The Eden Test

November 1, 2022

The Eden Test: it's a weeklong retreat helping couples undo the knots in their marriage. Daisy is signed up with husband Craig, who's secretly planning to leave her for another woman, regardless. But Daisy has secrets of her own, with a burner phone to prove it, and the retreat reveals the lies that have underlain this marriage all along. From the author of the Edgar finalist Shovel Ready; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

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Starred review from February 6, 2023
At the start of this outstanding psychological thriller from Edgar finalist Sternbergh (The Blinds), seemingly picture-perfect Gotham pair Daisy, an actor, and Craig, a frustrated writer moldering as a “brand advocate,” are observing their second anniversary by heading to a remote cabin in Upstate New York to participate in a weeklong device-free program designed to help troubled couples repair their relationships. The premise of the so-called Eden Test program—“Seven Days, Seven Questions, Forever Changed”—couldn’t be simpler, though Craig and Daisy’s experience veers off-script almost immediately. Which may hardly be surprising since one of them has essentially been hoodwinked into participating, both are surreptitiously texting on forbidden phones—and neither has been anything approaching honest with the other concerning some explosive secrets, which the author skillfully teases to fan suspense. Toss in menacing locals none too fond of “citiots” (short for “city idiots”), firearms, a game-changer third-act curveball, and Gone Girl–level deception, and the result is one masterfully manipulative chiller just waiting for its close-up. Sternbergh has outdone himself.

Starred review from March 15, 2023
A troubled marriage undergoes a stringent series of tests in the boondocks, dislodging secrets and upending expectations, including those of the reader, in this wry, sly chiller. Craig and Daisy have been married for two years and, on the surface anyway, are living the dream: a Brooklyn home, steady work in the creative sector, and enough income to leave the city for a weeklong anniversary getaway in upstate New York, organized by Daisy as a surprise for Craig. But the title of this wickedly inventive, briskly paced psychological thriller is enough to suggest trouble in paradise. Sure enough, Craig has been planning to slink away the day after their anniversary for a separate getaway to Cabo San Lucas with his mistress, Lilith. The "Eden Test" is also the name of a series of questions waiting in the cabin, to be posed from one partner to another over the course of seven days, to test the strength of their marriage. The first question is "Would you change for me?" (As you can probably guess, they get harder each day.) Craig is, to say the least, not amused that Daisy has dropped this game on him, and at first, he's even more determined to leave for Mexico. Eventually, Craig decides to stay after all just as things around the couple, notably the people living in the town nearest the cabin, get weirder. Some of the locals use the portmanteau citiots to characterize "city idiots" from Gotham like Craig and Daisy. Some pop into their space unexpectedly, including a hunter wearing a blaze orange cap whose "arms and shirt are smeared with slick and shiny blood." Even the therapist couple who came up with the test questions show up, as does a mysterious "protector" named Shep who turns out to be somehow connected to one of the secrets Daisy's been keeping. In darkly funny domestic gothics like this, false leads, red herrings, and jolting change-ups are part of the narrative decor. And Sternbergh--author of The Blinds (2017), etc.--shows he's gotten even better at evoking bizarre behavior in seemingly normal environs and keeping his readers in the dark just long enough to make them jump when the lights, so to speak, come up. This crafty storyline hooks you from the start. All you need to do is hang on for a wild ride.

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Starred review from April 1, 2023
A frustrated Craig drives toward a secluded cabin that his actor wife, Daisy, has rented as a surprise for their anniversary. It's dark and he gets lost on the way, further complicating an already complicated situation: on that very night, he was planning to announce he was leaving her. His packed bags are in the trunk, and he has a flight booked for Cabo the next day with his latest fling. He's convinced he should run while he has the chance, but he ends up staying, falling under Daisy's spell once more. It turns out that they are there to take the Eden Test, designed for couples hoping to improve their marriages. The idea is to spend seven days in a secluded cabin and and answer seven probing questions, one a day, which examine how far you would go for the one you love. Will their "three years together and two years married" relationship survive? What could go wrong? The book opens with two ambulances at the cabin, setting the tone for the wild ride to come. This brilliantly paced thriller stars two absorbing and consistently self-absorbed lead characters and a mind-boggling supporting cast with a theatrical air that is perfect for dark drama. In a new direction for Sternbergh there is no postapocalyptic terror here (Shovel Ready, 2014), just riveting suspense in the classic Hitchcockian style.

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