Review by Booklist Review
The Greek deities Apollo and Artemis killed all 14 children of the mortal Niobe, whereupon the grief-stricken mother turned to stone. It has been five years since the rape and murder of Camille Gardner's daughter, but the still-grieving Camille finds new solace in a collective on the dark web called Niobe, where she meets other women who have lost their children in all manner of appalling ways and who, like Camille, had to stand by and watch the perpetrators go unpunished. At first, Camille performs a few small tasks for the group, but then her involvement deepens, and she joins the collective in administering an exacting justice through precisely planned killings. When she finds herself in over her head, Camille begins to wonder if these women are actually demons, and soon she has fears for her life. Fans of dark psychological suspense will be unable to put this one down.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Camille Gardener, the grief-stricken narrator of this gripping psychological thriller from Edgar winner Gaylin (If I Die Tonight), knows who raped her only child, Emily, at a Brayburn College frat party in upstate New York and left her to die in the woods one winter night. Five years after Emily's accused killer, Harris Blanchard, was acquitted at trial, Camille attends a ceremony at Manhattan's Brayburn Club, where Blanchard's receiving a humanitarian award. Enraged that Blanchard will never suffer any consequences for his crime, Camille barely notices the two women observing her, until one passes her a card with one word on it: Niobe. When Camille seeks out Niobe (also known as the Collective), she enters the darkest corners of the internet, where mothers intent on punishing their children's killers share their rage. At first, Camille eagerly participates in the real-world activities, like buying a hunting knife, assigned to her by the Collective, anxious to do unto killers as they had done to their victims. The tension rises when Camille puts her own life in peril by breaking one of the Collective's rules. A breathtaking twist will catch readers by surprise. This tale of justice without mercy is a page-turner. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Blaming her daughter's death five years previously on a privileged young man who went unpunished, Camille Gardner joins a secret group of women anguished over the unavenged deaths of loved ones. But are their carefully plotted revenge killings role playing or soon-to-be icy reality? From USA TODAY best-selling and Edgar Award-winning Gaylin; with a 100,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Bereaved mothers seek solace in vigilantism. Five years ago, Matt and Camille Gardener's 15-year-old daughter, Emily, attended a frat party at nearby Brayburn College in upstate New York. There, 17-year-old Harris Blanchard plied Emily with booze, led her into the woods, raped her, and left her to fend for herself in the bitter January cold. Emily was suffering from exposure by the time she was found, and she died three days later. Harris' trial ended in acquittal, and Matt and Camille split. Matt made a fresh start in Colorado, but Camille still lives in the home she once shared with her family, mired in anger and grief. After Camille causes a scene at an awards banquet honoring Harris, who is now a Brayburn senior, she receives an invitation to join a Facebook group for mothers "robbed of their children by the actions of others." Her interactions there trigger another invitation--this one to a secret, anonymous dark web collective comprising mourning mothers with no desire to move on. Initially, Camille assumes the forum is just a safe space to express violent revenge fantasies, and she even posts one of her own. Then she gets a private message from the site's administrator: "Did you mean it?" Escalating stakes and a tight, twisty plot fuel this timely domestic thriller, which unfolds through a visceral first-person-present narration. Camille's pain and fury are so palpable they're contagious, and while the too-neat and somewhat rushed conclusion undermines the story's impact, Gaylin delivers a thought-provoking page-turner that grips and gratifies. An all-too-plausible tale of Highsmith-ian vengeance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
