Don’t Look Away by Daniel Kenitz
Scribner/July 7, 2026
Daniel Kenitz’s Don’t Look Away is neither a straight thriller nor a mystery–we know who the killer is almost immediately–but a multi-layered examination of how well we know the ones we love and what has the power to change these relationships.
For months, a serial killer has terrorized the Florida Gulf Coast, striking again with the kidnapping of Barbara Tiller from an empty beach. Leslie Woodhouse, a former criminal defense attorney at first watches the horror unfold from the safety of her television screen, but she’s soon brought to the forefront of the action when her own husband, Robert, is arrested for the string of murders. The couple can’t afford to hire an attorney, making Leslie the most viable option for defending Robert.
Leslie believes in her husband’s innocence, but she’s haunted by the cases of her past. Her most high-profile representation was a man she’d vindicated via a legal loophole, only for him to then commit another murder. Leslie may be respected for her abilities, but she’s also known for setting killers free. This haunts her at night, but she’ll still use any angle or procedural misstep at her disposal–especially if her client is her husband.
(As a note here, Leslie’s only issue with representing Robert arises in an ethical or conflict of interest sense. He is her husband, and therefore her personal perceptions or emotions may cloud her judgment. But as Robert’s partner and the individual with whom he spends most of his time, it would seem that Leslie would be an extremely important witness on his behalf. This problem never occurs to Leslie).
Meanwhile, Kenitz presents the real killer: Weston, Robert’s biological son who was raised by a young student Robert had gotten pregnant during his early days of teaching. Weston despises Robert for his abandonment of his mother, Caroline, blaming him for his mother’s struggles and scarred by Caroline’s enduring hope that Robert would one day return. After Caroline’s death, Weston has fixated on Robert’s idyllic life with a good woman, and Weston wants Leslie to see Robert for who he really is. A homeless nomad, Weston has spent the last months scouring the Florida Gulf Coast for his victims, ultimately planting evidence to link Robert to the last murders and disguising himself to resemble Robert during the Barbara Tiller kidnapping.
Robert knows all this, but he doesn’t implicate or reveal Weston. Weston has appeared on his doorstep several times, each time toying with Robert and threatening to hurt Leslie. To protect his wife, Robert keeps quiet; but this silence also threatens to harm their marriage and send Robert to jail for murder.
Don’t Look Away has fine elements–Leslie is a well-developed character, and we understand her conflicting interests and internal struggles–but it feels incomplete. The book opens with Barbara Tiller’s harrowing kidnapping experience, yet we never see her perspective again. Then, the simultaneous presentation of Robert’s trial and Weston’s intentions sets the book up as climaxing in a courtroom scene, but that doesn’t end up being the case. In fact, we see very little of the trial, save for Weston’s appearance as a character witness (which serves to unravel Leslie’s perception of her husband).The major focus here is on the impact of these events on Leslie’s marriage to Robert, and how her perception of him changes (along with their relationship) despite her belief that he is not actually the Gulf Coast killer. It’s an interesting study, but it doesn’t live up to the promise of the other premises this novel could have followed.
About the reviewer: Sarah Reida’s debut adult novel, Neighborhood Watch, received a Kirkus Star and was honored as an Amazon editorial pick as one of the Best Books of the Year So Far 2024. She is seeking representation for her sophomore novel, a small town mystery involving beer and murder. Join Sarah’s elite group of Instagram followers here.
