I know some of these cases may be well known over in the States, but not for everyone else, myself included, so I really dislike part way through a book when an author feels the need to tell bits of the ‘story’ before they should be told, and I’ve always meant to give a grumpy review on it. Word spread among friends and church members that the Powell family was missing. In the early afternoon Kiirsi sent a text message to JoVonna Owings, who knew Susan from the church choir. If I Can’t Have You is a stunning début novel by new author Charlotte Levin. There was such a lot to love about this smart and compelling story. On the surface, Samuel is handsome and educated and he’s a doctor too so he must be kind, right? Wrong. He is wilfully blind, making false promises to women, pretending that he wants a relationship with them even though all he wants is casual sex. When those women call him out on his behaviour, he dismisses them as ‘nutters’. Clad in a meringue of taffeta, tulle and blood, Constance steps onto the underground in somewhat of a daze. As the reader we are instantly drawn into her world and what happened to leave her sandwiched between a hipster and a mother with her child in a bridal gown on a train. The child was in awe of Constance's attire exclaiming "Look at the princess, mummy!" whilst pawing the rustling fabric as other passengers possibly declared her somewhat insane. In that moment, we feel her pain despite not yet knowing what it is. Has she been jilted? Or is she a runaway bride?

I implore you to read (or listen to) it. It's so many things - dark, sweet, odd, moving, credible, tender, beautifully written & at times funny' - Marian Keyes, author of Again, RachelThis story will make you cry at the injustice of it all, and will also make you very, very angry - and not just at the Powell family but the spineless police detectives and other official agencies that couldn't seem to talk to each other. The circumstancial evidence is just too compelling to be coincidence. Jennifer called Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan's best friend, who lived down the street from the Powells. Kiirsi hadn't talked to Susan since Sunday, when they had walked home from church together. This is superb . . . and compulsive and disturbing and very well done indeed' Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange And ya know, not a spoiler since it's a matter of public record but he's now done his time and is out of prison. Oh snap - parole - so we're all safe aren't we?

Something did come, however, a little later that evening in the form of a phone call. It made her heart beat faster, her stomach turn somersaults. Josh Powell didn't know it, but he'd just nailed the trifecta, the traits of those who kill their spouses. It was so obvious. Different but relatively enjoyable, IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU is the literary cross of "Fatal Attraction" and "Gone Girl" that is truly imaginative and compelling. Recommended though it may not be for all. One thing it does have in common with others of its purported genre is its readability. There is a creepy compulsiveness to the story, a sense from the start that things are going to go tits up. You just don’t know how and when. In this sense it shares something in common with Harriet Lane’s Alys Always which also features a woman insinuating herself into the lives of others. What makes this protagonist’s journey so seductive, however, is both its plausibility and its possibility. We might like to believe that Constance Little is none of us, but in reality she is all of us, for who can tell what lies around the corner of our lives, what particular synergy of experiences, or accidents of birth will presage the perfect storm towards tragedy?Jennifer went into the master bedroom. Despite the clutter, she noticed Susan's blue leather purse on a table by the foot of the bed. It contained her wallet, credit cards, and keys. There was no cell phone. The house was messy, but that was normal. There was no sign of forced entry or a robbery, home invasion, or struggle. Susan's red nylon snow boots, which she wore whenever she left the house, were in the living room. Upstairs in thirty-year-old Johnny Powell's bedroom, a carefully coiled rope noose hung on the wall along with disturbing renderings of a woman with a knife running through her vagina and exiting her stomach. Johnny, whom his father and sister Alina considered an artist, had a history of mental troubles. If I Can’t Have You is Charlotte Levin’s superb debut novel and is part thriller and part human interest story which is a smart and heart-breaking read. It poses the question: how far would you be willing to go for the one you love? But JoVonna Owings had seen the family. She'd been with them Sunday afternoon and would be critical to piecing together Susan's last hours.

I read this book in three days, not just because of the book's extreme readability, but because I couldn't stand to be a part of the evil of the events described therein for much longer than that. When the sexy Dr Stevens begins to show interest, her whole world changes. They begin an exciting affair, Constance is in Love for the first time. He whispers sweetness to her ear, he's smitten... right? After being trapped by the police in his driveway, Josh followed Detective Maxwell to the West Valley City Police Department to tell his story once more. The police wanted Charlie and Braden to come to the station, too. quote "It's funny, grief, isn't it? How you die with them. Whoever you were before has gone +... "unquote)What I did love about Constance was her wit pipped at the post only by a lesser character, Edward, who provided the balance and sanity and light relief much needed in this tale of obsession, loneliness, fear and hope. A well deserved 5 stars. Congratulations to the author. Down the street from the Powells', Kiirsi Hellewell sat at her computer in a downstairs playroom filled with crafts and toys that shouted to the world she was a mother—and a busy one at that. Surrounded by her children's photos, she went onto Facebook to see what, if anything, anyone had reported about the Powells. Imagine Joe Goldberg (YOU) and Sweetpea had a one-night stand and they had a lovechild… so now let me introduce you to Constance Little. Susan's father had faith that things would be all right. His daughter would be found safe and sound. He promised Judy. He believed it. He prayed for it. Debbie Caldwell pulled up in her Ford Club Wagon—the one with fifteen seats to carry all the children who attended her day care—and observed how quiet her friend and neighbor Susan's house seemed. It was 9:00 A.M. on Monday, December 7, 2009, and West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, was in the middle of a three-day winter storm. Freezing temperatures and four inches of new snowfall made the roads so icy that the local news described the streets as "mayhem."

I'm thinking unless you've lived on another planet the last few years, most everyone is aware of the basics of this sad story. Utah wife and mother Susan Powell goes missing after the husband takes the two young boys *camping* to a very remote location in the middle of the winter and in the middle of the night at that. Comes home the next day and spends hours cleaning out his van and areas in the home instead of taking part in the search effort. This psychological thriller is written as a fascinating and detailed letter, from Constance to Samuel, and SO hard to put down. The story is a mixture of “Fatal Attraction” and “Gone Girl” and works perfectly. I couldn’t help but root for “Team Constance”, even if she was a bit psycho. The more I read about her, the more I sympathized with her and tried to understand her actions. In addition to television and radio appearances, the award-winning author has been featured in Redbook, USA Today, People, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post. But the truth is much stranger than fiction; far darker and twisted than anyone could possibly imagine. Including Constance herself.My thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers, PanMacmillan for a copy of the ARC in return for an honest review. Thank you to Pigeonhole, Charlotte Levin and Pan McMillan for this free digital ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion! Working as a receptionist for a doctors surgery in affluent Kensington, Constance falls in love with Dr Samuel Stevens the moment she sets eyes on him. Brought in to fill the gap a deceased doctor has left behind, Samuel arrives with his smiles and self-importance. Despite this Constance sees only attraction and is immediately infatuated with him, finding any excuse she can to be alone with him. Soon her every thought is consumed with him particularly when her advances are reciprocated and Constance believes their stolen moments to be true love. This is a well-written account of the Susan Powell disappearance and subsequent murder of her children that played out locally in Utah a few years ago. There are not a lot of good guys in it. The evil and perversion of a family, the slow movement of the police, and the helplessness of everybody else makes this a difficult book.