You Can Go Home Now by Michael Elias
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Michael Elias has written one of my absolute favorite thrillers from 2020. I was absolutely enthralled by this and devoured it in two sittings.
If you don’t know, Elias is a long time comedy, film, and television writer. Among his many credits, he worked with Steve Martin on The Jerk, he wrote Young Doctors in Love, and he created the television program Head of the Class. But You Can Go Home Now is his first foray into the book writing world.
You can feel his years working in visual and physical storytelling on every page.
Briefly, the story focuses on Nina, a “tough Queens detective with a series of cold case homicides on her desk – men whose widows had the same alibi: they were living in Artemis, a battered women’s shelter, when their husbands were killed. Nina goes undercover into Artemis. Though she is playing the victim, she’s anything but. Nina knows about violence and the bullies who rely on it because she’s experienced it in her own life.”
He’s crafted a beautiful, hard, gritty world, and he moves you through it at breakneck speed (although I never felt short-changed). And, much like Nina, the events and clues are coming at you so quickly that you never feel as though you’re on solid ground.
If you’re looking for a fun, tight thriller, get this book now.
You can listen to my interview with Michael on Episode 81 of The Downtown Writers Jam.
