I’m always drawn to novels set in overlooked places—small towns that don’t typically get the spotlight—and Alexandra Ivy’s She’s Going to Pay caught my attention for that reason. Set in Canton, Missouri, it has all the ingredients of a juicy domestic suspense: a missing father, a stepmother with a hidden identity, a hometown full of secrets, and a daughter who reluctantly returns to face it all.
The setup is fantastic. Jesse Hudson left Canton years ago after her stepmother and stepsister vanished under suspicious circumstances and her father was suspected of murder. When he also disappeared, Jesse built a life elsewhere. Now she’s back to sell his old bar, only to learn her stepmother was never who she claimed to be. As Jesse digs into the past, she becomes convinced her father’s disappearance is tied to this buried identity—and discovers that someone in town has been waiting for her return.
Continue reading “She’s Going to Pay by Alexandra Ivy struggles with execution despite a promising premise”
Write on the World 