Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally.

In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time.

Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.

Book Type:

Psychological Thriller

Review: The Two Lila Bennetts

A woman faces the consequences of a lifetime of actions in Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke’s thought-provoking thriller, THE TWO LILA BENNETTS.

Criminal defense attorney Lila Bennett has made a lot of bad choices. Her ambition has clouded her ethics, each action taking her farther across a threshold. Usually unruffled, Lila questions her choice to represent a man accused of murdering his wife—a man most likely guilty. With something like regret still stirring in her gut, she finds herself at a moral crossroads with a decision that splits her life in two.

“Tonight I feel the chasm become visceral, like my life could split in two—the choices laid at my feet leading me on completely different paths.”

In one, Lila is abducted, awaking on a dirty cement floor, hands and feet bound, her life seemingly in its last throes. In the other, she escapes capture, but her life and marriage begin to collapse, one secret at a time.

In both scenarios, Lila is forced to face past transgressions, her life unraveling at the hands of an unknown assailant. And despite everything falling apart, she wonders, does she deserve to live at all after everything she’s done?

Fenton and Steinke craft something wholly compelling with their latest—a fresh take on the Sliding Doors concept. Through their exploration of how Lila’s actions have led to certain outcomes, we get to see how decisions and moments, both large and small, can aggregate across a lifetime to shape who one is as a person. And can one choose to change despite those things that have defined us?

The chapters alternate between Free and Captured, chronicling Lila’s parallel paths.  There’s never a dull moment thanks to the narrative’s fast pacing, and it builds towards a finale that feels wholly satisfying and natural to the story’s arc.

THE TWO LILA BENNETTS is cleverly written and suspenseful—the perfect summer thriller that will linger long after you’re done.

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