I Become Her

Edgar winner Hart (Or Else) delivers a tense domestic thriller about a pair of newlyweds who come unglued. Imogen and Lev Carmichael are on a Mediterranean honeymoon cruise when Imogen accuses Lev of being unfaithful, and then he falls overboard. Though Lev miraculously survives, he has no memory of the last few days. After the couple returns to their suburban Washington, D.C., home and Lev gradually regains full consciousness, Imogen fears what he will remember about the night he went overboard. Meanwhile, she tries to connect on social media with the Greek waitress she thinks he slept with, and peruses Lev’s profiles for other signs of infidelity. When she learns that one of his ex-girlfriends went missing and was never found, she reaches out to one of her own exes—a private investigator—whose plunge into Lev’s past reveals he may not be who he claims to be. Hart gleefully explores his characters’ dark sides while keeping questions about their capacities for violence wide open until the book’s explosive finale. With simmering suspense, slick sleight-of-hand, and a pitch-black view of modern relationships, this offers an acidic summertime thrill. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (Aug.)