Joyce Carol Oates' cover blurb for Christine Mangan's debut novel, Tangerine (#751) really says it all; "As if Donna Tartt, Gillian Flynn, and Patricia Highsmith had collaborated on a screenplay to be filmed by Hitchcock."
After a Prologue in which a man's body is pulled from the water, the story alternates between Alice Shipley, a young British bride who has accompanied her husband John to Tangier in 1954, and Lucy Mason, who arrives unexpectedly on Alice's doorstep one day. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that these former college roommates have an uneasy history between them. The atmosphere becomes increasingly fraught both inside and outside the household as Moroccans struggle for independence until the day that John goes missing...
I couldn't believe how swiftly the time passed as I was absorbed in this story. It has so many twists it leaves the reader wondering what is real and what is imagined. Without giving away too much, all I can say about the ending is "Oh, no!" You must read it for yourself to find out whether your reaction is the same.
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