Ladykiller: A Novel

Katherine Wood

Jul 2024 · Sold by Bantam

About this ebook

Everyone has a story. But not everyone’s story is true.

When a young woman vanishes from her remote Greek island estate, her best friend races to find her, using clues found in the explosive manuscript she left behind.

“Full of sun, sex, money, and greed, not since Gone Girl have unreliable narrators been this fun.”—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters

Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood, forever bonded by the tragedy that unfolded in Greece when they were eighteen. Now thirty, heiress Gia is back in Greece with her shiny new husband, entertaining glamorous guests with champagne under the hot Mediterranean sun, while bookish Abby is working fourteen-hour days as an attorney. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby’s thrilled to reconnect.

But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email that threatens to unearth the skeletons of her past, and when she and Gia’s brother, Benny, arrive in Sweden, Gia isn’t there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia’s beachfront estate eerily deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts the manuscript she penned, detailing the events leading up to her disappearance. Gia’s narrative reveals the dark truth about her provocative new marriage and the dirty secrets of their seductive guests, a story almost too scandalous to be believed. But the pages end abruptly, leaving more questions than answers.

How much of Gia’s story is true? Where is she now? And will Abby find her before it’s too late?

Ratings and reviews

This was a relatively fast read. It pulled me in immediately and I was all in throughout the first half. There are time jumps and points of view swaps as well as a manuscript. All of this was a bit confusing at times but after a while I began to follow along with it and actually found myself intrigued as my imagination ran wild. I was excited to get to the end and it most certainly was going to give me a great bit twist with such an awesome lead up. Unfortunately, it did not.

Firstly, I was sucked right into the story. It’s filled with intrigue, mystery, danger and a whole lot of “what in the world is happening” moments. I especially was interested in Gia’s manuscript perspective which was a past tense retelling of her own events leading up to her disappearance. But once the dual timelines came together and the truths were spilling out the sides, I felt slightly left wanting and filled with a whole lot of questions.

What? WHAT? This was very unsatisfying and unsettling. After weeding through the entire story, I ended with a head shake.

About the author

Katherine Wood is a native of Mississippi and a graduate of the University of Southern California. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, two children, a naughty pug, and a ferocious kitty.