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Wrongful
When the famous novelist Mira Wallacz goes missing at the festival devoted to celebrating her work, the attendees assume the worst—and some hope for the worst. Ten years after the festival, Geneva Finch, an ideal reader, sets out to discover the truth about what happened to Mira Wallacz. A twisty literary mystery dealing with duplicity, envy, betrayal, and love between an entertainment agent and a self-deprecating former priest, Wrongful explores the many ways we can get everything wrong, time and again, even after we’re certain we discovered the truth.
242 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2025
2 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Lee Upton
42 books32 followersLee Upton writes books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and literary criticism. Her comic novel, Tabitha, Get Up, will be released in May 2024 from Sagging Meniscus Press. A literary mystery is forthcoming in 2025. She is also the author of The Day Every Day Is, winner of the Saturnalia Books Prize, and two collections of short stories, The Tao of Humiliation, and Visitations, which were both awarded the Kirkus Star. The Tao of Humiliation received the BOA Short Fiction Prize. Her novella, The Guide to the Flying Island, was awarded the Miami University Novella Prize. Her collection of essays, Swallowing the Sea: On Writing & Ambition Boredom Purity & Secrecy, received ForeWord Review's Book of the Year Award in the category of books about writing. Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, Poetry, Harvard Review, American Poetry Review, and in three editions of Best American Poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 30, 2025
This is one of those books I went into without reading the back, I knew Upton was a cracking story-teller so I had faith I wouldn’t be let down…using this technique added some more mystery into this mystery novel. I have to admit I struggled at first, lots of characters thrown into the mix, but once I knew who was who and the book had settled on a protagonist I was hooked. A famous novelist goes missing, lots of gossip happens with people showing their true colours and then the novelist is found, it feels like a homage to Agatha C…it was also a sort of homage to the famous novelist featured in the book copying her formulaic style, very clever twist that was.
The characters are dispicable, envious and very egotisical (normal author traits?) there is nothing to like about any of them and because this is the side of them you see, any of them could be our villian. Geneva Finch is out to try and figure out what happened 10 years ago. She starts off as pretty clueless, not sure where to start and nervous around everybody, it was fantastic to see her grow in confidence and start to reveal the clues. I had no idea of who-dun-it but had a lot of fun following the case. The writing is witty, the scene well set and like any good detective show it was addictive.
I have now read two books by Upton, the first was super funny and now this one, a proper clever mystery. Give her a read if you aint done so already.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2025...
The characters are dispicable, envious and very egotisical (normal author traits?) there is nothing to like about any of them and because this is the side of them you see, any of them could be our villian. Geneva Finch is out to try and figure out what happened 10 years ago. She starts off as pretty clueless, not sure where to start and nervous around everybody, it was fantastic to see her grow in confidence and start to reveal the clues. I had no idea of who-dun-it but had a lot of fun following the case. The writing is witty, the scene well set and like any good detective show it was addictive.
I have now read two books by Upton, the first was super funny and now this one, a proper clever mystery. Give her a read if you aint done so already.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2025...
April 15, 2025
When the life of a novelist begins to resemble one of her stories, the truth of the matter becomes a years-long effort of twisting discovery in Wrongful by Lee Upton.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
After going missing at a festival celebrating her work, the attendees begin to speculate that novelist Mira Wallacz has had a terrible fate befall her, with some speculation seeming to be with a greater level of concern while others seem to be more calculating about how it might benefit them. When Mira is found dead there are finally answers, but one attendee, an avid fan, Geneva Finch, has never felt satisfied by the ruling of Mira’s death as an accident; ten years later Geneva has a chance encounter with a poet, Thom Crystl, at a party that sets events into motion as his coincidental appearance, coupled with his past that is quite intricately linked with Mira, reignites Geneva's enthusiasm to investigate Mira’s death. Viewing people at the festival as potential murder suspects, Geneva and Thom attend the festival convening at the same venue Mira disappeared from and gather their information through interviews, disguised as a book project, stirring up memories and driving decisive action to be taken. In all that’s been shared and revealed about Mira, there are fragments of truth shown as everyone protects what’s most precious to them.
