Witness 8: A Novel

by Steve Cavanagh

Overview

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Author of the “unguessable and unputdownable” (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Kill For Me, Kill for You, the master of psychological thrillers Steve Cavanagh returns.

What if the witness was more twisted than the killer?

Something is wrong with Ruby Johnson.

A former resident of the ultra-elite Manhattan upper class, Ruby now works as a maid in the type of houses she used to live in. Unassuming, she sees everyone’s dirty secrets from the inside of their beautiful, renovated brownstones. But when Ruby witnesses a murder, she has wicked plans in mind that don’t involve telling the authorities the truth.

Eddie Flynn, streetwise ex con-artist-turned-defense attorney, is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases. And none is more hopeless than John Jackson’s—the gun that killed his neighbor found, with Jackson’s DNA, in his own home. Flynn and his unconventional team will need to use every trick they know to keep an innocent man from being locked up. But to save his client’s life, Eddie must first protect his own, as the scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head.

Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Megan Miranda, Witness 8 is a fresh knockout page-turner from an author who is “the real deal” (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668049372
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	03/25/2025
Series:	Eddie Flynn Series , #8
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Steve Cavanagh is the bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including the Eddie Flynn series and Kill for Me, Kill for You. A former lawyer, he was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he still lives. Find out more at SteveCavanaghAuthor.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/20/2025

Cavanagh sacrifices plausibility for plot surprises in his disappointing eighth thriller featuring New York City con man–turned–attorney Eddie Flynn (after The Accomplice). A prologue introduces 22-year-old maid Ruby Johnson, whose financial troubles have reduced her to working in the kinds of Upper West Side homes she once lived in. Ruby sees an opportunity for a new life after witnessing an unnamed man she recognizes gun down one of the residents on the street where she works. Ruby retrieves the gun the killer abandoned in a garbage can and uses it to frame Dr. John Jackson, one of her employers, for the crime, then takes credit for tracking him down. Jackson retains Flynn to fight the ensuing murder charge—a difficult proposition, considering Ruby managed to plant his fingerprints on the gun. Meanwhile, Flynn tries to dodge a hit put out on him by an unknown enemy, which draws out-of-town gunmen to New York once Flynn’s mob boss friend ensures that no one local accepts the contract. Cavanagh stretches both plots quite thin, with reveals that are equal parts outlandish and underwhelming. Here’s hoping the next installment is a return to form. Agent: John Wood, RCW. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Steve Cavanagh

“A brilliant, twisty, ingeniously constructed puzzle of a book. Steve Cavanagh pulls off an enviable premise with panache.

Ruth Ware

Praise for Kill for Me, Kill for You
“For readers drawn to white-knuckle plots and unpredictable twists, this one won’t disappoint.” —Harper’s Bazaar

“Twisty...full of surprises.” —The New York Times

“A deeply twisted, totally brilliant Hitchcockian thriller. Unguessable and unputdownable, Kill for Me, Kill for You is one of the most ingenuous thrillers I’ve read in a long time.”—Alex Michaelides , #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient

“From a master storyteller comes an explosive revenge tale that’s never less than first class. Kill For Me, Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh is smart, stylish and fearless—the ultimate treat for crime fiction fans. Expect an intriguing cast and a plot full of surprises as it leaves Strangers on a Train trembling in its wake. Five breathless stars.” —Janice Hallett, internationally bestselling author of The Appeal

“Steve Cavanagh's twists hit you between the eyes. You never see them coming.” —Anthony Horowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders

“A sophisticated, emotionally complex thriller for the discerning suspense reader, with characters who drive you across 350 hold-your-breath pages and into a showstopping finale.” —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

“Explosive, game-changing reveals that, combined with an uncommon attunement to the central characters’ emotional arcs, make for a wild, deliciously satisfying ride.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Fresh and original.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

This guy is the real deal. Trust me.

Lee Child

Ingenious.

Michael Connelly

2025-03-08
When a New York socialite is murdered, a clever witness manipulates the case.

Ruby Johnson has spent her whole life on the same posh block of West 74th Street on New York’s Upper West Side. In her childhood, her well-off family lived there, but when she was a teen, her father left Ruby and her mother, and they lost their home. Since then, she’s held jobs with various families on the block as a maid and nanny to support herself and her mother, who has medical issues. Late one night, as a party goes on a few doors away, Ruby leaves work and witnesses a murder. She knows the victim—Margaret “Maggs” Blakemore, notorious for her many affairs—and she knows who the killer is, too. (Although the reader doesn’t.) But then things get strange: Ruby frames an apparently innocent man, a saintly pediatric surgeon who is one of her employers. The mystery of this novel is less about identifying the killer and more about figuring out why Ruby does what she does. Guiding the reader through it is Eddie Flynn, a wisecracking con man–turned–defense attorney, who has a rather shocking number of people trying to kill him for various reasons. He’s also got multiple sidekicks—a wise older adviser, a brilliant female law associate, a fearless detective who doubles as a bodyguard, a former FBI agent with a shady past. It’s a promising setup, but the plot bogs down in stereotypical characters (mob guys, corrupt cops, eccentric hit men—yes, plural), repetitive descriptions, excessive exposition, several narrators, and multiple subplots that take us away from the main story for such long stretches that it loses all momentum.

Somewhere beneath a clutter of extraneous details lurks an interesting premise trying to get out.

Kirkus Reviews