While I shared the video last week featuring Megan Abbott talking about her latest book, El Dorado Drive, now we have Oline Cogdill’s review from the South Florida Sun Sentinel. You an still order a signed copy from The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore. https://bit.ly/4kopK5s
Thank you, Oline.
Book review: Money and suspense fuel Abbott’s ‘El Dorado Drive’
‘El Dorado Drive’ by Megan Abbott. Putnam, 368 pages, $30
Money — or rather, the lack of it — drives the three Bishop sisters, Debra, Pam and Harper, in “El Dorado Drive,” Megan Abbott’s intelligent, character-driven thriller that spins on the suspense that infiltrates family dynamics.
Abbott is among the smartest of mystery writers, intuitively exploring women’s issues with a view to the universality of these situations, which she brings to the riveting “El Dorado Drive.” She succinctly looks at how the heedless pursuit of money can be soul-numbing, while also exploring the varieties of regret.
The Butler sisters, who grew up in the affluent town of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, were used to the privilege that wealth brings, until the money dwindled after their father lost his job, then died. Debra and Pam married well — very well — until their money ran out because of their husbands’ medical issues, unpaid taxes, bad investments and deadbeat ways. Harper, the one sister who didn’t marry or have children, also is in debt to an unscrupulous creditor. The decline of the auto industry and the economic downturn of 2008, the setting of “El Dorado Drive,” exacerbated their financial problems.
Abbott shows how the illusion of wealth and the appearance that they can afford anything drives the sisters. As savvy and worldly as they may seem, the sisters also are naïve about money, making them ripe for a scam.
Enter “the Wheel,” a secret project started by an acquaintance that purports to be an all-female “circle of giving.” Members contribute an initial $5,000, then attend twice a month parties where they are assured of a windfall. So much money will come to each member that it will be life changing.
Most people would recognize this as a scheme that eventually will fall apart. “It’s not a pyramid,” says one character. “It’s a triangle . . . There’s no hierarchy in triangles.” The Wheel is always “moving,” it’s explained. No one ever stays at the top or at the bottom but always moving throughout the “triangle.”
Of course it’s a pyramid scheme, where success depends on how many other women can be recruited. No taxes, no money trail, just a regular windfall that’s attractive, but, “money ain’t free,” as a character says.
The women also are attracted by the idea of female empowerment, especially since all their money woes can be attributed to the men in their lives. The women are warned to be discreet so that no one suspects where the money is coming from. But instead of paying bills or getting the roof repaired, some can’t help falling back to indiscriminate spending, flaunting renewed wealth with fur coats, high-end purses, luxury cars (even leasing one).
As one character says: “Things can get pretty complicated pretty fast when money’s involved. People have a tendency to get attached.”
At the beginning of “El Dorado Drive,” Abbott reveals that one sister is murdered; of course money is involved.
Abbott skillfully mines the characters’ shallowness while also showing their humanity, the depth of their desperation and how that can lead to bad decisions, and the sisters’ sincere love for each other. Abbott makes the reader empathize and sympathize with her characters. A mother throws an elaborate party for her high school graduate, but isn’t sure how she will pay for his college tuition. Another scrapes together the Wheel’s entry fee but sacrifices paying her daughter’s SAT prep tutor.
The sense of danger simmers below the surface of “El Dorado Drive” as Abbott’s superb plotting and character studies keep the story on point, making this one of the best novels of the year.
Enjoy The Poisoned Pen’s YouTube video with Megan Abbott and Barbara Peters and Jen Johans from the bookstore.