Roving through an array of characters while establishing the mystery-driven premise before narrowing down more closely to Geneva's more immediate circle, readers get a sense of their unique outlooks as well as their connection with and perspective of Mira, sowing seeds of doubt that feed into paths of repeated misdirection and possible motives that moves the narrative forward; the ending satisfactorily mirrors the beginning's roving structure, if more explicitly by presenting directly labeled points of view, while expounding on the baser emotions of greed, festering guilt, and desire for respect, adoration, and notoriety, that form more complex motivations that drive their behaviors and actions. In offering many characters as potential culprits, each of whom harbors possible reasons for acting against Mira, the story unfolds gradually, following Geneva's dogged pursuit of uncovering the truth no matter the consequences or mishaps that arise. The literary, and generally artistic, lens applied throughout offered an easy entry point for viewing and relating with the various perspectives presented, as attaining recognition, if not praise or adequate remuneration, was an evident incentive driving events. Coincidences and sudden jumps in time or actions for some scenes provided opacity that obscured the truth behind assumed or believed-to-be-true-based-on-limited-evidence or learned information that altered the direction of the investigation, shifting focus and plentiful suspicion to near comedy of error level of compounding tragic outcomes.
*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
After going missing at a festival celebrating her work, the attendees begin to speculate that novelist Mira Wallacz has had a terrible fate befall her, with some speculation seeming to be with a greater level of concern while others seem to be more calculating about how it might benefit them. When Mira is found dead there are finally answers, but one attendee, an avid fan, Geneva Finch, has never felt satisfied by the ruling of Mira’s death as an accident; ten years later Geneva has a chance encounter with a poet, Thom Crystl, at a party that sets events into motion as his coincidental appearance, coupled with his past that is quite intricately linked with Mira, reignites Geneva's enthusiasm to investigate Mira’s death. Viewing people at the festival as potential murder suspects, Geneva and Thom attend the festival convening at the same venue Mira disappeared from and gather their information through interviews, disguised as a book project, stirring up memories and driving decisive action to be taken. In all that’s been shared and revealed about Mira, there are fragments of truth shown as everyone protects what’s most precious to them.
Roving through an array of characters while establishing the mystery-driven premise before narrowing down more closely to Geneva's more immediate circle, readers get a sense of their unique outlooks as well as their connection with and perspective of Mira, sowing seeds of doubt that feed into paths of repeated misdirection and possible motives that moves the narrative forward; the ending satisfactorily mirrors the beginning's roving structure, if more explicitly by presenting directly labeled points of view, while expounding on the baser emotions of greed, festering guilt, and desire for respect, adoration, and notoriety, that form more complex motivations that drive their behaviors and actions. In offering many characters as potential culprits, each of whom harbors possible reasons for acting against Mira, the story unfolds gradually, following Geneva's dogged pursuit of uncovering the truth no matter the consequences or mishaps that arise. The literary, and generally artistic, lens applied throughout offered an easy entry point for viewing and relating with the various perspectives presented, as attaining recognition, if not praise or adequate remuneration, was an evident incentive driving events. Coincidences and sudden jumps in time or actions for some scenes provided opacity that obscured the truth behind assumed or believed-to-be-true-based-on-limited-evidence or learned information that altered the direction of the investigation, shifting focus and plentiful suspicion to near comedy of error level of compounding tragic outcomes.
*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
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March 16, 2025Working with the publisher to assist with publicity. This is such a fun book! It’s about a famous novelist who goes missing and the mystery that follows. Book lovers will really enjoy this one – the fangirling and sleuthing is strong with this one!! It's a "can't miss" book of the year, you guys!
Hit me up if you'd like to review it, interview the author, or if you would like to cover her and the book in other fun creative ways!!
Hit me up if you'd like to review it, interview the author, or if you would like to cover her and the book in other fun creative ways!!
November 16, 2025
Poor Geneva! Even when she’s right, she’s wrong! A murder mystery full of twists that resonate with the characters.
May 23, 2025
I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
2.5 - I think Upton had a lot of fun writing this but it just wasn't for me. There were some odd writing choices and a POV shift at the end. But a love letter of sorts to Agatha Christie, so I'm sure fans of her work will enjoy this one.
Read the full review on my blog!
Also, I am more active on Storygraph now so if you want to see what I'm read right away, follow me there!
2.5 - I think Upton had a lot of fun writing this but it just wasn't for me. There were some odd writing choices and a POV shift at the end. But a love letter of sorts to Agatha Christie, so I'm sure fans of her work will enjoy this one.
Read the full review on my blog!
Also, I am more active on Storygraph now so if you want to see what I'm read right away, follow me there!
