‘Till Death Do Us Part’ by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Published by HQ, Harper Collins,
14 August 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-008-38891-1 (PB)

Till Death Do Us Part is a thriller divided into five parts, prefaced by a prologue and ending with an epilogue, that switches between various timelines and narrators. The chapters describe events occurring in autumns ranging from 1999 till 2022, and in two different parts of the States: Brooklyn, New York and Napa Valley, in California. The prologue, related by one of the two narrators, June Emery, sets the tone of the story: twisty, mysterious, and vaguely menacing. June tells of her elopement with Josh Kelly, the man of her dreams. They marry in a sun-drenched ceremony on Santa Barbara beach in September 2012, but June’s romantic dream quickly becomes a nightmare when Josh disappears, presumed drowned, and she becomes a widow a week after her wedding.  

The first chapter is set in August 2022 and, a decade on from her husband’s disappearance, June has made a new life for herself as the owner of a popular natural wine bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Her recovery from the emotional trauma of losing Josh so abruptly has, however, been hindered by her suspicion he might have been murdered. Still, there is now a new man in her life, Kyle Parker, who proposes and she accepts. 

The second chapter, set in September 1999, introduces us to the story’s other narrator, Bev Kelly, who is Josh’s mother. She and her husband David own a successful winery in the Napa Valley and have two other children: Andrew – Josh’s identical twin brother – in their late teens, and Kieran, who is still a baby. Passionate about the craft of winemaking, Bev and David live in a lovely home in a beautiful part of the world, proud parents of three handsome sons, but she admits there is trouble in paradise. She suspects her husband has had an affair, and there is some recent trouble or worry about her two older sons she fails to clarify. 

Returning to August 2022, June’s chance of embarking on a joyous, fulfilling new life is threatened when, celebrating her engagement with Kyle at a New York park – a friend taking photos of the happy couple – she happens to catch sight of a familiar face in the crowd: Josh. 

And so, it goes on. The story alternates between the years and the perspectives of the two narrators. All the main characters harbor secrets and lies. Appearances are deceptive: for example, is Josh alive or dead?  Till Death Do Us Part is engaging not only because of its labyrinthine plot and fascinating characters but also for the light it casts on winemaking. It is a novel gratifying to the oenophile as well as the crime fiction enthusiast, with each of its five parts devoted to an essential element of making wine: the harvest, the crushing of the grapes, fermentation, clarification, and finally aging. The epilogue satisfactorily gathers up the threads of the story and weaves them into a convincing conclusion.     

Highly recommended! But it is advisable to have a glass of red at hand –perhaps a good Cabernet Sauvignon – while one reads. 
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Reviewer: Wendy Jones Nakanishi/aka Lea O’Harra.

Laurie Elizabeth Flynn went to school for Journalism, where the most important thing she learned was that she would rather write made-up stories than report the news. She also worked as a model, a job that took her overseas to Tokyo, Athens, and Paris.  Laurie now lives in London, Ontario with her husband Steve, who is very understanding when she would rather spend time with the people in her head. Laurie drinks way too much coffee, snorts when she laughs, and times herself when she does crossword puzzles. 

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. She has also published two standalone crime fiction novels.