Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband, Andy, has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague, Amber Halloway. What follows is Ophelia’s figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance from her beat-up Volvo, and surreptitiously moves into the foreclosed property next door to Amber’s. Spying on the lovers, Ophelia is tormented anew by the abandonment of her mother at age eight, and becomes increasingly estranged from the reality of her surroundings. The escalating tension comes to a crisis, however, when Andy and Amber become engaged. The Vixen Amber Halloway is a jailhouse confessional, a dark comedy, an oeuvre of women’s rage, a suspenseful revenge fantasy, and a moving portrait of one woman’s psychological breakdown.
Praise for The Vixen Amber Halloway
"LaHines’s fascinating narrator, Ophelia, is decidedly pathological. And here’s the surprise—she’s also sympathetic, humorous, intelligent—a deeply damaged woman telling her tale to a prison psychiatrist in preparation for a hearing before a parole board, but it’s not a confession.... The novel raises questions about diagnoses of mental disorders, possible treatment, and the appropriateness of incarceration."
—NPR Podcast, Baum on Books
"A heart-wrenching account of one soon-to-be-ex-wife's psychological breakdown... a compulsive read."
Katrīna Biele, Long. Sweet. Valuable, Medium.com
"The Vixen Amber Halloway is dark and compulsive reading. Following a woman's descent into madness after her husband leaves her for another woman, this compact and complex novel pulls you into the mind and delusions of a woman as she slowly devolves while you watch, helpless to stop it."
—Mary Webber O’Malley, bookseller at Skylark Bookshop
"Carol LaHines has invented here a compulsively readable and craftily constructed tale of murder and mayhem. Her wonderfully original unreliable narrator tells a story that will make you laugh and cry and perhaps remember Humbert Humbert in Lolita"
— Sheila Kohler, author of award-winning novels including Cracks and Open Secret
"Carol LaHines excels in a wry blend of humor and darkness...breathtaking in its descriptive psychological draw and surprising in some of its twists and turns of plot. LaHines creates a vivid story of a woman who embarks on a campaign that leads her further into darkness, taking readers by the hand in a dangerous invitation to join in the journey."
—D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"With pinpoint accuracy, LaHines nabs the inner life of a raging, jerky-eating narrator traumatized by family history who recounts her Lolita-like obsession with allegro turns of brilliance. Ophelia’s selective memory, steady wit, and allusions to Dante slip off her tongue with delicious, underhanded humor. Ophelia will make you feel the chill of vengeance, because her fury—delivered in a voice perfectly crafted by LaHines—makes perfect sense."
— Maureen Pilkington, author of This Side of Water: Stories
