The Golden Cage: A novel

by Camilla Läckberg, Neil Smith (Translator)

Overview

An over-the-top psychological thriller that tells the story of the scorned wife of a billionaire and her delicious plot to get revenge and bring him to his knees—a "sexy, deliciously dark journey" (Los Angeles Times) from a global superstar.

Faye has loved Jack since they were students at business school. Jack, the perpetual golden boy, grew up wealthy, unlike Faye, who has worked hard to bury a dark past. When Jack needed help launching a new company, Faye left school to support him, waitressing by day and working as his strategist by night. When the business took off, Faye stayed home and cared for their daughter.

Now, she is wealthier than she ever imagined, but more and more removed from the excitement of the business world. And none of the perks of wealth make up for the fact that Jack has begun to treat her coldly. When Faye discovers that he's having an affair, the polished façade of their life cracks wide open. Faye is alone, emotionally shattered, and financially devastated—but hell hath no fury like a woman with a violent past bent on vengeance. Jack is about to get exactly what he deserves—and so much more. In this splashy, electrifying story of sex, betrayal, and secrets, a woman's revenge is a brutal but beautiful thing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525657989
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Series:	Faye's Revenge , #1
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	179,292
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

CAMILLA LACKBERG is the prize-winning, best-selling author of the Fjallbacka series, which has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide. Her books are sold in over 60 countries and have been translated into 43 languages. She lives in Stockholm.

Translated by Neil Smith.

Read an Excerpt

“Couldn’t she just be injured?” Faye said.

She looked down at the table, unable to meet their gaze.

A brief moment of hesitation. Then a sympathetic voice.

“There’s an awful lot of blood. From such a small body. But I don’t want to speculate until a medical examiner has made an evaluation."

Faye nodded. Someone gave her a transparent plastic cup of water, she was shaking so much as she raised it to her lips that a few drops ran down her chin and dripped onto her blouse. The blonde policewoman with the kind blue eyes leaned forward and gave her a tissue to dry herself with.

She wiped herself slowly. The water was going to leave nasty blotches on the silk blouse. Not that it mattered any more.

“There’s no doubt, then? None at all?"

The female police officer glanced at her colleague, then shook her head. She chose her words carefully, “Like I said, a doctor needs to reach a ver-dict based on the evidence at the crime scene. But as things stand, everything points toward the same explanation: that your ex- husband, Jack, has killed your daughter."

Faye closed her eyes and stifled a sob.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2020

In three-time Edgar nominee Abbott's Never Ask Me, the murder of adoption consultant Danielle Roberts in an upscale Austin neighborhood upends the Pollitt family, who feel grief, relief, and suspicion ("Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family," says the wife) (50,000-copy first printing). In three-time Edgar nominee Atkins's The Revelators, Sheriff Quinn Colson, bullet-holed and left for dead, is feeling vengeful but kept from getting back to work by the interim sheriff—who ordered his murder. Continuing No. 1 New York Times best-selling Coulter's popular "FBI Thriller" series, Deadlock has FBI Special Agent Lacey Sherlock and husband Dillon Savich dealing with a psychopath, a secret from beyond the grave, and three red boxes puzzlingly containing the puzzle pieces of an unknown town (200,000-copy first printing). The multi-award-winning Hamilton's A Dangerous Breed brings back Van Shaw, tracking down the (worse-than-he-thought) father who abandoned him before birth while aiming to block a sociopath by stealing a viral weapon that could bring death to thousands (100,000-copy first printing). The acclaimed Kellermans' Half Moon Bay brings back Deputy Coroner Clay Edison, confounded by the discovery of a decades-old child's skeleton in a torn-up park and a local businessman's claim that it could be his sister. In mega-best-selling Camilla Läckberg's The Golden Cage, the increasingly restless wife of a billionaire learns that he is having an affair and exacts luscious revenge. Patterson and Tebbetts join in 1st Case, wherein Angela Hoot gets kicked out of MIT's graduate school, joins the FBI's cyber-forensics unit, and must deal with a messaging app whose beta users are dying without getting killed herself (475,000-copy first printing). In When She Was Good, the Gold Dagger-winning and Edgar short-listed Robotham continues the story of criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac, the girl without a past, first revealed in last year's Good Girl, Bad Girl. And though there are no plot details to share regarding Silva's Untitled new Gabriel Allon thriller, the print run is 500,000, and word has it that MGM has acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for television.

