Liane Moriarty

Moriarty manages to strike the right note to deal with a topic that would otherwise be so heavy and difficult it might miss its mark: part comedy, part thriller but all tragedy it never minimizes the heart of the matter. On the contrary, it shows how evil can lurk in the most normal, enviable spaces and how easy it is to be oblivious to what happens behind closed doors.
By appealing to laughter, tears, fear and love, the author delivers her poignant and tough message.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty is a very highly recommended psychological thriller that explores existential questions regarding free will versus destiny. Here One Moment asks the questions: What would you do if you knew when you were going to die? Would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

After a long delay, a short domestic flight proceeds smoothly from Hobart, Australia, to Sydney. This ordinary flight turns extraordinary when an unremarkable older woman show more wearing a brooch stands up, counts to three, and then proceeds to walk down the aisle while proclaiming the cause of death and age at death for each passenger she encounters before the cabin crew intervenes. She also states, “Fate won’t be fought.”

For some passengers the date is far in the future and they laugh it off, but for some passengers their predicted deaths are not far away at all. Allegra Patel is predicted to die at 28 from self-harm on her 28th birthday. Ethan Chang, 29, will die at age 30 from assault. Leo, 42, will die at age 43 in a workplace accident. For Dom and Eve, a young couple on their honeymoon, she is predicted to die young at 25, from "intimate partner homicide." Sue and Max O’Sullivan are told he will into his 90s while she will die soon from pancreatic cancer. Paula Binici learns her baby Timmy will die at age 7 from drowning.

A few months after the flight one passenger, Kayla, dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die as she predicted. The woman making the predictions is now nicknamed “The Death Lady” and no one is laughing off her predictions. In fact, they are trying to find out who she is. Her real name is Cherry Lockwood. She grew up with a mother who was a psychic who went by the name of Madame Mae, but does she actually posses any psychic ability?

Here One Moment is a well-written, intriguing, articulate, and compelling novel that follows a series of characters as they deal with the predictions handed to them by The Death Lady. It is a long book, but the short chapters make the length feel more reasonable and the pages fly by quickly. The chapters alternate between the point-of-view of the different characters, keeping the tension is high throughout the novel as you wait to see if someone dies and how they are dealing with everything.

The diverse cast of characters are all fully realized individuals whose flaws and strengths are clearly developed realistically as they deal with their predicted demise. I was invested in the lives of these characters. Cherry's life and background is also presented in much detail, making her a real person and not the horrific Death Lady that she is presumed to be from the flight. Her chapters could have been edited a bit to lessen the length of the novel. And, in actuality, I was more interested in the other characters dealing with the question of their impending fate.

The final denouement of Here One Moment is pitch perfect and pulled it all together nicely. Thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
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This was really a page-turner! And I often found myself saying “I’ll read just one more chapter.” Even as the evening got later and later, I couldn’t stop reading. So many reasons to recommend this well-written book – the plot, the characters, the twisty clues, the cliff hangers at the end of each chapter.

It’s the story of a dysfunctional family – husband Stan and wife Joy, and their four adult children who all have their own quirks and personalities from their childhood as show more tennis stars, thanks to their parents’ renown tennis academy. After 50 years of marriage Stan and Joy have retired, the children are on their own, and then a stranger knocks on Stan and Joy’s door one night.

When Joy disappears several months later, the siblings aren’t sure if they should be concerned or if she’s just taking a break from her life. Their parents are impulsive like that. It takes about a week for them to decide whether or not to report their mom missing. Possibly because it seems like an open and shut case with all the clues pointing to Stan as having murdered his wife.

Moriarty has written a clever mystery, where things (and people) are not as they seem. She artfully leads readers in first one direction, then another. It’s a surprise ending that’s both satisfying and impressive. I highly recommend this one! show less

Gemma, Cat, and Lyn are triplets. In the opening pages they are celebrating their birthdays at a posh Sydney restaurant and we see the meal unfold through the eyes of other patrons. Gemma is a wild spirit, the dreamy, untethered sister. Cat is the strong, brash one. Lyn is the organized, uptight one. The three are so close, yet so wildly different. The trio makes up a pretty exclusive club, yet they don’t tell each other some of the biggest secrets in their lives.

Starting with the opening show more scene, there are short chapters sprinkled in from the random points of view of people whose paths crossed with the girls in some fleeting way. It was an interesting chance to see them from the point of view of an outsider. The style reminded me a bit of the way Moriarty used the police interviews to break up the story in Big Little Lies (though I think the technique worked better in that novel).

One of the things I love about Moriarty's books is the way she portrays women. They are complicated. They can be jealous, selfless, kind, furious, and more without being labels a "good" or "bad" character. In other words, they are like real women. Her men tend to be a little more one-dimensional, either they are bad guys or they are long-suffering supportive husbands. That's not always true, but it seems like more often than not they fall into one group or the other. The women though don't have nearly the same defined motivations and I love that. Each of the sisters comes across as flawed and vulnerable in different ways.

BOTTOM LINE: I love Moriarty's books. This is my least favorite so far though and I would recommend picking it up after you've already read The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies. show less