Tripping Arcadia

June 1, 2022

Lena's family is approaching bankruptcy after her father suffered an injury and lost his job in close succession. Back in Boston after two years living with her botanist aunt in Italy, she needs to get a job to help them out. Though she dropped out of med school, Lena is offered a position as a physician's assistant for the notorious Verdeau family, helping their family doctor with the care of unpleasant Jonathan Verdeau, whose illness baffles every medical professional who sees him. She also works at the family's lavish parties in the evenings, which is where she meets Jonathan's sister Audrey, who has a magnetic effect on Lena. But when Lena learns that the Verdeau family is responsible for her own family's dire straits, she embarks on a dangerous quest for revenge, drawing on the knowledge of poisons she gained from her aunt to go after the corrupt patriarch, Martin Verdeau. Carlotta Brentan provides deliberate, well-paced narration. Mayquist's entertaining debut features well-drawn characters and plenty of twists and turns. VERDICT For fans of gothic novels and tales of revenge.--Stephanie Klose

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 3, 2022
When Boston med school dropout Lena Gereghty, the narrator of Mayquist’s seductive if flawed fever dream of a debut, arrives at the Verdeau family’s imposing Back Bay mansion to start her badly needed new job, she has no inkling of the depravity and danger that await her. Hired to assist the family’s full-time physician, Lena expects to focus on Byronically handsome Jonathan Verdeau, the favorite of his billionaire father, Martin, and reluctant heir apparent to the clan’s corporate empire. Jonathan’s issues beyond excessive drinking remain mysterious. Meanwhile, Lena would prefer to spend time with Jonathan’s coolly glamorous sister, Audrey, who makes her own pulse quicken. Lena begins to grasp what a Faustian bargain she’s struck after working her first bacchanal at the family’s secluded country estate in the Berkshires, where she winds up treating myriad roofied revelers who have unwittingly OD’d. When she learns that Martin’s takeover of her father’s employer precipitated his firing, she begins plotting revenge. Ingenious plot twists abound, though Mayquist struggles to tie up everything convincingly. The louche flair the author displays, however, suggests he’s capable of an even more satisfying second act. Agent: Emmy Nordstrom Higdon, Westwood Creative Artists.