Megan Abbott has written Give Me Your Hand (Little Brown, $27.00), a thriller that no male author could get away with. Academic researchers studying the effects of PMS on women who commit bloody murder. Is that irony? Symbolic? Metaphor? Or a sly joke?
Abbott has created two original characters. As the book begins Kit Owens is a teenage girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Her father is a complete loser who seldom pays his child support who nevertheless leaves his daughter with a lifetime of idiotic shibboleths about how to claw your way ahead in life. He might as well have told her to always give the points. Her mother works in a veterinary hospital, bringing home all sorts of awful odors from her day at work. They live in a run-down dump. Despite these difficulties, Kit is very bright and an outstanding chemistry and science student.
At a cross-country summer camp, Kit meets Diane Fleming (a great name for a chemist). Diane is even smarter than Kit, a better runner, more beautiful and downright strange. One night the girls exchange their worst secrets and the plot is on, because Diane’s tale is so appalling that Kit feels assaulted by what she has learned and is unable to forget it. In turn, Kit’s story plants a seed in Diane that germinates a plot twist not resolved until the last pages of the book and it’s an excellent and unexpected twist.
The two girls compete for a science scholarship to a major university offered by a prominent woman who owns a research lab. Diane is the clear favorite but doesn’t need the money. To everyone’s surprise Kit gets the scholarship and again that thread is nicely tied together in the conclusion. After grad school the women are reunited, working at the same facility, to Kit’s shock.
Abbot is a skilled writer though sometimes the flow is choppy and a bit hard to follow. Perhaps its just me but when I feel sympathy for a character like Kit, I get aggravated when she makes a stupid decision that is necessary to drive the plot. And Kit’s choice is monumentally foolish. All of this leads to a bloody ambivalent conclusion.
There are a couple of plot holes. Why wouldn’t there be an autopsy for an otherwise healthy 42-year-old man who died suddenly? And how could a coworker investigate a murder that the medical examiner had declined to look into and the man is long since buried? Nevertheless, it does pick up speed in the end and except for the backstory, it really only covers a long weekend, so it moves fast. I would give Give Me Your Hand a B with points off for the plot issues.
Steve E Clark as seen in the New York Times is Author of Justice Is for the Lonely and Justice Is for the Deserving, Kristen Kerry Novels Of Suspense. Steve is a 2017 NY Big Book Award winner and a 2018 Independent Book Awards recipient. You can purchase his books via https://steveclarkauthor.com/buy-the-book or request it at your local book store. Want to know more about Steve Clark, read more reviews or speak directly with Steve? Learn more about Steve at SteveClarkAuthor.com
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