The Golden Cage: A novel
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Together, Faye and Jack Adelheim have taken Jack's investment company, Compare, to the height of Stockholm's business scene. Unfortunately, the camaraderie of their hard-working early days has given way to alienation: Jack's workdays are growing impossibly long, and Faye, who studied at Stockholm's prestigious School of Economics, has become a restless socialite desperate for Jack's attention. When she finds Jack in their bedroom with Compare's CFO, Ylva, formerly proud, self-sufficient Faye begs him to reconsider. That doesn't keep him from tossing her out and citing their prenuptial agreement when he refuses to give her money to support their daughter, Julianne. Jack banks on Faye's collapse, but she harnesses her rage into plotting Machiavellian revenge, drawing on the darkness forged in her hidden past. Comparisons to Gone Girl and Lizbeth Salander will undoubtedly be drawn, and the cunning revenge plot does justify those parallels, but there are satisfying themes of redemption, loyalty, and power here that push the story beyond vengeance. A darkly glamorous and utterly absorbing departure from Läckberg's atmospheric Fjällbacka series.

Läckberg (The Lost Boy) outdoes herself with this delectable tale of revenge. At 34, devoted wife and mother Faye thinks her wretched past is behind her. Now she has it all--a lavish Stockholm lifestyle, glorified social status, and a sexy entrepreneurial husband--until she catches Jack and his business partner, Ylva, romping on Faye's bed. Left humiliated, belittled, and financially destitute in the wake of the subsequent divorce, Faye, who realizes women too often turn their rage on themselves, plots an exquisite comeuppance for Jack, whom she supported when the two were in business school together by giving up her own studies and becoming a waitress. Chapters devoted to Faye's married life alternate with scorching flashbacks to her traumatic childhood. The poignant insights into women's capacity for self-sacrifice, multidimensional characterizations, and celebration of female ingenuity will resonate with many. Läckberg reinforces her position as the thriller queen of Scandinavia. 100,000 announced first printing. Agents: Joakim Hansson and Anna Frankl, Nordin Literary (Sweden). (July)

In three-time Edgar nominee Abbott's Never Ask Me, the murder of adoption consultant Danielle Roberts in an upscale Austin neighborhood upends the Pollitt family, who feel grief, relief, and suspicion ("Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family," says the wife) (50,000-copy first printing). In three-time Edgar nominee Atkins's The Revelators, Sheriff Quinn Colson, bullet-holed and left for dead, is feeling vengeful but kept from getting back to work by the interim sheriff--who ordered his murder. Continuing No. 1 New York Times best-selling Coulter's popular "FBI Thriller" series, Deadlock has FBI Special Agent Lacey Sherlock and husband Dillon Savich dealing with a psychopath, a secret from beyond the grave, and three red boxes puzzlingly containing the puzzle pieces of an unknown town (200,000-copy first printing). The multi-award-winning Hamilton's A Dangerous Breed brings back Van Shaw, tracking down the (worse-than-he-thought) father who abandoned him before birth while aiming to block a sociopath by stealing a viral weapon that could bring death to thousands (100,000-copy first printing). The acclaimed Kellermans' Half Moon Bay brings back Deputy Coroner Clay Edison, confounded by the discovery of a decades-old child's skeleton in a torn-up park and a local businessman's claim that it could be his sister. In mega-best-selling Camilla Läckberg's The Golden Cage, the increasingly restless wife of a billionaire learns that he is having an affair and exacts luscious revenge. Patterson and Tebbetts join in 1st Case, wherein Angela Hoot gets kicked out of MIT's graduate school, joins the FBI's cyber-forensics unit, and must deal with a messaging app whose beta users are dying without getting killed herself (475,000-copy first printing). In When She Was Good, the Gold Dagger-winning and Edgar short-listed Robotham continues the story of criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac, the girl without a past, first revealed in last year's Good Girl, Bad Girl. And though there are no plot details to share regarding Silva's Untitled new Gabriel Allon thriller, the print run is 500,000, and word has it that MGM has acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for television.

