Your Life Is Mine

April 29, 2019
In the prologue to this engrossing novel from Ripley (Find You in the Dark), Chuck Varner, the leader of the Your Life Is Mine cult, walks into a Stilford, Calif., mall one day in 1996 with Blanche, his seven-year-old daughter, and a handgun. Chuck tells Blanche to go home to her mother, Crissy, then he embarks on a shooting spree that ends with him killing himself. Twenty years later, Blanche is living under a new name in Los Angeles, where she works as a documentary filmmaker. The past comes back with a vengeance when Crissy, from whom she’s been estranged for years, is shot to death. Blanche returns to Stilford, where the police officer she asks about Crissy’s case gives her evasive answers. When Blanche does her own digging, she discovers Crissy was murdered by one of Chuck’s followers with the purpose of luring Blanche home. The members of her father’s resurgent cult want Blanche to be part of it. The tension builds as the action drives to the dramatic climax. Fans of dark thrillers will be satisfied. Agents: Samantha Haywood and Stephanie Sinclair, Transatlantic Literary.