Our Kind of Cruelty
“A searing, chilling sliver of perfection . . . May well turn out to be the year’s best thriller.” —Charles Finch, The New York Times Book Review “This is simply one of the nastiest and most disturbing thrillers I’ve read in years. I loved it, right down to the utterly chilling final line.” —Gillian Flynn A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense. This is a love story. Mike’s love story. Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job; he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together. It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his e-mails or phone calls. It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus. It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he’ll know just when to come to her rescue . . .
Imperfect Women
FROM THE AUTHOR OF OUR KIND OF CRUELTY "A stunning, dark novel about who women want to be and the reality of who they are.” —Samantha Downing, author of His Lovely Wife "Promises to please those who enjoy psychological thrillers and all those who love Elena Ferrante but wish her series was just a bit (okay, a lot) more twisted." —Molly Odintz, Lit Hub "A psychological thriller in the truest sense of the word . . . At points I was folding pages repeatedly.” —Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal "Creeps on you slowly, like a fog, until you find yourself enveloped in this tangled skein of relationships, eager to see how all this is going to play out, who is going to betray whom and in what way." —Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review When Nancy Hennessy is murdered, she leaves behind two best friends, an adoring husband and daughter, and a secret lover whose identity she took to the grave. Nancy was gorgeous, wealthy, and cherished by those who knew her—from the outside, her life was perfect. But as the investigation into her death flounders and her friends Eleanor and Mary wrestle with their grief, dark details surface that reveal how little they knew their friend, each other, and maybe even themselves. A gripping, immersive novel about impossible expectations and secrets that fester and become lethal, Imperfect Women unfolds through the perspectives of three fascinating women. Their enduring, complex friendship is the knot the reader must untangle to answer the question Who killed Nancy? Imperfect Women explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises we make that alter our lives irrevocably. With the wickedly sharp insights and finely tuned suspense that has drawn comparisons to Patricia Highsmith and Paula Hawkins, Araminta Hall returns with another page-turning, thought-provoking tour de force.
Our Kind of Cruelty
'Simply one of the most disturbing thrillers I've read in years. In short I loved it, right down to the utterly chilling final line.' GILLIAN FLYNN Passion, obsession ... and murder. A deeply unsettling psychological thriller in which a secret game between lovers has deadly consequences. Mike knows that most of us go through life searching for that missing person, someone who will make us feel complete. But he and Verity are different. They have found each other, and nothing and no one will tear them apart. It doesn't matter that Verity is marrying another man. Because they play a game, a secret game they call 'the crave', the aim being to demonstrate what they both know: that Verity needs Mike, and only Mike. Mike knows that Verity's upcoming marriage is the biggest game they've ever played. And it's for the highest stakes. Except this time in order for Mike and Verity to be together someone has to die ... 'A propulsive and addictive study of the darkness of obsessive love. I was completely gripped from the first word to the last.' LISA JEWELL 'As merciless a thriller as I've ever read. Astonishingly dark and sensationally accomplished.' AJ FINN, author of The Woman in the Window 'A tense intelligent thriller that kept me gripped and guessing until the last page - and thinking long after that.' ERIN KELLY 'A taut, fascinating psychological thriller. Original and powerful. Be prepared for questions to linger in your head for a long time afterward.' JULIA HEABERLIN 'Toxic love, obsession, and the unflinching unravelling of a mind. Scarily plausible, a great read.' ALI LAND 'Chilling. Disturbing. Addictive. I couldn't put this down.' EMMA FLINT 'Like watching a slow motion car-crash through splayed fingers' TAMMY COHEN 'An addictive dive into dangerous, extreme obsession. A must-read' JULIA CROUCH
The Cruelty
I. Will. Find. You.
The Art of Cruelty
"This is criticism at its best." —Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag and Elaine Scarry, Maggie Nelson has emerged as one of our foremost cultural critics with this landmark work about representations of cruelty and violence in art. From Sylvia Plath’s poetry to Francis Bacon’s paintings, from the Saw franchise to Yoko Ono’s performance art, Nelson’s nuanced exploration across the artistic landscape ultimately offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.