May 15, 2025
Lee Upton warned us! There are few admirable characters in her new mystery, maybe not as wretched a book as the type of whodunits where all are atrocious, but certainly an environment where not many protagonists or supporting actors would be welcome at your favorite dinner party. It's important to emphasize that Upton employs the type of empathy we expect from her best poems and previous prose works - a task requiring much bobbing and weaving when cast members display several facets of creepiness. Early on, the biggest dollop of empathy is reserved for the slightly nerdy fan of author Mira Wallacz, the occasionally self-absorbed Geneva Finch, who assigns herself the mission of teasing out what really happened in the apparently accidental death of Wallacz at a conference analyzing her work. It doesn't take long for the reader to understand that this is an empathy with boundary conditions, since Finch can make herself an annoyance to others without intending to do so.
This implies that Finch cannot be an Inspector Poirot, Nancy Drew, or Encyclopedia Brown because she does not weigh quantitative analyses of clues so much as taking cringeworthy intuitive leaps at times. Finch's intuition serves her well, but occasional frustration at her methods made me rank this a strong four stars rather than five, because clever guesses and assumptions can't substitute for "juzza facts, ma'am." Perhaps additional details about the circumstance of the initial conference, and the family dynamics of the Wallacz family and their neighbors might have satisfied me a little more, but I would worry about the book diving down to Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a lead pipe, which was not the type of detective story Upton wanted to leave us with.
Upton ranks with the best mystery writers in taking the reader through several falsely-tagged detours and blind cul-de-sacs, eventually leading us to a conclusion that makes a bit of sense. Often, mystery novels that boast of too many plot twists can veer into realms so implausible, the reader halfway expects to find a conclusion along the lines of "everyone gets run over by a truck" or "the assumed killer is abducted by aliens." Sure, Upton wraps us in multiple plot twists to sketch out the splits in the trail between those events that actually happened and those we assume to be the most likely, but she never leads us down dead-end streets.
Classic mysteries of a century ago usually would end with the real perpetrator facing justice, the wrongly-accused being set free or emotionally liberated, and everyone going home happy and ready to dance. Many m0dernist mysteries leave us with the bad guy winning, while the faithful and just are left tearfully frustrated. I can't hint at where the ratio of justice/injustice stands for the novel's characters by the end of this short but fascinating work. I can only say that with this many quasi-bad guys, we can assume that most get run over by a truck, are abducted by aliens, or get dinged in the head by a rock or a shoe. But not all. Does the ratio mean that justice triumphs? I haven't decided.
This implies that Finch cannot be an Inspector Poirot, Nancy Drew, or Encyclopedia Brown because she does not weigh quantitative analyses of clues so much as taking cringeworthy intuitive leaps at times. Finch's intuition serves her well, but occasional frustration at her methods made me rank this a strong four stars rather than five, because clever guesses and assumptions can't substitute for "juzza facts, ma'am." Perhaps additional details about the circumstance of the initial conference, and the family dynamics of the Wallacz family and their neighbors might have satisfied me a little more, but I would worry about the book diving down to Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a lead pipe, which was not the type of detective story Upton wanted to leave us with.
Upton ranks with the best mystery writers in taking the reader through several falsely-tagged detours and blind cul-de-sacs, eventually leading us to a conclusion that makes a bit of sense. Often, mystery novels that boast of too many plot twists can veer into realms so implausible, the reader halfway expects to find a conclusion along the lines of "everyone gets run over by a truck" or "the assumed killer is abducted by aliens." Sure, Upton wraps us in multiple plot twists to sketch out the splits in the trail between those events that actually happened and those we assume to be the most likely, but she never leads us down dead-end streets.
Classic mysteries of a century ago usually would end with the real perpetrator facing justice, the wrongly-accused being set free or emotionally liberated, and everyone going home happy and ready to dance. Many m0dernist mysteries leave us with the bad guy winning, while the faithful and just are left tearfully frustrated. I can't hint at where the ratio of justice/injustice stands for the novel's characters by the end of this short but fascinating work. I can only say that with this many quasi-bad guys, we can assume that most get run over by a truck, are abducted by aliens, or get dinged in the head by a rock or a shoe. But not all. Does the ratio mean that justice triumphs? I haven't decided.
May 4, 2025
A first-rate mystery by one of our best poets. In that way it reminded me of Maxine Kumin's "Quit Monks or Die."
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews