly still, gazing at the floor. The first hymn was a thin rendition of "The Lord Is My  Shepherd"--but I found that I couldn't sing. Instead I slumped against the back wall, feeling faint and nauseous, overwhelmed by the occasion. Not that I was mourning Felix, although the sight of his hunched-up, grieving family was upsetting. It was more that I was sick with knowing too much. On the day of his death, I'd waited for the police to turn up at my flat or at the bookshop. It was the same on the morning of the postmortem. And now, at the funeral, it seemed certain that police officers were waiting for me outside the church, stamping their feet to keep warm, sneaking an illicit cigarette, and that as soon as I stepped out of the gloom into the autumn sun I would hear my name. Callie Farrow? Do you have a minute? Excerpted from White Bodies by Jane Robins All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

[DEBUT] Since childhood, Callie was unnaturally obsessed and envious of her twin sister, Tilda. Awkward plain Callie could never measure up to Tilda's beauty or popularity. The pattern continued into adulthood as Tilda enjoyed success as an actress, while Callie worked part-time in a small bookstore. When Tilda introduces her sister to her new boyfriend, a wealthy financier named Felix, Callie immediately doubts his motives, suspecting abuse with a possible intent to kill. To protect her sister, Callie joins an online support group aimed at disarming abusive men and subsequently becomes fixated on probing the true nature of Tilda's relationship with Felix. Despite Tilda's assertions that Felix is not endangering her life and her constant pleading for her sister to cease, Callie becomes obsessed. As she continues investigating, clues emerge that seem to affirm her belief that Felix is dangerous. Before long, the two sisters are unwittingly ensnared in a "murder for hire" situation that will alter their lives. Verdict After a slow beginning, this debut by a British journalist (The Trial of Queen Caroline) offers a suspenseful and twisty foray into the world of obsessive love that suspense junkies should not miss.-Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

British author Robins (The Trial of Queen Caroline) makes her fiction debut with a deliciously creepy psychological thriller. Callie Farrow, who works in a London bookstore, becomes obsessed with every aspect of the life of her glamourous twin sister, Tilda, a well-known actress, after Tilda marries the controlling Felix Nordberg, a wealthy financier. Callie believes that Felix's mania for perfection, from the order of his silverware to his volatile reaction to a minor error, signals a penchant for domestic violence. Convinced that Tilda is in danger, the increasingly unstable Callie monitors Tilda, snoops in her home, and reads her hidden diary. Callie also contributes to a website about domestic abuse and becomes fixated on women killed by their partners. As she teeters on the brink of insanity, Callie considers taking drastic measures to save her sister. The plot slowly but forcefully builds to a shocking finale as Robins skillfully explores the dynamics between sisters, mental health issues, and manipulative behavior. Agent: Natasha Fairweather, United Artists (U.K.). (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Tilda Farrow has always been a star, outshining her fraternal twin sister, Callie, but Callie has always wanted to be close to Tilda, to the extent of ingesting some of her hair, teeth, and urine when they were children. When Tilda falls in love with wealthy financier Felix Nordberg, Callie becomes concerned, even obsessed, with her sister's safety, since Tilda shows signs of being physically abused, and her once-promising acting career has been stagnating. Callie turns to a website about men who abuse their partners and develops relationships with two other women online, eventually becoming involved in a mutual murder pact (in the manner of Strangers on a Train) as a radical means to deal with domestic violence. Felix's death is related on the opening pages, followed by flashbacks that vividly illustrate the twins' relationship and Callie's search for what actually occurred and who bears responsibility. This debut novel by British journalist Robins is a compelling psychological thriller that shines light on love and obsession and where they may lead. Robins is a writer to watch.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A woman worries that danger lurks beneath the seeming happiness of her twin sister's relationship with a new man and becomes obsessed with uncovering the couple's every secret.Tilda, the vivacious golden-haired sister, has held the limelight since the Farrow twins were children, while the mousier, more observant Callie has stayed in the shadows. Now Tilda is an actress, having starred in the remake of Rebecca, one of many clunky Hitchcock references Robins uses throughout her fiction debut. Callie works a few days a week in a London bookshop, still idolizing Tilda from afar, savoring every morsel of time the two spend together; that is, until Tilda introduces Callie to her new love, American hedge funder Felix Nordberg. Charming, with icy Scandinavian good looks, Felix initially appears to be a healthy, if slightly OCD, influence on the oft-flighty Tilda. But Callie soon notices a change in her sister's behavior and glimpses a darker, perhaps more violent side of Felix that sends her online to a domestic abuse forum called controllingmen.com. There, she's inundated with typical stories of abusive spouses and boyfriends as well as things to look for in violent relationships. Convinced that Felix is abusing Tilda, claims her sister finds preposterous, Callie is shocked when Felix turns up dead of an apparent heart attack while attending a conference. The sisters' relationshipundeniably the most intriguing part of the story, especially its push-pull qualitiesshudders under the weight of both Felix's death and the two women's conflicting ideas on what love really means. Had this been a character study of the obsessive, bordering on fanatical, relationship between twin sisters it would be a stellar novel; unfortunately, it's the crime that bogs down the story. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jane Robins began her career as a journalist with The Economist , The Independent , and the BBC. She has made a specialty of writing historical true crime and has a particular interest in the history of forensics. She has published three books of nonfiction in the UK, Rebel Queen (Simon & Schuster, 2006), The Magnificent Spilsbury (John Murray, 2010), and The Curious Habits of Doctor Adams (John Murray, 2013). More recently, she has been a Fellow at the Royal Literary Fund.

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