Books: "Something She's Not Telling Us" By Darcey Bell

Something She's Not Telling Us
By Darcey Bell
Harper Paperback/HarperCollins Publishers; paperback, 320 pages, $16.99; available Tuesday, April 7

Darcey Bell is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Simple Favor, which was made into a movie starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.


Something She's Not Telling Us is Bell's second novel, and this riveting thriller tells the story of a woman meeting her brother's latest girlfriend who could be The One, or the one that upends their lives.

Charlotte enjoys one of those enviable, Intagram-worthy Manhattan lifestyles. She is a floral designer who lives in a renovated East Village loft with her husband Eli, who is chasing his theater dreams after making a fortune in finance, and their precious five-year-old daughter, Daisy.

While starting to make inroads into the benefit circuit, Charlotte is working on issues with her unstable mother in therapy. However, she'll probably always feel responsible for her younger brother, Rocco. 

Given his penchant for charismatic but crazy women, Charlotte is leery when he brings his new girlfriend, Ruth, to dinner, and as their relationship turns serious, Charlotte's concerns deepen. Although she might be overprotective of Daisy, Charlotte finds Ruth's intense interest in her daughter terribly unnerving.

From Ruth's perspective, things are looking up, as she has landed her job at a start-up and she can envision a future with the gorgeous, affable Rocco, as long as his disapproving, insanely suspicious big sister doesn't derail their happiness. No matter how hard she tries, Ruth can't break through Charlotte's icy facade.

Ruth's deepening bong with Daisy only makes the situation worse,and she senses that Charlotte is hiding something big and unearthing it seems like the only solution. 

When Daisy goes missing from her afterschool program, has a mother's worst fear been realized or has a well-intentioned impulse been totally misunderstood? Dueling and possibly duplicitous narratives ensure that the high-stakes game between the two women, who both have appearances to maintain, secrets to keep, lies to expose, and everything else to lose, will play out until the very end.