Reckless Girls

September 1, 2021

Seeking escape from a going-nowhere job and deep family sorrow, Lux McAllister agrees with boyfriend Nico to sail two young women to an island in the South Pacific, never mind its past history of shipwrecks and bloodshed. They're surprised to discover a yacht anchored in the bay, with bright and shiny couple Jake and Eliza aboard, but everyone bonds happily. Then the scary stuff starts. Following the New York Times best-selling The Wife Upstairs; with a 200,000-copy first printing.

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November 1, 2021
The hope of Lux McAllister, the protagonist of this diabolically plotted nail-biter from bestseller Hawkins (The Wife Upstairs), that sailing the Pacific with her hot new boyfriend, Nico Johannsen, will help put a tragic past behind her stalls in Maui, along with Nico's damaged boat. Then a pair of strangers, college besties Amma and Brittany, offer the couple a huge sum that covers the boat's repair to take them to remote, notorious Meroe Island. Insecure Lux accurately anticipates sexual tension among the four 20-somethings during the voyage; what she doesn't expect is to arrive at their middle-of-nowhere destination to find a luxury catamaran already anchored off the beach, GQ-ready twosome Jake and Eliza on deck. Later, while exploring the island, Lux is alarmed to stumble on a skull clearly too fresh to be from the 1821 shipwreck that gave Meroe its name. As tempers fray and tensions mount, Lux belatedly realizes she has unsuspectingly ventured into treacherous waters indeed. Though several of the startling twists leading up to a killer climax are as arbitrary as those in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (itself among Hawkins's apparent inspirations), this thriller still makes for dangerously addictive reading. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

November 15, 2021
Beautiful, rudderless 20-somethings find trouble in paradise. San Diego waitress Lux McAllister has led a joyless existence since quitting college to care for her dying mother, so when hunky customer Nico Johannsen invites her to sail the seas with him aboard his new boat, the Susannah, she accepts. They arrange to rendezvous in Hawaii after Lux ties up some loose ends, but when she gets off the plane, she learns the vessel sustained damage en route. Nico can't afford the repairs, so rather than living aboard the Susannah as planned, the pair starts crashing in a cramped house with four other people while Lux cleans hotel rooms to make ends meet. When adventure-seekers Brittany and Amma, both 22, offer Nico $50,000 to rent a boat and take them to Meroe Island--an uninhabited Pacific atoll with a gruesome history--Lux extends a counteroffer: pay to fix the Susannah, and the four of them will spend two carefree weeks exploring the place together. Though the voyage proves harrowing, Meroe is stunning, and they bond instantly with wealthy, hedonistic fellow travelers Jake and Eliza, whose catamaran is in the harbor when they arrive. As the days stretch on, however, tension mounts, and the group's idyllic existence takes a dark turn. Evocative prose and a palpably foreboding atmosphere complement Lux's present-tense narration, which Hawkins studs with flashbacks exposing the secrets, lies, and betrayals that brought each character to this point. Danger and interpersonal drama abound, with a slew of outrageous twists adding to the fun. A soapy, claustrophobic page-turner.

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Starred review from December 15, 2021
Lux has misgivings when her boyfriend, Nico, accepts a sailing charter from a pair of young tourists eager to visit deserted Meroe Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, she figures it was sailing that brought her and Nico together, and the prospect of rekindling the romance has appeal. College friends Brittany and Amma prove good companions, too, and everyone enjoys the trip, even as they battle a dangerous storm and shake off the growing unease planted by Nico's stories about the island's dark history. Turns out, they aren't the only ones seeking the island's solitude; easygoing Australian playboy Jake and his girlfriend, Eliza, are also anchored in the cove. The six twenty-somethings fall into an easy camaraderie until the arrival of crass interloper Robbie reveals myriad secrets that set off a cascade of infidelities and disappearances. Lux finds herself in the center of a well-planned murder plot, pitted against killers determined to avenge the abuses of the entitled elite. Lux's sharp-edged narration becomes increasingly harrowing as she realizes that, on Meroe Island, it's everyone for themselves. Revisiting the class divides that drove her best-selling The Wife Upstairs (2021), Hawkins twists revenge, madness, and an increasingly menacing setting into a cleverly plotted nightmare in paradise. A must-read for fans of Ruth Ware.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The success of The Wife Upstairs has prompted serious buzz about Hawkins' follow-up.

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