2023-06-08
A new widow accepts help getting back on her feet from an old co-worker. The help is extravagantly generous, the price even higher.
Nobody expected Todd Maner to keel over and die of a heart attack at 33. Since he’d canceled his life insurance and plowed all his savings back into TeckPocket, the troubled company he’d co-founded in Boulder, his wife, Gwen, is left with nothing but their 8-year-old daughter, Whitney. Desperate, Gwen phones Nicola Kimmel back in Dayton, Ohio. They haven’t been in touch since the two of them were unpaid interns together at media agency Dack & Anders during their last year of college, but that’s the closest Gwen’s ever come to holding down a job, and she hopes that Nicola can give her a recommendation or point her toward some leads. She discovers to her astonishment that Nicola, who was never as close to her as she was to Missy, a third intern who recently went AWOL after rising through the ranks, can do much more. Now the second in command at Dack, Nicola asks for Gwen’s resume, offers her a job, persuades her colleagues to sign on by richly inflating Gwen’s credentials, and announces her appointment as Associate Vice President of Regional Development, with a salary and office to match. Back in Dayton with Jeri Gries, the diabetic mother who’s phoned her every day for years but never offered a helping hand, Gwen naturally leans into Nicola harder and harder. Eventually even she realizes there’s something funny about their relationship, which Flanagan explains up to a point through a series of flashbacks to Nicola’s disastrous early years with her own mother.
Forget where this is heading and enjoy the ride.
Forget where this is heading and enjoy the ride.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Edgar winner [Erin] Flanagan (Blackout) explores the dark side of female friendship in this nail-biting thriller…It’s another strong outing…” —Publishers Weekly
“Come with Me is a white-knuckle psychological thriller of the highest order.” —Bookreporter
“Written in Flanagan’s captivating style and featuring brilliant characterization, Come with Me is another winner from one of the most promising new voices in the genre. Brace yourselves for an unforgettable ride.” —The Big Thrill, ITW
“Domestic suspense morphs into a full blown thriller” —Dayton Daily News
“Readers will have a hard time putting this book down once they are a few chapters into it due to the relatable protagonist and constantly escalating stakes…Eventually, the main narrative and the flashbacks dovetail, building up to a powerful ending.” —Midwest Book Review
“Erin Flanagan’s debut novel, Deer Season, netted her the highest prize in mystery fiction. Her second, Blackout, confirmed her as a striking talent with a remarkable command of pace and place. And now, in Come with Me, this gifted author revives the female-friendship thriller—as immortalized in films like Single White Female and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle—with wit, with verve, with style… but (best of all) without mercy. There are passages in Come with Me so breathtakingly tense that I felt as though I were being held underwater; Flanagan knows just how to rattle us before going in for the kill. This is a splendid novel, scary and smart, and you’ll want to discuss it with a friend. Just make sure that friend is who you think she is.” —A.J. Finn, New York Times best-selling author of The Woman in The Window
“Come with Me will take your hand and pull you under, just like a too-close-too-fast friendship. Erin Flanagan was a standout when she debuted with her Edgar-winner, Deer Season, and she's gotten even better. Flanagan manages high-stakes escapism that's grounded by her penetrating observations of how we really think, act, and are. She writes real-world people living the stuff of nightmares. Come with Me offers dread that builds to a crescendo and a perfect ending for this incisive portrait of a hypnotic friendship. To echo the enigmatic Nicola, I suggest a few rules for your read: 1. Clear your schedule. 2. Lose your phone. 3. Don't jump to conclusions. ” —Caitlin Wahrer, Edgar-Award-nominated author of The Damage
“Oh, the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive…Come with Me is a twisty tale of deceptions and misdirections about a woman who decides to take up the life she left behind when she married her husband after he dies suddenly. But though it all seems magical at first—great job, great friend, great apartment—it isn’t long before Gwen is questioning everything and everyone in her life. But who’s the true villain here? You’ll have to read to find out! ” —Catherine McKenzie, USA Today bestselling author of Please Join Us and Have You Seen Her
“Anyone who’s read Erin Flanagan’s Edgar-winner Deer Season knows she’s a phenomenal storyteller who builds intricate worlds filled with vivid and relatable characters, and Come with Me is her latest gem. In this gripping suspense novel, widow Gwen Maner is forced to confront her thorny relationship with her aging mom at the same time she reconnects with a former co-worker, who may just be her salvation—or the source of a lot more misery. This propulsive tale is a riveting study in how desperation and dire circumstances make us ripe for manipulation and cause us to ignore our instincts. Come with Me is a rollercoaster ride that will have you holding your breath until the final page. ” —Liz Alterman, author of The Perfect Neighborhood
“Come with Me is a deliciously dark thrill ride about toxic friendship, grief, and the stark–and dangerous–difference between our true self and the face we show the world. Erin Flanagan is without a doubt one of the best crime writers working today, and her latest takes us inside the corporate world, unearthing the ugly reality of what women in business must sometimes do to succeed. A thoroughly satisfying, thought-provoking read. I loved it. ” —Julia Dahl, Edgar-nominated author of The Missing Hours
