'EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD'.....SURVIVORS OF MULTIPLE MURDERS FACE REVELATIONS OF THE TRUTH.....

  Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander (2024)

        When I first heard this terrific title I thought 'this sounds like either a psychological thriller or an Italian western that Clint Eastwood passed on.

        It's the first of those two choices and belongs in an ever growing sub-genre of thrillers........in which the survivors of bloody mass murders deal with the repercussions of the crime.....with the deaths usually happening a decade or so earlier during their college days.

        I've already read any number of such novels and it seems like they're piling up enough for librarians and booksellers to group them in special displays.....(possibly under the heading, "You thought YOU had it tough in college"

       The alumni of a prestigious journalism graduate school have done pretty well for themselves, especially 'Charlie' Colbert, a transplanted Brit who's become the editor of a celebrated supplement to a major newspaper. And not only that, she's engaged to the heir of powerful publishing empire.

       But Charlie's haunted with agonized guilt over the notoriously named "Scarlet Christmas", when those among her circle of collegiate friends were brutally murdered on Christmas Eve. Her memory's blocked out the worst parts of it and she fears if the whole truth is ever revealed, she'll somehow end up incriminated.
Her worst nightmare comes true when fellow survivor Steph, a formidable TV personality, plans to produce a movie of Scarlet Christmas.....a movie in which all the facts of what really happened that night (and who did what to whom) will be laid out for a worldwide audience.

        How could I ever resist a set up like that? As Charlie's carefully perfect life starts to come undone, author Jenny Hollander carefully rations out nuggets of clues about the murders......which naturally guarantees us to keep reading till we get the whole story.

       What I liked most.......unlike other books in this particular genre, it doesn't slip into that sinkhole of internal monologues that forces a reader to skim through the interminable blah-blah-blah of potentially unreliable narrators. It's a zippy read, filled with dialogue and the prose nails these characters with knowing observation. In other words a genuine page turner from beginning to end.

      But what I found myself going 'hmmm' about was the final big reveal and epilogue wrap-up. Satisfying for sure, but some of the motives and behavior struck me as unclear, not fully explained......and to be honest, maybe just a bit far-fetched and tough to swallow. For me, that's why I knocked it down from 5 stars to 4.

       I can't deny though that "Everyone Who Can Forgive Me' kept me riveted and entertained. It did have me swiping through the e-pages at maximum speed to see what happened and uncover the worst of those 'Scarlet Christmas' secrets.

      So I'd sincerely advise librarians and booksellers to not forget to include this one in your displays of books about multiple murder survivors trying to make sense of their trauma....and the elusive truth of it.    4 stars (****)