No Turning Back

Tracy Buchanan

Crooked Lane Books Hardcover $25.99 (352pp) 978-1-68331-163-8

Events cascade at a relentless pace in this perfectly taut psychological thriller.

In Tracy Buchanan’s No Turning Back, a woman defends herself from a young, crazed assailant; when he is killed, her ordered small-town life becomes mired in psychological quicksand, threatening both her freedom and her life.

Anna is a radio station host in an English seaside town. Worried over a prospective divorce and raising her baby daughter alone, her life nears collapse after she accidentally kills a boy in self defense. She is cleared of wrongdoing, but in the wake of the event, class prejudices arise, and friends and the media begin to doubt her story. Then, the boy’s death is tied to long-ago killings attributed to the so-called Ophelia Killer.

Anna is a sympathetic lead, fleshed out by telling touches, like her decision to name her baby “Joni” in tribute to a favorite singer. She is the linchpin of the unfolding narrative.