Shari Lapena returns with a tightly wound page‑turner that trades suburban suspense for high‑end privilege and peril on the water. In Getting Away With Murder, the internationally bestselling author delivers a tale about a couple whose cultivated life of luxury begins to crack under the strain of dwindling finances, reckless investments and secrets that refuse to stay buried.
Rich trappings, fragile foundations
The story centres on Jill and Ted Westcott, a pair for whom tasteful possessions and carefully curated surroundings are almost characters in their own right. The couple’s pride in their New York brownstone — a home that has been redesigned and renovated to mirror their refined tastes — is presented as the kind of devotion others reserve for family.
blockquote“They dote on their home the way others dote on their children, with great pride,” Lapena writes. “They love to show it off, the way others show off their progeny. They can talk endlessly about the house, the way others talk endlessly about their kids.”
That attachment to material perfection becomes an axis for the novel’s conflict when the Westcotts’ wealth begins to evaporate faster than they anticipate. Ted’s imprudent financial moves contribute to the couple confronting an inheritance that proves tempting enough to kill for, while circumstances conspire to place the characters on a stormy night at sea — an atmospheric element that compounds the tension.
What the book delivers
Readers familiar with Lapena’s earlier work — including titles such as The Couple Next Door and She Didn’t See It Coming — will find recognisable strengths here: propulsive plotting, compact chapters and a focus on domestic entanglements that escalate into life‑and‑death scenarios. Getting Away With Murder is her 10th novel, and the author leans into the rich‑people‑behaving‑badly motif while keeping the machinery of suspense front and centre.
- Central characters: Jill and Ted Westcott, wealthy owners of a prized New York brownstone.
- Key elements: financial decline, reckless investments, an inheritance at the heart of motive, and a stormy night at sea that intensifies peril.
- Author background: Lapena is described as an internationally bestselling novelist, with several successful psychological thrillers to her name.
Context and consequences
Lapena’s focus on affluence and appearance taps into a recurring theme in contemporary fiction: the idea that material success can mask instability and moral compromise. By situating much of the drama around a beloved home — a curated space that symbolises status and identity — the novel interrogates what people will sacrifice to preserve an image of stability.
The plot’s movement from domestic interiors to a storm‑bound setting at sea also signals a shift from surface glamour to elemental danger, a device that both isolates the characters and raises the stakes for their choices. In Lapena’s hands, the confined geography intensifies suspicion and forces confrontations that might otherwise have been postponed by the comforts of wealth.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Shari Lapena |
| Novel | Getting Away With Murder |
| Series position | 10th book |
Reading experience
For readers seeking a compact thriller with familiar Lapena beats, Getting Away With Murder offers the kind of driven narrative that invites late‑night reading. The novel’s preoccupation with wealth and the lengths people will go to protect it gives it a particular resonance in an era attentive to inequality and the performative aspects of prosperity.
While the book leans into conventional thriller mechanics — misdirection, escalating stakes and a confined setting that allows interpersonal tensions to flare — it is Lapena’s knack for blending domestic detail with mounting dread that keeps the pages turning. Fans of the author’s previous novels will recognise the pattern; newcomers will find an accessible, entertaining entry point into her work.
Getting Away With Murder positions material comfort not simply as backdrop but as a catalyst for conflict, and the result is a tightly plotted exploration of how appearances, when prized above all else, can lead to devastating choices.