Faye Adelheim has it all--a wealthy, handsome husband, an expensive home, and a beautiful little girl. But when her fairy-tale life fractures, how far will she go to exact revenge? Läckberg, the mistress of Scandinavian noir, returns with a smart riff on women's thrillers: This is Big Little Lies meets Gone Girl with some 9 to 5 tossed in for good measure. Having grown up in a small town, Faye independently makes her way to Stockholm changes her name, and eventually secures a spot in the prestigious Stockholm School of Economics, where she meets her best friend, Chris, and her future husband, Jack. While Jack builds his first business (virtually forgetting that Faye helped come up with the idea for the company), Faye abandons her studies to support them by waiting tables. She even signs a prenuptial agreement that guarantees her nothing, trusting in Jack's love. Once married, Faye stays home, her career essentially dead, but Jack's thrives, emboldening him to insult and degrade her. And while Jack's business takes him on glamorous trips, Faye finds herself killing time and numbing her pain by drinking with the other women caught in golden cages. That is, until she discovers Jack's affair; their divorce leaves her practically penniless. Despite her pitiful predicament, Faye isn't entirely without resources. Certainly, she has Chris, who's founded her own hair-care empire and become a wildly successful businesswoman. She also has rage, and she quickly channels that rage into her business acumen, developing a plan not only to take down Jack, but also to market a product to jilted woman (and isn't that nearly all women?). Yet as Faye begins dismantling Jack's life, Läckberg deftly teases the reader by dropping clues to Faye's dark past. We can't help but wonder if she's done this before. A deliciously inventive thriller brimming with sex, secrets, and scandal. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Together, Faye and Jack Adelheim have taken Jack's investment company, Compare, to the height of Stockholm's business scene. Unfortunately, the camaraderie of their hard-working early days has given way to alienation: Jack's workdays are growing impossibly long, and Faye, who studied at Stockholm's prestigious School of Economics, has become a restless socialite desperate for Jack's attention. When she finds Jack in their bedroom with Compare's CFO, Ylva, formerly proud, self-sufficient Faye begs him to reconsider. That doesn't keep him from tossing her out and citing their prenuptial agreement when he refuses to give her money to support their daughter, Julianne. Jack banks on Faye's collapse, but she harnesses her rage into plotting Machiavellian revenge, drawing on the darkness forged in her hidden past. Comparisons to Gone Girl and Lizbeth Salander will undoubtedly be drawn, and the cunning revenge plot does justify those parallels, but there are satisfying themes of redemption, loyalty, and power here that push the story beyond vengeance. A darkly glamorous and utterly absorbing departure from Läckberg's atmospheric Fjällbacka series. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

In three-time Edgar nominee Abbott's Never Ask Me, the murder of adoption consultant Danielle Roberts in an upscale Austin neighborhood upends the Pollitt family, who feel grief, relief, and suspicion ("Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family," says the wife) (50,000-copy first printing). In three-time Edgar nominee Atkins's The Revelators, Sheriff Quinn Colson, bullet-holed and left for dead, is feeling vengeful but kept from getting back to work by the interim sheriff—who ordered his murder. Continuing No. 1 New York Times best-selling Coulter's popular "FBI Thriller" series, Deadlock has FBI Special Agent Lacey Sherlock and husband Dillon Savich dealing with a psychopath, a secret from beyond the grave, and three red boxes puzzlingly containing the puzzle pieces of an unknown town (200,000-copy first printing). The multi-award-winning Hamilton's A Dangerous Breed brings back Van Shaw, tracking down the (worse-than-he-thought) father who abandoned him before birth while aiming to block a sociopath by stealing a viral weapon that could bring death to thousands (100,000-copy first printing). The acclaimed Kellermans' Half Moon Bay brings back Deputy Coroner Clay Edison, confounded by the discovery of a decades-old child's skeleton in a torn-up park and a local businessman's claim that it could be his sister. In mega-best-selling Camilla Läckberg's The Golden Cage, the increasingly restless wife of a billionaire learns that he is having an affair and exacts luscious revenge. Patterson and Tebbetts join in 1st Case, wherein Angela Hoot gets kicked out of MIT's graduate school, joins the FBI's cyber-forensics unit, and must deal with a messaging app whose beta users are dying without getting killed herself (475,000-copy first printing). In When She Was Good, the Gold Dagger-winning and Edgar short-listed Robotham continues the story of criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac, the girl without a past, first revealed in last year's Good Girl, Bad Girl. And though there are no plot details to share regarding Silva's Untitled new Gabriel Allon thriller, the print run is 500,000, and word has it that MGM has acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for television.

Läckberg (The Lost Boy) outdoes herself with this delectable tale of revenge. At 34, devoted wife and mother Faye thinks her wretched past is behind her. Now she has it all—a lavish Stockholm lifestyle, glorified social status, and a sexy entrepreneurial husband—until she catches Jack and his business partner, Ylva, romping on Faye's bed. Left humiliated, belittled, and financially destitute in the wake of the subsequent divorce, Faye, who realizes women too often turn their rage on themselves, plots an exquisite comeuppance for Jack, whom she supported when the two were in business school together by giving up her own studies and becoming a waitress. Chapters devoted to Faye's married life alternate with scorching flashbacks to her traumatic childhood. The poignant insights into women's capacity for self-sacrifice, multidimensional characterizations, and celebration of female ingenuity will resonate with many. Läckberg reinforces her position as the thriller queen of Scandinavia. 100,000 announced first printing. Agents: Joakim Hansson and Anna Frankl, Nordin Literary (Sweden). (July)