What struck me most about Best Boy was how beautifully it wove suspense with an almost lyrical look at memory and identity. Viveca Stevenson is a fascinating character — on the surface, she has everything: a family, a dream home, a polished past as an actress. But when that mysterious letter arrives, the cracks in her carefully curated life start to widen, and it pulled me right into her unraveling.

I loved the way Deborah Goodrich Royce explored what it means to bury trauma so deeply that it feels erased. The slow reveal of Viveca’s past, and the way it began to collide with her present, kept me turning pages quickly. The atmosphere in Greenwich was vivid and elegant, but there was always a shadow behind it — a sense that nothing was as polished as it seemed.

The pacing was strong, and while I guessed pieces of the mystery before the ending, there were still surprises in how everything came together. Royce’s prose is smart and layered, which made this feel like more than just a straightforward thriller — it’s a psychological deep dive with plenty of tension and a few gut-punch moments.

Overall, Best Boy is an intelligent, suspenseful read that balances emotional depth with page-turning twists. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves psychological thrillers that dig into memory, identity, and the lies we tell ourselves to survive.

Thank you to NetGalley, Post Hill Press, and Deborah Goodrich Royce for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Best Boy is a stylish, slow-burning thriller that slips between memory and mystery with effortless grace. Deborah Goodrich Royce invites us into the world of Viveca—former actress, devoted mother, and reluctant keeper of secrets—whose carefully curated life begins to unravel with the arrival of a letter from someone she doesn’t remember.

What follows is a layered exploration of identity, fame, and the shadows cast by a long-forgotten film set. Royce’s writing is crisp and cinematic, with just the right amount of glamour and grit. The pacing is deliberate, allowing tension to build as Viveca’s past creeps into her present, and the question of what really happened on that Halloween night grows more urgent.

There’s a quiet elegance to the way Royce handles trauma and memory—never sensational, always emotionally grounded. Viveca is a compelling lead: flawed, introspective, and increasingly unsure of what’s real. The final reveal is both satisfying and unsettling, tying together the threads of guilt, fame, and forgotten truths.

Perfect for readers who enjoy psychological suspense with a literary edge and a touch of old Hollywood mystique.

Thank you to Deborah Goodrich Royce, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

My first book by this author, and I really enjoyed it.
Viveca lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband, Henry and their son Theo. But a wife and mother is not all she is or was.
Told in 1998 when she was growing up, 2008 when she was pursuing an acting career, and now in 2018. Life seems good, until a letter arrives. A letter that talks about things in her past, that she does not remember.
We discover bits and pieces about her life as we move back and forward in time. The author does an excellent job, teasing out the highs and lows of Viveca’s life. It was not impossible to believe that her migraines were making her an unreliable narrator in her own life. However, for me, there was one person who I never trusted. I am not going to say if I was right or wrong to avoid spoiler territory. I will say that when everything was revealed, I felt so sad for everything Viveca went through.
While I did not love the ending, I did really enjoy the journey. I am excited to get my hands on this author’s backlist.