"What Have You Done" | Reviewed by Pat Sainz

Roy Ressler is heading toward his farmland in his big tractor early one fall morning. He is thinking with pleasure about his daughter’s upcoming wedding to the local gym teacher when he notices turkey vultures gathering and fighting over something in his field. Thinking it’s likely a large dead deer that is drawing so many vultures, he drives nearer when his dog begins acting strangely. Up close, Roy sees the body of a dead girl. He recognizes her. It’s Diana Brewer. He knows the teen and her mother.

            Fairhill, Vermont, is a very small town. Everybody knows everyone. When 16-year-old Diana’s murder is revealed to the town, no one has any idea how someone could kill a vivacious, kind, beautiful girl heading to veterinary school following her high school graduation. Diana is the only child of a single mother. Somehow, that makes the townspeople grieve even more. 

            In “What Have You Done” a murder mystery/thriller by Shari Lapena, suspects abound. Secrets are revealed and townspeople are not always who they appear to be. Multiple points of view add to the intrigue.

            A creepy stalker who has hounded Diana at her part-time job turns out to have a violent past. The principal of the high school has covered up reports by Diana and other girls about the unwanted advances by the male gym teacher.  Diana’s very possessive boyfriend has been angry since she recently broke up with him. 

            Diana’s death has changed everyone in the town. Suspects find their lives upended. Jobs are lost, marriages and engagements are broken, and citizens are frightened at the idea of a murderer among them. No one is trusted.

            Diana’s ghost observes the investigations and also the grief experienced by her mother and her friends. She is just coming to terms with the idea that something bad happened to her, but she can’t explicitly identify her killer.      

            This fast-paced plot sheds light on the tendency of some adults to disbelieve young women when they divulge confidences about potential abusers. The novel reveals the weakness of authority figures and their inability to protect those in their charge on too many occasions.

            “What Have You Done?” is on its way to become a best-selling “whodunit.”  At 306 pages, I was able to read it in a couple of sittings. It's that enticing.

            Shari Lapena is the New York Times best-selling author of “The Couple Next Door” and “Everyone Here is Lying,” along with several other popular mystery books.

            Buy the Book.