Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder is an intriguingly appealing debut crime novel by Kerryn Mayne. Released 9th July 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats (paperback due out from the same publisher in late 2nd quarter 2025). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.
This is very very much a character driven story featuring a neurodivergent main character, strongly suppresed trauma memories, and a quite surprisingly deeply moving story in places. There are trigger warnings aplenty, domestic violence, child abuse, PTSD, trauma, suppressed memories, and more; it's a comprehensive shopping list.
The author writes with unvarnished, sometimes clinical detachment on otherwise horrific actions and it is impressively effective, given the slightly wonky personality of main character Lenny.
The denouement and resolution are satisfying, if also slightly off kilter.
Four stars. All in all an effective and very well written debut. It would be a good choice for public or home library acquisition, buddy read or mystery book club selection.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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