For readers of Girl A and Notes on an Execution comes a chilling kaleidoscope of a thriller about a woman on trial for murder, as told through the eyes of the most important men in her life.
When four influential members are poisoned at London’s most exclusive private club, a young waitress is arrested. Her personal life and upbringing are dissected, and theories and perceptions about her spiral out of control.
After the murder accusation, five men begin to question how well they really knew her. To each of them—her father, a reporter, her former lover, her friend, and her lawyer—she is someone entirely different. But which is the true face of Katherine Cole? And is she a killer? The reality lies somewhere between these different perspectives, and the laser of the male gaze has never been more dangerous.
What follows is a whip-smart and suspenseful story, both a courtroom drama and a frightening examination of how one woman can be so ruthlessly deconstructed by the men who know her best—and just what happens when she decides to speak out at last.
Nicci Cloke is the author of eight novels, including two under the pseudonym Phoebe Locke. Her books have been published in twelve languages. She lives in the Cambridgeshire countryside after a decade spent in London, and previously worked as a nanny, a cocktail waitress and a Christmas Elf to support her writing. Before being published, she worked as a permissions manager, looking after literary estates including those of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and T. S. Eliot, and was also communications manager at the Faber Academy.