Frank Szatowski is surprised when his daughter Maggie calls him for the first time in three years to invite him to her wedding. Maggie is going to marry the son of a wealthy magnate in a large mansion.
Once at the mansion, Frank tries to reconnect with his daughter and get to know her new family, but Maggie never has time for him, and neither does Aiden Gardner, her fiancé. Some local residents show hostility toward the Gardner family because, although they benefit from their wealth, it seems that a young woman disappeared in that place under strange circumstances, and they blame Aiden Gardner.
Frank notices a series of strange things that clash with his values, although his sister, who accompanies him, is not surprised by any of it. She believes that everything fits Maggie’s manipulative way of being and thinks that she is beyond help. Faced with this increasingly serious situation, Frank tries to dissuade his daughter from going through with the wedding.
The atmosphere is one of luxury, excess, and violence; it seems that with money everything could be bought. The novel portrays an amoral society with great social differences that appears to impose its own rules.
It is a suspenseful and realistic novel, although it lacks some moral ambiguity. The story is intriguing and well resolved, which makes the book entertaining while also conveying certain values.
Jason Rekulak is an American editor who also writes under the pseudonym Charles Gilman. In 2017 he published his first novel and later achieved great success with his book Hidden Pictures (2022).