The House of Love and Death

Starred review from August 28, 2023
Klavan’s blistering third whodunit featuring hit man-turned-poetry professor Cameron Winter (after 2022’s A Strange Habit of Mind) is the best yet. In a gated community in the Chicago suburbs, firefighters respond to a blaze at the home of psychologist Norman Wasserman to find Norman; his wife, Marion; their teenage daughter, Lila; and their live-in nanny, Agnes, shot to death. Only seven-year-old Robert survives, as Agnes ushered him out of an upper-story window before she died. When questioned by the police, Robert reports hearing the voice of Lila’s boyfriend, Mateo Hernandez, inside the house just before the tragedy; that testimony, coupled with the disappearance of two of Mateo’s father’s guns, makes the teenager the primary suspect. Winter, who’s recently begun psychotherapy to cope with his violent past, is drawn to the mystery for reasons he doesn’t completely understand—what he does know, however, is that he’s not convinced by the case against Mateo. He begins investigating the deaths himself (much to the dismay of the lead detective on the case) and discovers rot at the heart of the Wassermans’ seemingly idyllic community. Klavan successfully deepens Winter’s character as the professor digs into his own past, Tony Soprano style, and the central murder mystery remains gripping throughout. Fans of complex investigators like Thomas Harris’s Will Graham will be enthralled. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.