Marilyn Levinson’s Come Home to Death is a domestic adult thriller about a woman named Erica Parker who is living a normal life until she’s threatened. This book would be right at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Erica, an accountant, is recently married to Terry. As with most starting couples, they are struggling to make ends meet. Erica is determined to succeed to overcome her traumatic life growing up with two overbearing aunts. But when Terry disappears and thugs come looking for him, Erica decides it’s time to flee. Where? Back home with the aunts.
Erica has to endure weird relatives, an erratic best friend, and a pretentious lawyer. The lawyer, however, brings good news. Erica is going to inherit a windfall from her dead parents’ trust account. But with that news comes two attempts on Erica’s life. Are these threats because of her husband who is possibly in deep trouble with the mob? Or is someone targeting Erica because she will be rich? And who is this stranger, Doug Ramser, who is suddenly giving her advice?
Come Home to Death brings out each character’s virtues and vices. The author does a solid job of showing some of the admirable qualities of her characters and then follows the scene with a darker side. The idea that everyone will congregate on you if you have a sudden inheritance is never more true than here. But who is desperate enough to want to kill Erica?
A few technical issues aside, Come Home to Death suffers most from Erica’s leniency with people who are, in my opinion, despicable. From a note from a “friend” that is just rude to an aunt that acts like a leech, I was hoping Erica would let these people have it. It was hard for me to have compassion after they showed their true colors. However, Erica proves to be resourceful before the end of the novel, and I appreciated the reconciliation that occurred in the finale.
Come Home to Death is a compact thriller with all of the fun elements of a suspense story.