El dorado drive : a novel / Megan Abbott.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Named a Best Book of Summer by The Los Angeles Times , The Boston Globe, The New York Times , CrimeReads, and more!

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout comes a simmering, atmospheric novel of friendship and betrayal, following a women-led pyramid scheme in suburban Detroit.

"Abbott is a superstar of the suspense genre." --NPR

All I want is to be innocent again. But that's not how it works. Especially not after the Wheel.

The three Bishop sisters grew up in privilege in the moneyed suburbs of Detroit. But as the auto industry declined, so did their fortunes. Harper, the youngest, is barely making ends meet when her beloved, charismatic sister Pam--currently in the middle of a contentious battle with her ex-husband--and her eldest sister, Debra, approach her about joining an exciting new club.

The Wheel offers women like themselves--middle-aged and of declining means--a way to make their own money, independent of husbands or families. Quickly, however, the Wheel's success, and their own addiction to it, leads to greater and greater risks--and a crime so shocking it threatens to bring everything down with it.

Megan Abbott turns her keen eye toward women and money in El Dorado Drive , a riveting story about power, vulnerability, and how desperation draws out our most destructive impulses.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Harper and her sisters, Pam and Debra, had privileged childhoods in suburban Detroit, but as adults they are struggling. After a series of personal setbacks, Harper moves in with Pam and her daughter Violet. Pam's ex-husband, Dave, has emptied their bank accounts, yet Harper is surprised to see Pam driving a new car. Pam lets Harper in on her secret: she and Debra have joined the Wheel, a clandestine, women-led financial support group that promises to make members rich. At first, the Wheel seems to be the answer to the sisters' troubles by offering financial freedom and a community of supportive women. But tensions mount as the Wheel begins to consume their lives with ever-increasing pressure to recruit and contribute. When an unthinkable crime occurs, the sisters rally to figure out what happened, while the other members of the Wheel work to preserve the group's secrecy at any cost. VERDICT Edgar Award winner Abbott (Beware the Woman) effortlessly excels at exploring the complexities of women's relationships with suspenseful, atmospheric storytelling. Unsettling and darkly clever, her latest will delight her many fans and attract new ones.--Anitra Gates

Publishers Weekly Review

Cash-strapped women fall prey to a pyramid scheme in this nerve-shredding thriller from Edgar winner Abbott (Beware the Woman). Harper Bishop flees Grosse Pointe, Mich., in June 2008 to evade an increasingly persistent creditor, leaving behind her two older sisters, who are also deeply in debt--Debra due to her husband's medical bills, Pam because of her divorce from a thieving deadbeat. When Harper returns home in October, she's shocked to find Debra sporting "meticulous highlights" and Pam driving a Lexus. The duo attribute their windfalls to the Wheel, an all-female "circle of giving" that requires new members to contribute initial dues of five grand. Her siblings' enthusiasm is so contagious that Harper sets aside her misgivings and signs on, unwittingly sealing all their fates. Though the tale unfolds from Harper's POV, and her fraught relationships are its focus, the most fully realized cast member is Pam's daughter, Vivian, a surly teen whose resentment of her mother animates the proceedings. Elsewhere, Abbott probes the minefield of sisterhood to harrowing effect, using staccato prose to amplify the inherent apprehension and anxiety of the siblings' relationships. The result is a tense and twisty delight. Agent: Daniel Conaway, Writers House. (June)

Booklist Review

Edgar Award--winner Abbott (Beware the Woman, 2018; also author of Dare Me, 2012; and showrunner of its TV adaptation) strikes gold again with this taut, suspenseful story of Harper, a down-on-her-luck Detroit woman who, on the recommendation of her sisters, joins an exclusive investment group called the Wheel. It seems too good to be true: for a (relatively) small financial investment, she will eventually receive a considerably greater sum of money from the women-run company that stresses values of sisterhood and female empowerment. She and her sisters have been hard-up for a while, and so she joins them. But while Harper worries about a pyramid scheme, she soon discovers something altogether darker is behind the group. Abbott continues her study of noir themes and imagery in a suburban setting. The family dynamic is irresistible (Harper's sisters are better off than she is, but none of them are exactly thriving), the story is subtly unnerving, and, as Harper is drawn ever deeper into the Wheel, the tension is stomach-knottingly palpable. Another top-flight thriller from a genre master.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Cult-favorite turned crime genre A-lister Abbott comes through with yet another suspenseful read.

Kirkus Book Review

Three sisters suffering from Detroit's auto industry collapse are drawn to a shiny new business opportunity that turns sinister. Abbott's latest opens with a sense of foreboding--a feeling synonymous with Abbott and one that only grows as the hardships of three suburban Detroit women come to light. The Bishop sisters--Debra, Pam, and Harper--are resilient, but they rely on one another after the collapse of the auto industry creates a trickle-down effect of loss in their family. First, their father loses his job and dies not long after. Pam marries rich and loses it all in a divorce. Debra, the eldest, loses her strong facade as the stress of medical debt from her husband's cancer wears her down. And Harper feels her sense of control unraveling as a secret debt bears down on her and threatens to dismantle her relationships. When Pam's son leaves for college--"Somehow, Pam had gotten him out"--she feels proud but unmoored. How will she pay for tuition? Harper is very aware of Pam's struggles, so when she returns from a short-term job in another town and finds her sister beaming from the front seat of a new car, things don't add up. Pam tells Harper about the Wheel, a group of women helping women. Harper at first sees the Wheel as the pyramid scheme it is, but when she shares her concerns with Debra, she finds Debra is also drinking the wine-spiked Kool-Aid. Unwilling to tell her sisters the grim nature of her debts--"Secrets came naturally to her. She'd kept them all her life"--Harper soon finds herself deep in the Wheel, recruiting other desperate women with the allure of sisterhood and fortune. "Money isn't about money. It's about security, freedom, independence, a promise of wholeness." Before long, the champagne bubbles start to pop, and Pam, the most popular woman of the Wheel, starts to feel the pressure, and with it, some very warranted paranoia. Harper outlines her sister's downfall in a detached tone that reads as coming from a place of authentic trauma--she remembers the small details, her observations methodical--but it causes the mounting pressure to fizzle out with an impression of inevitability. Abbott is the queen of charged atmospheres, where a restrained surface often hides a torrent of deception. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.