Book Review: ‘Shutter: A Novel’ By Melissa Larsen

Betty Roux has just lost her father, broke up with her boyfriend and fled to New York to try and get over it all. She gets an introduction to indie director Anthony Marino, who made a well received first movie and is in the process of casting his next movie. Betty is a struggling actress and hopes to get an audition with him. She meets him and they have dinner and he wants her for the picture. It’s going to be shot on an island in Maine at his family home. It’s a very small shoot with a couple of crew and her leading man. The movie is going to be loosely based on the 1962 movie Cape Fear and all improvised. There’s cameras set up all over the house and Betty is to become Lola her character. She soon meets Sammy the caretaker and things don’t seem right to her. The longer she’s there the creepier things get. Is this a movie or a revenge plot? There’s history with Sammy and Anthony and Betty/Lola (and she’s told she looks like Sammy’s ex-girlfriend). Soon there’s a power failure and a confrontation and things go horribly wrong and someone won’t survive.

A solid debut novel with a great premise for the story and filled with tension and suspense. A promosing begging for new author Melissa Larsen.

You can pick up Shutter in stores on Tuesday, June 15th from Berkley.