One night at Kingsland, a luxurious by invitation only Long Island, N.Y., community--the setting for this turbo-plotted, character-challenged domestic thriller from the pseudonymous Scott (In Case of Emergency)--Vicky Barnes returns home from her weekly Sunday book club spent with sister Laura Mathers and friend Monica Nichols to find Terry, her disgraced former congressman husband, shot dead in their den. In short order, 911 calls come in concerning the other two men with whom Terry had just finished his weekly poker game: Spencer Nichols, former tech CEO convicted of defrauding investors (and Monica's husband), is missing, and Gil Mathers, #MeToo'd motivational speaker (and Laura's spouse), has been found collapsed on the road with a gunshot wound to the head. While each of the men has numerous enemies, the wives are initially the primary persons of interest--except they appear to have airtight alibis. Readers should be prepared for a mash-up of familiar plotlines, as recounted by half a dozen largely unreliable narrators, and the lack of anyone to root for. Nonetheless, this twist-filled tale makes for fast-paced diversion. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists. (Aug.)

Within Kingsland, a wealthy gated community full of upper-class social pariahs, three wives meet for a book club while their husbands play poker. It seems like a normal week until all three husbands end up dead or in the hospital. The town is now under a microscope as detectives descend on the wives and neighbors. The clues seem too easy, the prime suspect has an alibi, and the question on everyone's lips is, "Who can I really trust?" With a gripping opening followed by flashbacks to past events to fill in the gaps, Rule of Three is twisty and oh, so satisfying. Along with the mystery itself, the story revolves around social reputations, gun violence, "cancel culture," marital and parental trauma, vengeance, and female dynamics. The shorter chapters allow the plot to move quickly and the heavy subject matter is delightfully offset by humorous banter between detectives Wolcott and Silvestri. Recommended for fans of authors who write domestic thrillers and use unreliable narrators, such as Liane Moriarty, B. A. Paris, Sally Hepworth, and Mary Kubica.