Book Description 

Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.

She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.

And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.

Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail–and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny’s careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom. Lenny Marks may finally get a life–but what if her past catches up to her first?

Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Kerryn Mayne’s stunning debut is an irresistible novel about truth, secrets, vengeance, and family lost and found, with a heroine who’s simply unforgettable.

My Review 

This was one of the most original books I’ve ever read. Lenny does not have anything close to a warm personality, but it’s hard not to like her from the beginning. Her unfaltering routine and collection of 36 copies of The Hobbit suggest a need for order. Lenny prefers a solitary existence and limits her interactions with her colleagues. 

But when she gets the letter from the parole board, everything changes. 

Obviously I’m not going to tell you what happened to Lenny in her past, but I will say that I appreciated the way the backstory unfolded gradually. It’s clear that SOMETHING major happened, but the reader is kept guessing for most of the narrative, mostly because Lenny is an unreliable narrator. She is not intentionally deceptive, but the reason for the memory lapse is related to her own confusion about the past. 

The letter from the parole board serves as the catalyst not only for Lenny having to confront her past, but also for major changes to Lenny’s life. These changes occur concurrently with the letter, but are not necessarily actively the result of the letter, mostly because Lenny is trying very hard to avoid even thinking about the letter. 

I don’t want to imply that there’s anything wrong with Lenny’s routine, especially since it was created out of a need to protect herself and avoid unknown variables. However, as Lenny deviates from her routine, her world opens up to surprising and unexpected possibilities, and not all of them are unpleasant. 

I would absolutely recommend Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder. This is a stunning debut and I hope this is only the beginning of a long writing career for Mayne. I would love to see this book made into a limited series on a streaming service! 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley