Psychological thrillers often build suspense by sowing doubts about the ‘real’ villain’s identity – and The New York Times bestselling crime writer Laura Lippman plays with this trope to addictive effect in her new novel, Dream Girl (Faber), out today. Her distinctly unreliable narrator is Gerry Andersen, a famous 61-year-old American author who’s confined to his bed by a fall. When he starts getting unsettling phone calls from a woman claiming to be the protagonist of his debut novel, Gerry thinks he’s being harassed – or succumbing to dementia. But the truth is even darker and more complicated than that.
“Gradually, Gerry is forced to reflect on his past and confront an unpleasant question: what if he’s been the villain in several women’s real-life stories all along?” says Stylist Loves’ deputy editor Moya Crockett. “I won’t give away Dream Girl’s twists and turns – suffice to say they are plentiful, varied and jaw-dropping – but I will say that you shouldn’t be put off by the cheesy cover or title. Just soapy enough to be an entertaining summer read, this thriller is also a thought-provoking examination of one man’s reckoning with the shifting norms of a post-#MeToo world. I was utterly hooked.” £14.99, Bookshop.org