Review: 'The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard' by Kate Robards
Pub. Date: 6/20/2023
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
A missing child, a small town’s secrets, and a desperate killer set the stage for a darkly wrought debut novel that will haunt readers long after the last page. Perfect for fans of Julia Heaberlin and Chevy Stevens.
It’s not that they’ve been all that close in the past few years, but sisters Willa and Sawyer Stannard are bonded by the ups and downs of the life they’ve lived with their mercurial single mother. When Willa is found dead in her apartment from an apparent suicide, Sawyer just knows it’s not possible. A cryptic note from the acclaimed broadcast journalist leads police to rule out foul play. Shattered by grief—and obsessed by the idea that her sister’s death was not a suicide—Sawyer plunges into a search for the truth.
When Sawyer learns that Willa was writing an explosive true crime book about the decades-old disappearance of a toddler that rocked a small town hundreds of miles away, she’s even more convinced that Willa’s death is suspicious. Believing it is somehow connected to the research Willa was doing for the book, Sawyer begins to trace her sister’s steps, deep into a community she can’t begin to understand and to a truth that could destroy her as easily as it did Willa.
As she masterfully ratchets up the suspense, Robards never loosens her grip in a debut novel sure to keep readers guessing—and talking.
Thrillers often work by a formula which each author then innovates through adding their own details, backgrounds, and twists. This formula is part of why I enjoy the genre so much, because the constant innovation is fascinating to witness. New elements will be added to the formula for a while, especially when one author has used them very successfully. After Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl became a raging bestseller there were a lot of mischievous wives and troubled famil dynamics, for example. Lately, there is a strong True Crime element to many thrillers, often in the form of a protagonist trying to unravel a cold case and thereby landing in hot water. I enjoy this kind of meta-approach to crime because it allows for multiple sites of tension in a narrative. A lot of these elements pop up in The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard, such as the troubled family, tense relationships, and a cold case stirring up a storm. The way Kate Robards plays with the formula of the thriller is very interesting and shows a lot of promise, even though some of the connecting tissue felt missing. Willa is a fascinating character, but also a secondary one, which leaves the reader with something missing. The relationship between Willa and Sawyer is thrillingly complex, and yet never entirely worked out. The cold case is intriguing and forms a crucial part of the plot, but overtakes the other elements towards the end. By the end of Three Deaths I still had major questions and felt like some things didn't entirely connect in the way I would have liked them to. I still, for example, am not entirely sure which three deaths the title refers to.
When Sawyer returns home from her job as a spinning class instructor, she is confronted by two police officers with unbelievable news. Her sister, who was always so strong, driven, and perfect, has committed suicide and left an apology note, addressed to Sawyer. Sawyer cannot believe it and refuses to accept it was suicide and not murder. When she visits her sister's apartment she finds out Willa had been working on a true crime book about a child gone missing almost 30 years ago. Surely here will be answers to her sister's death? As Sawyer follows Willa's last steps and picks up the investigation, she begins to unravel not just the case, but also her own family's secrets. Three Deaths is told through the perspectives of both Willa and Sawyer. The former's narrative hops back and forth in time, revealing little clues, while Sawyer's narrative progresses chronologically from her discovery of the suicide onwards. Willa's voice, as befits her character, is very strong and I would have loved to see more of it. A third "voice" emerges from pieces from the book she was writing, which gives us some further insight. While I liked these, I would have perhaps preferred to see them through Willa's eyes directly, rather than the distance of the her writing.
This is Kate Robard's debut novel and, like I said above, I enjoyed the way she brought together various tension points in Three Deaths. The relationship between the sisters is intriguing and one in which I could recognise issues that plague many siblings. I also liked the creepy, woodsy elements Robard brought in and her descriptions of settings were absolutely on point. I also was properly intrigued by the plot and finished the novel in 2 sittings, propelled onwards to the conclusion. It is just a shame that by the end I felt like there was something missing. Questions around Willa's suicide, of Willa and Sawyer's childhood, of Sawyer's own shaky path in life, they were all still swimming around. While a novel is in no way required to tie up every single loose end, it felt like there were too few points of connection between some of these threads. I think Three Deaths could have benefitted from one last, tight editing round in which moments were highlighted that needed just a few more sentences to polish the whole thing into a shining whole. There is a lot of promise here, and Robards shows herself to be in control of the writing and pacing throughout. The plot just needs a little bit of tightening to make sure the different themes that emerge and the different relationships that are established all have their proper place and their time to breathe. I look forward to what Kate Robards writes next.
I give this novel...
2 to 3 Universes!
I have never given a split rating before, but I really found myself split when it came to this novel. While The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard had all the elements of a thriller which I adore, something like connective tissue felt missing. That is how I ended up rating it between 2 and 3, leaning slightly towards three. The novel has a lot of promise, even if partly unfulfilled, and I will definitely be giving future books by Kate Robards a go.
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