Publisher's Weekly Review
Kit Owens and Diane Fleming, the protagonists of this nuanced tale of soured friendships, blood-soaked ambition, and desperate murder from Thriller Award-winner Abbott (You Will Know Me), were once fast friends-until Diane tells Kit a secret so dark that it shatters their friendship, sending Kit into a minor tailspin. But high school is drawing to a close, and Kit hopes she'll never see Diane again. Fast-forward more than a decade, and Kit is working in a lab under the impressive Dr. Lena Severin. When a new grant is announced to study premenstrual dysphoric disorder, Kit can hardly contain her shock as Diane reappears as a newly poached superstar from a competing lab. Kit and Diane each want coveted spots on Dr. Severin's PMDD research team, and as the only women in the male-dominated lab, they must deal with their colleagues' thinly veiled misogyny. When Diane's secret pulses to the surface, lives are lost and futures are put in doubt in a mad rush to keep the past in its place. No writer can touch Abbott in the realm of twisted desire and relationships between women, both intimate and feral. Agent: Daniel Conaway, Writer's House. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Soon after Kit Owens meets Diane Fleming in high school, the two are both bonding and competing, academically in chemistry class and athletically on the track. But then Diane proposes trading secrets, and what she tells Kit is so big it's a burden. After graduating as valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, Diane (from a well-to-do family) and Kit (daughter of a single mom) go the separate ways, only to meet a decade later, after Kit thought she'd put Diane and the past behind her. Now working for the renowned Dr. Lena Severin and eligible for one of the few slots on a prestigious research grant, Kit learns that Lena has recruited a rising star to the lab-Diane. Once more, Kit and the admittedly more brilliant Diane are in a contest, with the weight between them of Diane's secret-and the possibility of Kit revealing it. As the story unfolds, plot twists build tension and the body count rises, as Abbott (You Will Know Me) skillfully strings out the tales of three ambitious women excelling in a man's world. Verdict From teenage girls huddling in a bedroom to a research lab as crime scene, this novel adds to the author's reputation as a significant writer of suspense. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/18.]-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.