Believe me, this is not a duo I’d want to invite to my cookout.Ĭlementine carries a lifelong grudge because as a kid her mother forced her to befriend poor lonely Erika, whose own mom is a serious hoarder. The central problem resides with the two main characters, Erika and Clementine, childhood “best friends” who aren’t even sure they like each other now that they’re all grown up. But the real sin of Truly Madly Guilty is that it’s simply not as much fun as The Husband’s Secret or Big Little Lies. Did a barbie blow up? Was (shudder) a child seriously injured, or worse? Or did somebody just disappear upstairs with somebody else’s hubby? The story’s mystery - strung out for hundreds of pages - is what awful thing happened at a backyard barbecue in the Sydney suburbs. Guilty of what? We’re dying to know.Īlas, Truly Madly Guilty is a bit of a letdown, a summer bummer, if you will. Moriarty’s latest novel sports yet another sexy title.

Which brings us to Truly Madly Guilty (Flatiron, pp., **½ out of four stars). Who can resist a prolonged buildup, with the tantalizing promise of a scintillating payoff? It’s seduced many a Moriarty reader, turning tasty treats such as The Husband’s Secret into literary hotcakes.Įven Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman aren’t immune to Moriarty’s Aussie charms: They star in a forthcoming HBO adaptation of Big Little Lies, Moriarty’s highly entertaining tale of helicopter moms caught up in what may be murder.

Truly madly guilty book