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It is funny to me that Paula Hawkins got popular with Girl on the Train, and then proceeded to never write another book like that again. That may be her breakout but clearly what she's really interested is the slow burn not the twisty speed-read. But she holds steady in her interest in not-that-good people, living in suspicion, failure, lying (to yourself and others) and slowly letting them reveal their true nature to us.

While there are a lot of pieces here, many histories for us to gradually learn, the center of the story is simple. Becker, our primary protagonist, is a curator at a foundation focusing on the now-deceased artist Vanessa Chapman. When one of her sculptures is under suspicion for containing human remains rather than animal bones, Becker is motivated to finally get her estate sorted out. There is additional concern because Chapman's estranged husband disappeared decades earlier, and any controversy around these bones could lead to more unsightly gossip than artistic appreciation. The estate, owned by the foundation, is in a delicate relationship with Grace, the woman who was Chapman's close friend and eventually her caretaker before her death. Grace lives in Chapman's house and is supposed to be sorting through her letters and works to determine what is personal (which stays with Grace) and what is professional (which will go to the foundation). As Becker tries to carefully get Grace to share more of Chapman's papers, we follow along through both the two characters as well as snippets of Chapman's letters.

Becker and Grace are in a strange detente. They both have a strong loyalty to Chapman, but because Becker cares only about her work and Grace doesn't care about her work at all, they can't help but get defensive with each other. Still, they both seem to mean well and slowly they get to know each other better. But there are mysteries everywhere. Becker doesn't understand Grace or her relationship with Chapman, and he doesn't understand Chapman's relationship to the foundation, which was nonexistent for years after she had a falling out with Becker's boss's father. The family behind the foundation has their own secrets and pose their own threat to Becker, not only as holding his livelihood but also because Becker's boss was engaged to Becker's wife, who left the boss for Becker.

All these triangles and jealousies play out slowly through the novel. It's not clear if we'll ever have any kind of big revelation, Hawkins doesn't seem to be any hurry. Until the end when we all of a sudden have several reveals in a row, followed by a quick bang-up finish without a nice little bow. It's a surprising path, but I like surprises so it worked well for me.

Quite readable, though Hawkins is a little wordy here. Because she's going for slow much of the time, this is likely some intentional padding to slow us down. It was never enough for me to mind it. Now we just need to stop taking GotT off the cover as a frame of reference and just let Hawkins be the writer she clearly wants to be.