Excerpt from Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Viv? the husband says.

He says his wife's name like it's the sweetest declaration of love.

Is that you, Vivienne? he says.

And when Vivienne still doesn't answer, the husband says: Come on, Vivienne! Don't mess with me!

And when Vivienne has nothing to say about that, either, the husband gives up trying to get a rise out of her and flings himself down on the bed next to his wife's body—or maybe, on top of it; Randall, under the bed, and with a limited view of the scene above, really can't say for sure—and sobs. The husband is a big man. The mattress pushes down on Randall and he can barely breathe. He can tell from the stillness of Vivienne's hand, flopped over, that she's a goner. Blood is dripping from her fingertips. Blood is hanging in the air in microscopic droplets and everything is tinged with a pinkish yellow haze and Randall can feel a sneeze coming on.

"Gawd, Randall," drawled the woman from downstairs again. Meena.

That's when our floor supervisor burst in and fresh smokeless air poured in after him—"What are you people doing in here? The phones are ringing off the hook! "—and what could we do? We stood up and looked at each other with stupefied faces as if we'd all somehow forgotten the time, and we went back to work.

I scuttled to my station and plugged in.

So did Randall Smiley, six rows over.

"This is Celia, how can I help you?" I said into my headset

Excerpted from Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky. Copyright © 2026 by Claire Oshetsky. Excerpted by permission of Ecco. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.