"Revenge of the Radioactive Lady," by Elizabeth Stuckey-French (Doubleday, 352 pp.)
In 1952 a pregnant Marylou Ahearn was spoon-fed a radioactive cocktail as part of a government research project she didn鈥檛 know she was a part of. The effects are devastating, and 50-plus years later she鈥檚 still not ready to forgive. And so, the snarky 77-year-old uproots her life in Memphis, changes her name, and settles in the same Tallahassee neighborhood as Dr. Wilson Spriggs. He鈥檚 the man who spearheaded the deadly experiment, and now, finally, Marylou is going to retaliate in Elizabeth Stuckey-French鈥檚 quirky second novel Revenge of the Radioactive Lady.
Marylou doesn鈥檛 know how she鈥檚 going to do it, but infiltrating Wilson鈥檚 family is a good start. In alternating voices, readers meet his daughter, Caroline, her husband, and their three teenagers: attention-starved soccer star Suzi, Elvis-obsessed Ava, and Otis, whose passion for atomic energy fuels a top-secret project. Though it鈥檚 clear from the beginning that Marylou鈥檚 scheme won鈥檛 go according to plan, nothing else is obvious about the unusual plot鈥檚 proceedings.
Stuckey-French expertly builds each character, even, eventually, the mysterious doctor鈥檚. The family鈥檚 oddities are aftereffects of larger circumstances 鈥� Asperger鈥檚 syndrome, guilt, and resentment 鈥� but the author sticks with a light, humor-infused voice throughout the book.
