A Double Life: A Novel

Flynn Berry

Jul 2018 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

“A thrilling page-turner.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

“Breathtaking . . . As shocking as it is satisfying.” —The New York Times Book Review

A riveting and sophisticated page-turner inspired by one of the most shocking true crimes in 20th century Britain: the Lord Lucan case.

“A better person would for­give him. A different sort of better person would have found him years ago.”

Claire is a hardworking doctor leading a simple, quiet life in London. She is also the daughter of the most notorious murder suspect in the country, though no one knows it.

Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family's townhouse. The next morning, her father's car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she'd seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since.

When the police tell Claire they've found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture. She doesn't know if she's the daughter of a murderer or a wronged man, but Claire will soon learn how far she'll go to finally find the truth.

Loosely inspired by one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century – the Lord Lucan case – A Double Life is at once a riveting page-turner and a moving reflection on women and violence, trauma and memory, and class and privilege.

Named a Must-Read by Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, O Magazine, BBC, CrimeReads, and PureWow

Ratings and reviews

The blurb for A Double Life caught my attention, especially with it being loosely based on an unsolved murder. However, the execution came up lacking for me. The story is a mix of past and present with the past story being told in a series of flashback-like scenes. I agree that the past story needed to be told, but the changes from present to past and back again are abrupt and without any warning. That combined with a choppy writing style made the story confusing and was distracting at best. For me, it felt a bit like Claire was scatterbrained, which may have been the idea, but it just didn't work for me. There is some mystery, but I wouldn't necessarily call this one a thriller unless Claire's behavior counts as thrilling. A bit out there, yes, but I wouldn't say that it had that thriller quality. There is a thrilling scene toward the end that could've saved this one for me had the story ended at around the 97% mark. Instead, it went on to bring in a couple of characters that in my opinion were completely unnecessary. One of those did answer a question raised earlier in the story, but with what had already happened, I didn't quite understand the point. All in all, this one had great potential that just wasn't realized.

A Double Life by Flynn Berry is an exceptional read of unbelievable thriller suspense fiction. I picked it up and did not stop reading until I read the last word. The book switches from present to past without indicating a time period and I did find that distracting at first. Well written exciting book with many bizarre twists until the very end of the book. Looking forward to reading her first book Under the Harrow.

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About the author

Flynn Berry is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers and the recipient of a Yaddo fellowship. Her first novel, Under the Harrow, won the 2017 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post and The Atlantic.