The New York Times Book Review - Charles Finch
There's an enormous technical difficulty with this kind of book: The author must hold the husband in a state of weird suspension throughout, since he's either (a) a murderer or (b) the victim of terrible circumstances…At the same time, it's a perfect microscope with which to examine the inexhaustible fascinations of marriage, and as Pitlor flashes between the day of Hannah's disappearance and Lovell's uneasy consideration of their past resentments, she finds a nice voice—thoughtful, lyrical, unforced.
From the Publisher
An Indie Next Pick Selected as a Best Beach Read by Coastal Living magazine, Family Circle, The Advocate, and Health magazine “Likely to linger in the reader’s mind . . . a perfect microscope with which to examine the inexhaustible fascinations of marriage, and as Pitlor flashes between the day of Hannah’s disappearance and Lovell’s uneasy consideration of their past resentments, she finds a nice voice — thoughtful, lyrical, unforced." —New York Times Book Review “Despite the acrid marriage, the his-and-hers narration, and the fact that Lovell quickly emerges as the primary suspect, this isn’t really another Gone Girl. It’s more an exploration of the way that the tiniest and most impetuous of decisions can suddenly recast a person’s life.”—Entertainment Weekly “Hypnotically readable—I absolutely couldn't put it down. The structure is brilliant, and I turned the pages with increasing dread. This book is terrific.” —Stephen King “Beyond the novel’s taut suspense and subtle characterization, Pitlor’s vivid prose provides an additional pleasure . . . The novel’s suspense lasts right until its shocking climax, but the ‘messy, wonderful, excruciating lives’ of its characters linger in the mind long after the last page.” —The Boston Globe “Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will delight in this familiar tale . . . The mystery will keep you on the edge of your beach chair, but the real attraction to this book is the author’s beautiful portrayal of a marriage in peril, of two people whose lives have become heartbreakingly ordinary, and how it forever altered their personalities.” —Coastal Living “The novel’s easy blending of crime and family narrative deftly cracks open the closed world of Lovell and Hannah’s marriage. In this exploration of a woman lost, and a lost love, Pitlor exposes every secret — frustrations, weaknesses, ugliness — to the harsh light of day.” —Toronto Star “This Stephen King-approved ‘hypnotically readable’ novel involves a wife who’s vanished and a husband who’s trying to understand what’s happened, but it’s not just another Gone Girl.”—Health Magazine “Riveting and distinctive.” —BBC “In this captivating and emotionally stirring new mystery that, dare I say, may even be better than Gone Girl . . . A riveting psychological thriller that let’s you work out your darkest fears with a gay twist? Yes, please!” —Advocate.com “The strength of The Daylight Marriage lies in its structure, coupled with a clear, piercing cadence in each sentence.” —Los Angeles Review of Books "This spellbinding novel of suspense from the author of The Birthdays is told with great sympathy, as tension builds toward an inexorable conclusion. It can also be read as a cautionary tale both about a failed marriage and about how one impulsive decision can lead to a very dark place.” —Library Journal “Pitlor brings forth the emotions that surge beneath the surface with the precision and power of a conductor . . . This powerful analysis of how dreams become nightmares will make readers want to hold their loved ones close.” —Booklist, starred review “Already read Room by Emma Donoghue? Consider The Daylight Marriage [next].” —Family Circle “In The Daylight Marriage, there are two mysteries—the whereabouts of a missing woman and the vagaries of the human heart. Heidi Pitlor explores both of these enigmas with equal mastery, merging a shocking crime story with an incisive portrait of a failed marriage. The result is a novel that is fast-moving, emotionally complex, and ultimately heartbreaking.” —Tom Perrotta, author of Nine Inches
Library Journal
04/15/2015
Lovell and Hannah Hall are an odd couple, and not in an amusing way. Pretty and fun-loving Hannah has been somewhat spoiled by her wealthy parents. Lovell, whom she married on the rebound from a boyfriend who was wild and impulsive, is everything she is not: an introspective climate scientist who hides his feelings. Over the years, their relationship has become cold and distant, with their two children apparently not enough to hold them together. Finances are tight, and Hannah is beginning to feel trapped and restless. After a particularly nasty argument with Lovell, she disappears from their home in the Boston suburbs, and he is left scrambling for clues to her abrupt departure while trying to keep the family from splintering further as they await news of Hannah. VERDICT This spellbinding novel of suspense from the author of The Birthdays is told with great sympathy, as tension builds toward an inexorable conclusion. It can also be read as a cautionary tale both about a failed marriage and about how one impulsive decision can lead to a very dark place.—Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
Kirkus Reviews
2015-02-17
A wife and mother goes missing, and a family is forced to reassess both the past and the future.Call it Gone Woman. The morning after a bad argument with her husband, Lovell, a climate scientist, 39-year-old Hannah Hall disappears on her way to work. When some of her possessions and then pieces of bone are found on a South Boston beach, it gets progressively harder for Lovell and their two children, 15-year-old Janine and 8-year-old Ethan, to fend off their fears for her safety. These are the scant plot points of Best American Short Stories series editor Pitlor's second novel (The Birthdays, 2006), and they're augmented by flashbacks, character studies, and descriptions of the family's struggles to cope with Hannah's disappearance and the media's interest in it. Originally from a wealthy Martha's Vineyard family, Hannah emerges as unfulfilled and naïve, still yearning at some romantic fantasy level for Doug, the handsome boy to whom she was originally engaged before he revealed his faithlessness. Lovell, from a semirural background in Maine, now wholly immersed in his work, couldn't believe his luck when Hannah accepted his proposal—"She was light years out of his league"—but that was before the marriage turned sexless and sour. A pall of unhappiness hangs over the story as the weaknesses of the marriage, Hannah's equivocal feelings, and the doomed nature of events (gradually revealed in chapters narrated from Hannah's point of view on that fateful day) are examined. While Lovell is a gloomy central character and Janine is insolent and disdainful in her teenage distress, Pitlor lays a closing gleam of compassion over them all. A technically accomplished but largely downbeat tale of miserable people learning life lessons late.
