Novel by North Carolina author plays on a new mom's worst nightmares

Ben Steelman
·3 min read
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's new novel is "You Should Have Told Me."
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's new novel is "You Should Have Told Me."

Fans of thrillers like "Gone Girl" or "Girl on the Train" will find University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's novel "You Should Have Told Me" right up their alley.

The heroine of Konen's latest is Janie Walker, who gave up a fast-track career at a New York ad agency to have a baby with her boyfriend, Max. ("Out of wedlock," as my Aunt Becky used to say.)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's new novel is "You Should Have Told Me."
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's new novel is "You Should Have Told Me."

Little Freya is now 6 weeks old, and Janie is a mess. She can't get enough sleep, she's constantly hungry, and Freya seems to nurse and poop around the clock. Janie frets that she lacks the motherhood instinct.

That's not a problem for Max, who gave up playing in a well-known indie rock band to stay home as a music teacher. Max loves Freya and writes her little songs. (He may be on the verge of being the next Raffi.)

Max volunteers to feed Freya at night so Janie can rest. It all works well, until 3 o'clock one Saturday morning, when Janie winds up to find Freya bawling and Max nowhere to be found. Their rental car, with Freya's car seat in it, is gone. So is Freya's favorite binkie.

Everyone says Max has probably just gone to the store, or is running an errand and will be back any minute or so. Except he's not.

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Eventually, Max's old bandmate Lianna and his dad, Carl, admit that, yes, Max has a history of running off and disappearing for days when things turn stressful.

Then the local police show up at the door, asking for Max. It seems a woman was killed in the alley behind a nearby bar late Friday night, and a credit card receipt proves that Max was there at the time of the killing.

There's worse to come: Hunting for clues, Janie finds Max's other cell phone, the one he used to schedule meet-ups with someone. Then she learns that Max knew the dead woman, and that he might be the father of her child as well.

Complicating things is that Janie has some secrets of her own, dating from her ad agency days, that may be contributing to her anxiety. Now, some old ghosts are coming back to haunt her.

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Konen, author of "The Perfect Escape" and "All the Broken People," manipulates the details of suspense with an expert touch. A mother herself, she deftly sketches the experiences and emotions of a new mother. (Putnam's edition comes with a set of prepared questions for book-club discussions.)

Although she has some ties to North Carolina, Janie is no steel magnolia. In fact, she comes across as more than a little whiny. This might turn off some readers, although I suspect others will draw encouragement. They would almost certainly handle the novel's challenges better than Janie does.

Book review

'YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME'

By Leah Konen

Putnam's, $17 paperback

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: You Should Have Told me is the new novel from NC writer Leah Konen