WHAT HAVE WE DONE

4 stars out of 5

Actually, readers get the answer to the title question at the very start of the book. From that point on, the story mostly focuses on the lives of the "we" and how what happened a quarter of a century ago impacts what's happening in their lives now.

And what's happening isn't good. In fact, one of them, a judge, is dead - a murder victim. Another, a TV show producer and in-debt gambler, narrowly misses a similar fate. So does a third, a former rock star who can't give up the drugs and alcohol that kept him going during the glory years. The fourth, now a happy wife and mother, is learning that her previous life has come back to haunt her. Besides their shared actions all those years ago, the group shared one other thing: residence in a group home known as Savior House. The home was shut down after several of the resident children went missing; little by little (or chapter by chapter), layers of the past are peeled back to become clues as to what's going on now from the perspective of the remaining friends.

Gradually, they (and readers) realize they're not just paranoid; someone really IS out to get them - most likely someone who somehow found out what they did all those years ago. But who? Aye, there's the rub; can they get the answer to that question before they all get rubbed out? The ending does bring a twist or two, and there's plenty of action in between. Very enjoyable - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of another book by this very talented author.

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay (Minotaur Books, March 2023); 368 pp.