In previous works, Joyce Maynard has explored crime, violence and betrayal, both in books of true crime and in novels inspired by real-life events. UNDER THE INFLUENCE may not be directly influenced by current or historical events, but it nevertheless carries the same aura of authenticity and plausibility, as Maynard steadily outlines one woman’s susceptibility to an offer of friendship --- and a kind of life --- she never imagined she deserved.

The novel opens as Helen glimpses her old friend, Ava, through a car window. She hasn’t seen Ava in years, and is stunned not only by how much Ava’s appearance has changed but also by how her own feelings toward her old friend have altered. “I only wished I’d never set foot in it,” she thinks, reflecting on Ava’s grand home where she once spent so much time. What happened to so drastically change Helen’s opinion of a woman she once viewed as her closest friend? That’s what Maynard spends the rest of the book exploring.

"Although not precisely a suspense novel, UNDER THE INFLUENCE bears many of the hallmarks of suspense fiction, as it marches on steadily toward the inevitable betrayal that readers know is coming but still will surprise them."

Helen is in her late 30s when she meets the Havillands --- Ava and her charismatic husband, Swift --- as she works part-time as a caterer to make ends meet following her divorce. She is in a particularly vulnerable place when she first encounters Ava and Swift, having recently lost custody of her seven-year-old son, Ollie, following a DUI arrest while he was in the car. She is lonely, sad and insecure, so when the glamorous and larger-than-life Havillands appear to take a genuine interest in her, she is floored…and flattered.

Soon Helen is making near-daily visits to the Havillands’ gorgeous home, neglecting her old friends in favor of this new and alluring lifestyle. The Havillands hire Helen, a photographer, to do a variety of photography and other odd jobs for them and their friends. But mostly they just seem to enjoy her company, delighting in her tales from the trenches of online dating and regaling her with details of their own very active sex life.

However, after Helen meets a guy who actually makes her happy but fails to meet with the Havillands’ approval (or vice versa), and especially after her relationship with Ollie becomes inextricably wound up with the Havillands, she begins to feel increasingly uneasy by the extent to which her new friends have taken over her life. And when tragedy strikes, Helen realizes in a moment how much she’s already lost --- and how much she could still lose.

Although not precisely a suspense novel, UNDER THE INFLUENCE bears many of the hallmarks of suspense fiction, as it marches on steadily toward the inevitable betrayal that readers know is coming but still will surprise them. Helen is a realistically flawed character; you might be ready to throttle her for her relative passivity, occasional insensitivity and failure to act in her own best interest, but you’ll be cheering for her nevertheless. The knotty web Maynard constructs is tangled, indeed, but watching how Helen becomes entangled within --- and eventually freed from --- its clutches makes UNDER THE INFLUENCE nearly impossible to put down.