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A Novel
by Araminta Hall
A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.
This is a love story. Mike's love story.
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He's found the perfect home, the perfect job; he's sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they'll be blissfully happy together.
It doesn't matter that she hasn't been returning his e-mails or phone calls.
It doesn't matter that she says she's marrying Angus.
It's all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he'll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he'll know just when to come to her rescue ...
"[A] slow-burn, sinister psychological thriller ... Hall's depiction of stalker mentality and behavior is chilling. Perhaps most interesting is the examination of gender politics and how women are punished for sexual behavior in ways that men are not." ―Library Journal
"Hall brings the unreliable narrator to new heights in this disturbing narrative ... For fans of Nabokov's Lolita [and] Highsmith's Ripley tales." ―Booklist
"Here's a change―a psychological thriller in which a man is the crazy one ... Which is worse―an emotionally disturbed murderer or a woman with a fierce libido? Hall's U.S. debut is designed to show just how much trouble society has answering that question." ―Kirkus Reviews
This information about Our Kind of Cruelty was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Araminta Hall has an MA in creative writing and authorship from the University of Sussex, and teaches creative writing at New Writing South in Brighton, where she lives with her husband and three children. She is the author of Our Kind of Cruelty, which was named a best book of 2018 by CrimeReads and Real Simple.
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