Book Review: Torment by Gypsy McKnight

Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski

The diabolical machinations of a twisted mind target a family with shocking repercussions in this fast-paced thriller.

An “innocent” office affair drags one man’s family down a torturous road of deceit, manipulation, and white-collar crime in Gypsy McKnight’s thrilling novella Torment.

The Wingarts are an average American family. Doug is the breadwinner, working late and on weekends to get a promotion. Stacy, meanwhile, is hoping to see more of him as she deals with the demands of four children, including young twins. But Doug has his eye on his assistant, Kelley, whose pouting lips and self-assured sexuality threaten to derail his already checkered fidelity to his wife.

When a fiery explosion destroys the company office from which they barely escape alive, Kelley has the wherewithal to set up temporary office space at a local hotel. Their affair rises from the ashes of the company’s destroyed building, in conjunction with Kelley’s admission to Doug that the ten million dollars from the insurance settlement is now in a private account offshore and untraceable. Doug’s sense of right and wrong is lost in Kelley’s green eyes. His “skin tingled at the thought of Kelley’s touch. Everything about her was perfect, the way her eyes burned straight through to his soul.”

But there are hints at home that Stacy’s addiction issues are returning, which the elder children, Adrian and Charlotte, wrestle with in their own ways: Adrian loses himself in a new relationship with a French exchange student, and Charlotte channels her passion for ballet into an obsession.

Doug takes Kelley’s advice to help Stacy by hiring a nanny, who wins over the twins at the expense of their mother. Another suggestion from his paramour convinces Doug to install home security cameras to observe Margaret, the nanny, with the twins. As Stacy begins to suspect Doug, her mental health takes a nosedive…and the security cameras capture something horrifying.

In spare prose, the novella chronicles the Wingart clan’s decline and fall in the aftermath of Doug’s selfish decisions. Stacy is convinced the nanny is not who she claims to be and begins her own search for answers before succumbing to the siren song of opiates and marijuana.

Charlotte’s new ballet instructor pushes her beyond the limits of a twelve-year-old, triggering anxiety and suppressed memories from when her mother was in her first throes of addiction, prior to rehab. Adrian, an eighteen-year-old high schooler, guards a precious secret about his relationship with Elodie, the French exchange student, from his troubled parents.

The story is a taut and tightly paced thriller that examines the impact of adultery and addiction in sharp, realistic dialogue. The “mystery” of the family’s torment is easy to glean, but the extent of it is a creative and twisty surprise. The narrative drops the reader immediately into a family fully sprung from Zeus’s head, i.e., their past is unknown except for what McKnight reveals. Stacy’s experiences with drugs and rehab are a painful memory, as is Doug’s first act of adultery, but these engaging and provocative plot elements are given short shrift. The story has enough fuel to go from a novella to a novel, if only we were given deeper backstories and character development.

Torment is a quick, twisty read that dials up the mayhem and relishes the ride over the destination.

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