Jamie Anderson knows the risks of being a cop's wife: her husband, Mike, faces danger on the job every day. But when Mike's partner is seriously wounded in a shooting, Jamie watches helplessly as Mike becomes mired in guilt and grief. After Mike goes back to work, he's involved in the death of a Hispanic teenager--but this time Mike is the shooter. As the story hits the local news and he withdraws deeper into himself, Jamie struggles to keep their family afloat.
In her sixth novel, Things You Won't Say, Sarah Pekkanen (Catching Air) touches on the sensitive subjects of police brutality and racial profiling. But Mike's motives are never in question. Instead, Pekkanen takes the incident as a starting point to explore the effects of the shooting on Mike's family, which includes not only Jamie and their children but Mike's flighty ex, Christie, and her teenage son. Meanwhile, Jamie's younger sister, Lou, must figure out how to help the big sister who has always taken care of her.
Pekkanen's strength as a writer lies in her exploration of the complicated bonds between women. The fraught relationship of Jamie and Christie--who both love Mike and his son, Henry--feels particularly true to life. While Lou, a socially awkward zookeeper, is an appealing character, she feels more like a type than a distinct personality, as do Jamie's younger children.
Written in Pekkanen's signature energetic style, Things You Won't Say is a compelling look at complex family dynamics in the face of tragedy. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams