Bright and Tender Dark

April 8, 2024
Pearson’s rich debut murder mystery gathers potency from its portrait of middle-aged millennial angst and Y2K-era misogyny. In 2019, 20 years after Joy Brunner’s freshman year college roommate, Karlie Richards, was brutally murdered, the mom of two discovers an unopened letter from Karlie, written just before her death, tucked into an old book. The cryptic letter’s contents send Joy down a rabbit hole of true crime message boards and conspiracy theories, spurring her to conduct an obsessive investigation into the people closest to Karlie back at the University of North Carolina—including a professor who pursued dubious relationships with both girls. From there, Pearson rewinds back to 1999 and follows 18-year-old Karlie in the months leading up to her death. The past and present-day story lines converge as Joy’s investigation reaches a boiling point in the tense finale. The plot is solidly constructed but not quite exceptional. Where Pearson shines is in her palpable evocation of both decades, and her rendering of the challenges Joy and Karlie face as women. Pearson’s gift for texture and emotional resonance mark her as a talent to watch. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

May 1, 2024
A spiraling divorc�e becomes obsessed with solving the decades-old murder of her college roommate. Though they had lived together as freshmen at UNC Chapel Hill, by sophomore year Joy Brunner and Karlie Richards barely spoke thanks to Karlie's affair with the married sociology professor Joy had a crush on. In December of that year, Karlie mailed Joy a letter, which Joy didn't open. In January, someone strangled Karlie to death in her off-campus apartment. Police arrested the person who found her body--a developmentally disabled young man named Toby who worked at a restaurant Karlie frequented--but many questioned his guilt. Now, nearly 20 years later, in 2019, Joy is reeling from her soon-to-be-ex-husband's decision to trade her in for a happier, more fertile model when her son discovers Karlie's unread letter tucked in a book. To Joy's surprise, the missive contains both an apology for hurting her and clues suggesting the wrong person is in prison for Karlie's homicide. Joy latches onto the notion like a life raft, determined to give her lonely days meaning. Pearson's debut is less a thriller than a loosely woven web of character sketches, several of which are only minimally related to either Karlie's demise or Joy's investigation. While this approach allows Pearson to paint nuanced portraits of would-be bit players--such as Joy's teenage son, Karlie's lover's wife, and the present-day night manager of Karlie's old apartment complex--it also leaves Joy and Karlie somewhat underdeveloped, diminishing the book's stakes and throttling its drive. An abrupt, almost arbitrary ending does further disservice, neutralizing the emotional impact and precluding any sense of catharsis. A little more attention to plot would have gone a long way. Artful but unsatisfying.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2024
Pearson's debut is set in the college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the brutal murder of a bright young student in 1999 still haunts her former roommate two decades later. Recently divorced and struggling to find purpose, Joy Brunner is shocked to discover an old letter from her roommate, Karlie Richard. Joy has never believed that the right person was convicted for the killing, instead, suspecting their old charismatic and predatory sociology professor, Jacob Hendrix. Joy longed for his attention until he turned to Karlie. But devout Karlie had other incendiary entanglements that are revealed once the novel shifts back to 1999, unspooling Karlie's relationships with Hendrix as well as a handsome trio of students. Pearson deftly moves between time periods and perspectives, from the present point of view of the troubled Joy to a night manager who reluctantly lets a true-crime documentary crew into Karlie's old apartment to the mother of the man in prison for Karlie's murder. The story then shifts back again to cast more light through other significant characters, including Karlie herself. Smart, assured, and absorbing.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.