Never Turn Back

August 31, 2020
Private school English teacher Ethan Faulkner, the narrator of this unsettling thriller set in Atlanta from Swann (Shadow of the Lions), returns home one morning after spending the night with a colleague, Marisa Devereaux, to find his troubled sister, Susannah, awaiting him. Susannah often disappears from Ethan’s life for months at a time, and they share the trauma of having witnessed their parents’ shooting murder when he was 13 and she was 10. Ethan made a promise to his dying father to look after Susannah, but his ambivalent feelings about her have meant he hasn’t done as good a job as he might. His more immediate concern is Marisa, who becomes obsessed with him and infiltrates his life, befriending Susannah. Susannah’s subsequent kidnapping raises the stakes, as does a murder, in which Ethan becomes a suspect. Haunted by the unknown gunmen who killed his parents, Ethan discovers a link between them and the new murder. Faulkner has a gift for language (“The twin memories of my parents are like a pair of blades scissoring my heart”), and smoothly quotes the likes of Robert Frost and Shakespeare. Fans of literary crime fiction will want to take a look at this thoughtful outing. Agent: Peter Steinberg, Foundry Literary + Media.

September 15, 2020
Swann presents a greased-lightning take on the hellish fury of a woman scorned. If he thought about labels, Ethan Faulkner would probably call himself a survivor. As a child, he survived a home invasion that left both his parents dead and his older sister, Susannah, hospitalized with relatively minor wounds himself. He survived an apprenticeship to bar owner Gavin Lester, the uncle who took in Suze and him, that gave him and his friend Frankie Gutierrez, the son of Gavin's business partner, some dark glimpses into Gavin's side hustle and sent Frankie to prison. Now that he's teaching English at Georgia's Archer School, the closest he comes to adventure is a one-night stand at an academic conference--until his pickup, stunning Marisa Devereaux, turns up as a long-term substitute for Betsy Bales, Ethan's very pregnant co-teacher, and throws herself at him again and again in increasingly inappropriate times and places. The sex is great, but the boundary issues are seriously worrying--Marisa's out-of-the-blue claim, "I know who killed your parents," strikes Ethan dumb--and when Marisa crosses one line too many and Ethan ends their affair, she vows revenge. In no time at all she's used the wonders of social media to menace Ethan's teaching job and drive both Suze and one of Ethan's students to suicide attempts. Can things possibly get any worse? Let us count the ways: Swann shows impressive virtuosity in varying the pitches Marisa and eventually the Atlanta police throw at the lover who spurned her. Even if you've seen this all before, Swann makes it a wild, compelling ride from beginning to end.

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Starred review from October 1, 2020
This second literary thriller from Swann, following the critically acclaimed Shadow of the Lions (2017), is an extraordinarily compulsive read. Ethan Faulkner, age 13, and his younger sister, Susannah, 10, are shot in a home invasion and are left irreparably damaged emotionally by the event, which also leaves their parents dead. They cannot adjust to living with their Uncle Gavin, whose criminal associations exacerbate their troubled psyches. Susannah eventually steals the uncle's car and spends years as a drifter, armed only with what Ethan calls her PhD in manipulation. Ethan, on the other hand, gets a solid education and establishes a successful teaching career. He carries some resentment against his sister for thwarting his attempt to save their father's life and is somewhat unsettled when she shows up just as he is developing a romantic relationship with a fellow teacher. Things slowly become even more unsettled, and then his life suddenly spirals out of control when he becomes the prime suspect in a brutal murder. He turns to his uncle for help and sets off on a dangerous path to find the men who have shattered his life a second time. Swann's writing packs a huge emotional wallop and delivers a breathtaking ending that will surprise most readers. Recommended for fans of domestic suspense, southern literary fiction, and powerful tales of retribution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 9, 2020

Swann's second novel (after Shadow of the Lions) explores the bonds of family and friendship, the urge for vengeance, and the pull of the past, all in one tightly woven thriller package. Ethan Faulkner is mostly content as an English teacher, a life occasionally disrupted by visits from his volatile sister, Susannah. Both Ethan and Susannah are damaged souls, traumatized as children by a home invasion that left their parents dead and them wounded. Fearing loss, Ethan never allows himself close relationships but indulges in the occasional one-night stand. Marisa, his latest companion, isn't satisfied to be a one-off, inserting herself into Ethan's life and unleashing big trouble, dragging the violent past into the present. With the help of shady Uncle Gavin, who raised Ethan and Susannah after their parents died, and Ethan's best friend Frankie, Ethan races to find his parents' killers, to confront the past, and find closure. VERDICT Page-turning suspense and action with some surprise twists engages readers from start to finish. The characters of Ethan and Susannah, their sibling bond, resonate with authenticity, grounding the novel. Thriller readers will enjoy and look forward to more from Swann, especially fans of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay.--Barbara Clark-Greene, Westerly, RI

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