Die a Little

Die a Little is the first Megan Abbott novel, and reading it after the ones that came after, you can feel her finding her register in real time. The setup is classic mid-century noir: a teacher in Pasadena watches her brother, an LA detective, marry a woman named Alice Steele who is not who she says she is. The narrator does what good narrators in this kind of book always do, which is investigate the wife on her own.

What you get is a portrait of 1950s Los Angeles as a place where surfaces matter and what is underneath is often rotting. Alice's past unfolds in fragments, the brother's marriage starts to flex, and the narrator's own complicated relationship to her brother begins to read in ways that classic noir would have left implicit.

The book is uneven in places (Abbott's style is still settling) but the ambition is fully present, and the closing chapters carry real weight. Four stars. If you are new to Abbott, Bury Me Deep is the stronger entry. If you are already a fan, this is essential.