Library Journal

A Kirkus Best Mystery & Thriller of 2020
A Publishers Weekly Best Thriller of 2020
A Parade Best Book of the Summer
A Read It Forward Favorite Read of July 
An O Magazine Best Book of the Summer
An OK Magazine Sizzling Summer Read
A Glamour Best Book of 2020
A Real Simple Best Book of 2020
A PureWow Book We Can't Wait to Read
A Buzzfeed Best Thriller of the Summer
A PopSugar Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Smart, unflinching...  [a] novel of female empowerment and triumph over the patriarchy."
— Mary Kubica, New York Times Book Review

"The Golden Cage is a fast-paced psychological thriller about betrayal, sex, money, and a scorned wife’s revenge à la Gone Girl."
— Dana Vogel, Buzzfeed

"An addictive and twisty psychological thriller, Camilla Lackberg’s The Golden Cage is a true page-turner from the very start … this is a story full of big personalities, big emotions, big sexual appetites, and big surprises.”
— Nerd Daily

"The doyenne of Swedish crime fiction serves up a propulsive tale of a scorned woman who seeks to crush the husband who betrayed her and gets back at him by surreptitiously stealing his multimillion-dollar company out from under him. There’s enough haute couture, Cava, and hot sex to sate a devotee of romance fiction, but the real satisfaction comes in watching our heroine reclaim her fierceness.”
— O Magazine

"Sexy, scandalous, and terrifying, this is the kind of suspense story you gobble up in one sitting.” 
— Real Simple

"Insightful, addictive – and twisted! A."
— In Touch

"A sexy, deliciously dark journey."
— Los Angeles Times

"Läckberg has made a career out of writing ingenious psychological suspense stories about vile people doing vile things... The Golden Cage tells a nasty tale about entrenched male domination in a supposedly enlightened society; great wealth and the soul rot it can breed; and the payback — oh, the sweet, sick payback of a woman used and spurned, rising up from the discard pile."
— Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

"Camilla Läckberg proves again that she is a master of her craft... Readers are reminded to please keep your hands, arms, feet and legs inside the ride vehicle at all times. Roller coasters are not nearly as much fun as the plot of The Golden Cage."

— Fredericksburg Freelance Star

"One stunningly sexy and over-the-top psychological thriller about the wife of a billionaire entrepreneur whose intelligence and sacrifice is constantly undermined. Faye has some well-hidden secrets too, but she is about to take vengeance of epic proportions on her cheating husband, and, what’s the phrase? Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned."
— Parade

"At long last, the thriller genre is serving up a novel that truly deserves to be mentioned alongside Gone Girl. Camilla Läckberg's The Golden Cage is a riveting story of female revenge that centers on Faye, the wife of a billionaire who brings her husband to his knees after she discovers his infidelity.”
— PopSugar

"A fabulous, frothy novel."
— New York Post

"This story is like if Big Little Lies and Gone Girl had a baby... Lackberg is a popular author in Sweden and it’s easy to see why — she writes a good tale of revenge...  Readers will want Faye to have her revenge and will be glad to see everything tied up at the end."
— Amy Phelps, Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“An extremely satisfying thriller from the ever-compelling Camilla Läckberg, The Golden Cage begins with an anxious housewife trapped in a loveless marriage that she’s determined to hold together, and soon evolves into one of the most twisted and triumphant revenge thrillers I’ve ever come across.”
— Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

"Written by European superstar Läckberg, this is a twisty tale set squarely inside the world of the very rich and very fabulous... Get that preorder on."
— Glamour

“Comparisons to Gone Girl and Lisbeth Salander will undoubtedly be drawn, and the cunning revenge plot does justify those parallels, but there are satisfying themes of redemption, loyalty, and power here that push the story beyond vengeance. A darkly glamorous and utterly absorbing departure.”
— Booklist

“Läckberg outdoes herself with this delectable tale of revenge... Sexy... exquisite... scorching... The poignant insights into women’s capacity for self-sacrifice, multidimensional characterizations, and celebration of female ingenuity will resonate with many. Läckberg reinforces her position as the thriller queen of Scandinavia.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred

"This is Big Little Lies meets Gone Girl with some 9 to 5 tossed in for good measure... A deliciously inventive thriller brimming with sex, secrets, and scandal.” 
— Kirkus

"The Golden Cage is a twisting, brutal tale of betrayal and revenge. Lackberg paints a vivid portrait of a dark and complicated anti-heroine who is both the abused and abuser, victim and victimizer. A chilling, timely read sure to thrill her international legion of fans!” 
— Lisa Unger, New York Times best-selling author of The Stranger Inside

"A sexy, sensational novel with intoxicating vengeance and an unexpected tenderness—The Golden Cage is tensely and skillfully drawn."
— Karin Slaughter, author of nineteen international best-selling novels

"It's about time that Americans get to savor the delicious twists and bad behavior that mark a Camilla Läckberg thriller. The Golden Cage is a wonderful, take-no-prisoners mashup of Gone Girl, Billions, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
—Chris Bohjalian, best-selling author of The Flight Attendant and The Red Lotus

“Camilla Lackberg is a master of psychological suspense: she grabbed me by the throat with this sharply written, wildly entertaining tale of wealth, power and revenge and kept me up straight through the night. The Golden Cage may be my first exposure to Europe's "Queen of Crime" but it certainly won't be my last. I'm a Läckberg fan for life.”
— Cristina Alger, New York Times bestselling author of Girls Like Us

From the Publisher