BookBrowse Reviews Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter

BookBrowse:

The murder of a suburban mother brings family secrets to light…and her family isn't the only one affected.

Hot Springs Drive tells the story of two closely intertwined suburban families whose normal-seeming existences are torn apart by a grisly murder.

Jackie is vibrant and boisterous, while Theresa is quiet and reserved. The two become fast friends when they meet in the maternity ward shortly after giving birth. Eventually, Jackie, her husband, and their growing brood of boys move in next door to Theresa, her husband and their daughter. When Theresa is found dead, buried secrets are revealed, and the remaining cast of characters is left to reckon with lives that have been forever changed.

This is not a murder mystery. We know Theresa will die from the beginning of the novel, and the author leaves easy-to-interpret clues about who the murderer is. Rather, this is a literary exploration of the fractures that can occur between friends and family members, and within an individual's mind, and how their accumulation can lead to tragedy.

Another interesting element of the story is that it sticks with the characters long after the murder happens. We watch the teenage children of each family grow into adulthood, scatter across the country, and grapple with their trauma. We see Theresa's husband's loneliness and guilt, and the upheaval of Jackie's life.

The author makes effective use of point of view. Nearly every chapter is told from a close third-person position. The only chapters in first person are those narrated by Jackie, and they make up a relatively small portion of the book. The plot unfolds not just through the perspectives of the main characters, but those on the periphery — a classmate of Theresa's daughter, a police detective, even Theresa's anthropomorphized house. All these lenses combine to show us a fuller truth.

Jackie is neither the victim nor the murderer, but she is a connection point between the two, the most dynamic character and the person the story hinges on. She has a voracious appetite — first for food, then for sex. She is messy and sometimes unpleasant. She forgets to bring snacks to her children's soccer games. She cheats on her husband. She is everything prim, organized Theresa is not. Their differences, and envy of one another, draw them together but also keep them apart.

Hunger is a big theme, as Jackie and Theresa's participation in a Weight Watchers-style group (see Beyond the Book) kicks the story into motion. Jackie is shown at the beginning as an overeater, but not necessarily an unhappy one. Rather, food is a source of pleasure in her exhausting life as a stay-at-home mother of four. But her husband, not a slim man himself, teases her about her weight in front of the kids. So she turns her zeal for food into an equally intense zeal for dieting, going to fast food restaurants just to chew on ice and watch others eat. Then she channels her desires into illicit sexual liaisons. Jackie's hunger for these avenues of enjoyment points to her dissatisfaction with not having anything else just for herself. As a woman encouraged to put her husband's and children's needs first, her attempts at self-soothing lead her in increasingly risky directions. Jackie is no feminist hero. She's not even a particularly good person. She's simply a woman groping for coping mechanisms in a patriarchal world.

The whole collection of complex characters makes this book a treat. None of them are entirely likeable, but they feel so real. The teenage daughter who pulls away from her doting mother. The guy who is handsome, but too weird to keep a girlfriend for long. The man who feels dissatisfied, despite a successful job and loving family. We see these characters through their own eyes as well as each other's.

This thoroughly enjoyable novel will appeal to fans of character-driven literary fiction. It may also prompt readers to wonder how well they really know their neighbors.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in January 2024, and has been updated for the November 2024 edition. Click here to go to this issue.