Onyx reviews: Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 8/15/2021

Although his current novel isn't going well, Gerry Anderson has had a successful writing career. The high point was the bestselling, award-winning Lolita-esque novel Dream Girl, which was also turned into a movie. Told from the perspective of a character named Aubrey McFate, the book has long been the source of questions about who was its inspiration. Gerry, the kind of guy the #MeToo movement was created to expose, couldn't possibly have conjured her up out of whole cloth as he's always claimed, could he?

Gerry is recently separated from his most recent bad relationship, a woman he refers to as a "shake-down queen" who shows up from time to time to prove his point. Relocating within Manhattan wouldn't provide enough distance from her, so he relocates to Baltimore to look after his mother, who succumbs to dementia much faster than anticipated. He finds himself living alone in a multi-level penthouse apartment. Its unusual spiral staircase proves to be his literal downfall. Tripping and tumbling down the staircase leaves him stranded on the floor overnight. Among his injuries: a muscle tear in his leg that will leave him confined to bed for two-to-three months.

He's wealthy enough that he can afford home care. His beleaguered personal assistant Victoria tends to his needs during the daytime and a nurse-for-hire named Aileen stays on the premises overnight to be at his beck and call. He's every bit as trapped as Paul Sheldon was in Stephen King's Misery.

In his case, though, no one wants Gerry to write another book—they just want to know the secret behind Dream Girl. Things take a turn for the strange when Gerry starts getting letters and phone calls from someone claiming to be his inspiration. What's especially odd is that the letters mysteriously vanish and there is no record he received any calls. His nurse denies hearing the phone ring, so the open question is whether Gerry is losing his mind due to advancing age (he's 61), trauma from the accident or on account of the pain medication he's taking. Or is there, perhaps, a more sinister explanation for what's happening to him? When he wakes up to find a dead woman in his bedroom, the notion that it was all a delusion is settled for good.

Gerry's life is revealed through a series of flashbacks that reveal him to be not a very nice guy. He's played the part of the bad-boy writer throughout his career, flirting with his students and cheating on his wives with adoring fans. Is there something from his past he's forgotten that might explain why someone is tormenting him? He even tries to enlist the help of Tess Monaghan, but Lippman's series detective doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

He's a likeable enough rogue, but when things really start falling apart for him, it's hard not to think his possible comeuppance is richly deserved.