The Fake

January 9, 2023
Two people are deceived by the same trickster in the diverting latest from Whittall (The Best Kind of People). Thirty-something Shelby joins a support group after her wife dies from an aneurism. There, she meets Cammie, the eponymous phony, who’s delighted to encounter someone else who’s under 40. Shelby, meanwhile, wonders what Cammie’s doing there; “She looks too good to be in mourning,” Shelby thinks, “like an Instagram ad.” A parallel narrative follows recent divorcé Gibson, 39, who meets Cammie at a bar and is immediately taken by the wild younger woman who beats him at poker and suggests they have sex as a consolation prize. Shelby and Gibson both enter a honeymoon phase with Cammie (Shelby’s is platonic, though she continues to harbor a crush), but after the two meet, Cammie’s stories about performing on an Arcade Fire album and having a dead sister plus a cancer diagnosis unravel. The somewhat predictable narrative echoes TV shows like Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler, though there are deeper thrills in witnessing those in Cammie’s orbit untangle their self-delusions. There aren’t many surprises, but Whittall brings plenty of verve to the proceedings. Agent: Samantha Haywood, Transatlantic Agency.

February 15, 2023
Gibson is struggling with postdivorce loneliness and on the cusp of 40 when he meets Cammie. He's instantly smitten with this free-spirited, independent woman. He soon learns that Cammie has her own struggles, which include kidney cancer, an abusive boyfriend, and a family history of depression and suicide that has her attending a grief-support group. There, Cammie meets Shelby, who has barely left the house since her wife, Kate, died. Shelby is immediately drawn to Cammie, too. As Gibson and Shelby get to know Cammie better, cracks in her too-good-to-be-true facade begin to appear. And once Gibson and Shelby get to know each other, the floodgates open, revealing the lies that Cammie has carefully crafted. Whittall (The Spectacular, 2021) explores the ways that people believe what they need to believe--and how that impulse can be exploited. Both Gibson and Shelby's perspectives are presented in alternating chapters, with an opening and closing statement from Cammie that both sets up her con and shares her motivation. Fans of Janelle Brown will be drawn to this twisty tale of a master manipulator.

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Starred review from February 1, 2023
A beautiful young woman swindles two vulnerable strangers. After the recent death of her wife, Shelby has been unable to push past her grief. She finally forces herself to visit a support group, but as she takes her seat at the meeting, she quickly decides it was a mistake. Then Cammie walks in. She's young, gorgeous, and complicated. Most of all, she seems newly down on her luck, like she needs a caretaker. Suddenly, Shelby feels like she has a purpose in life again. She takes Cammie into her home, loaning her clothing and money, buying her food, and, best of all, rediscovering her own joy by tending to someone else's needs. Meanwhile, Gibson, a recently divorced middle-aged man who's been suffering from depression and loneliness, meets Cammie one night in a bar. When she comes on to him, he can't believe his luck. In a blink, he's having incredible sex for the first time in as long as he can remember. Not only that, he's also enjoying deep, meaningful conversations with this vixen. It doesn't feel like a big deal to him when he tells her she can crash at his place while she works out some temporary housing problems. As time unfolds, both Shelby and Gibson receive warnings from friends that Cammie seems like trouble, but they are too smitten to care. Everything changes when Shelby and Gibson meet each other. Told in the third person, the book alternates between Shelby's and Gibson's journeys, tracing their experiences with Cammie and the ways in which this magnetic young woman changes each of their lives. Whittall does an excellent job of showing all that is appealing about Cammie while also revealing her duplicitousness. The novel raises the question of whether Cammie, even with her morally bereft antics, might still be a positive influence in the lives of the people she meets and deceives. The author also manages to draw quirky, memorable characters who are deeply flawed and still compelling. With accessible prose, insight into human nature, a slow build of suspense, and a fresh look at how we handle difficult events, Whittall has created a real winner. The story of a con artist so good that even the reader will want to suspend disbelief.

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