Death in Her Hands

A Novel

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

Named a Best Book of the year by Elle, Bustle, and the New York Public Library

From one of our most ceaselessly provocative literary talents, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds an ominous note on a walk in the woods.

While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one.

Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate. With very little to go on, she invents a list of murder suspects and possible motives for the crime. Oddly, her suppositions begin to find correspondences in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to fade into menacing certainty. As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past; we must face the prospect that there is either an innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one.

A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, Death in Her Hands asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both reflect the truth and keep us blind to it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, and the stakes have never been higher.

:/

I mean I finished it so its not thaaaat bad but god the pay off is just not worth it in my opinion

Good book, Annoying Narrator

Otessa Moshfegh is one of my favorite writers and her previous books are brilliant. This novel is captivating, but unfortunately not up to the high standard she set with ‘my year of rest and relaxation.’ The narration was painful and made it hard to get through an otherwise interesting story. Warning to those trying to listen, I’d get the hard copy.

could not finish

The narration seemed like a put on voice of what someone decided a 70 year old should sound like. Tried to power through. Couldn't.

Nope

I finished this despite the narrators voice
Story wasn’t worth it.
I really loved Death Becomes Her.

Vivid, but meandering

A descent into madness following an unreliable narrator as she navigates fantasies of murder mystery as a way to address her anger toward her abusive late husband. A rich character study, but a bit of a slog. Felt cartoonish in its portrayal of mental illness.