A novel should stir the emotions, and Tangerine, the debut novel from Christine Mangan, does just that. It made this reviewer boiling mad. And that's a good thing.

A reader could be forgiven for imagining Tangerine as a Patricia Highsmith spinoff—Mr. Ripley Goes to Morocco. Its villain is a psychopath who would give Tom Ripley—not to mention Hannibal Lecter—pause. Why, Ripley even rhymes with one of the protagonists' names: Alice Shipley. The other protagonist is her former Bennington roommate, Lucy Mason, who's shown up out of the Mediterranean blue on the doorstep of Alice and her husband's home. It is best not to spoil the story and reveal the identity of the baddie. Is it Alice's miserable, sexist, condescending, unfaithful husband, John? Or is it Joseph, an oily grifter who meets Lucy when she first arrives in Tangier? Is it Alice? Is it Lucy? Is it Alice's rich, chilly aunt?

At first, Lucy earns some sympathy after she barges in on Alice and John like Blanche DuBois; she is sure to suffer the same fate, since John is such a creep. Then it seems that Joseph has sinister intentions he'll inevitably act on. Mangan keeps readers guessing for a surprisingly long time, but as the story goes on, it appears the truth was hiding in plain sight. The ending will send you back to the beginning to pick up on all the clues you missed.

Speaking of the book's ending and my ensuing anger, be warned: There is not even a hint of justice prevailing. The miscreant isn't all that smart or talented, but is simply ruthless in the way of a cold-blooded reptile or politician. Readers will hope that Mangan, like Highsmith, writes a series of books about this villain, if for no other reason than to see whether the lowlife gets his or her comeuppance or slips away one more time.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

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This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Alice hasn't spoken to former Bennington roommate Lucy since a terrible accident over a year ago, but she's almost relieved when Lucy arrives in sun-scorched 1950s Tangier, eager to put things right. But soon Lucy seems to be taking over (again), and then Alice's husband disappears. Atmospheric enough to be a movie? You bet; George Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures bought the film rights, with Scarlett Johansson set to star. No wonder this debut is getting a 200,000-copy first printing.

Obsession intersects two love triangles in this tale of devotion gone wrong. Twisted passion, perceived betrayal, and a fight for survival are written into the exotic, colorful, and dangerous backdrop of 1950s Tangier, Morocco. Alice Shipley and Lucy Mason are introverted college roommates who quickly become best friends. But when Alice finds romance with Tom, odd things happen, ending with a car accident that tears their lives apart. Trying to forget Lucy and their tainted past, Alice marries a man she hardly knows and moves to Tangier—a place that holds the promise of adventure laced with the thrill of danger but that proves too threatening for Alice. Amid her misery in Tangier, Alice is shocked to find Lucy on her doorstep, an unwanted visitor from the past. When Lucy discovers that Alice's marriage is far from happy, she decides to rescue the woman she'd loved in college, once again claiming her as her own. In a relationship characterized by intense loyalty and ardent passion, the price of betrayal and the sacrifice for survival become steep. VERDICT Readers captivated by the flavor of international romance and intrigue, as in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, will enjoy the distorted psychological twists and turns in this fascinating off-center tale. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]—K.L. Romo, Duncanville, TX

The spirit of Patricia Highsmith's sociopathic social climber Tom Ripley is alive in Mangan's transportive debut. Alice Shipley and Lucy Mason met as freshman at Bennington in the early 1950s and became the best of friends. Now, after a year apart, they meet again in 1956 in Tangier, where Alice and her new husband, John McAllister, have moved for his job. Alice doesn't especially enjoy living in Tangier, which is too foreign for her liking. Lucy, meanwhile, revels in the raffish individuals found in the souk. A suspected dalliance by John paves the way for Lucy to reassert her position with the emotionally fragile and easy-to-manipulate Alice. At the same time, the story flashes back to the girls' passionate friendship at Bennington, where they were inseparable until Tom, a drama student from Williams, came between them. A tragedy ultimately broke their friendship, and there is every indication that another accident of some kind will occur in Tangier; the twisted history of this relationship seems fated to repeat itself. Although some of the plot developments are easy to predict, the novel is narrated persuasively in alternating chapters by Alice and Lucy, and Mangan's portrayal of Tangier is electric. This sharp novel reads like Single White Female rewritten as a collaboration between Paul Bowles and Mary McCarthy. (Mar.)