The Pale-Faced Lie: A True Story by David Crow

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The Pale-Faced Lie is an extraordinary memoir (2019) by debutant American author David Crow. A great remembrance of his abusive childhood is both gut-wrenching and inspiring. 

Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his siblings idolize their dad. Tall, strong, smart, and brave, the self-taught Cherokee regaled his family with stories of his World War II. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics that justified cruelty, violence, lies, and even murders.  He was as intelligent as he was dangerous--apparently, a bearer of uncommonly high IQ and alarmingly volatile.

Thurston intimidated David with beating to coerce him into doing his criminal bidding. David's mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn't protect him. One day Thurston packed up the house and took the kids, leaving his wife homeless and destitute. Soon he remarried, and David learned that his stepmother was just as vicious and abusive as his father.

David Crow struggled at school--he was diagnosed with dyslexia--but still managed to graduate from college and eventually win a position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture administration. But Thurston's madness continued to haunt the author-- his father tried to pull Crow's sister, Sally, into a conspiracy to commit a crime. He finally felt the need to stop his father and found the courage to try. Crow's memoir is cinematically gripping--the depth of Thurston's sociopathic depravity is as absorbing as it is repulsive. The author deftly relates that his father conceived the conspiracy with cunning cynicism: "Dad's logic was simple: He knew that if he involved sally...she would ask for my help, even when she swore to keep silent. And he knew that I wouldn't let anything happen to Sally." Crow writes with confessional frankness and affectingly depicts a childhood lost to emotional and physical abuse. 

Through sheer determination, and with the help of a few angels along the way, David managed to get into college and achieve professional success. When he finally found the courage to refuse his father’s criminal demands, he unwittingly triggered a plot of revenge that would force him into a showdown with Thurston Crow.

With lives at stake, including his own, David would have only twenty-four hours to outsmart his father—the brilliant, psychotic man who bragged that the three years he spent in the notorious San Quentin State Prison had been the easiest time of his life.

The Pale-Faced Lie is a searing, raw, palpable memoir that reminds us what an important role our parents play in our lives. Most of all, it’s an inspirational story about the power of forgiveness and the ability of the human spirit to rise above adversity.

About the Author

David Crow spent his early years on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. Through grit, resilience, and a thirst for learning, he managed to escape his abusive childhood, graduate from college, and build a successful lobbying firm in Washington, DC. Today, David is a sought after speaker, giving talks to various organizations around the world. Throughout the years, he has mentored over 200 college interns, performed pro bono service for the charitable organization 'Save the Children', and participated in the 'Big Brothers Big Sisters' program. An advocate for women, he will donate a percentage of his royalties from The Pale-Faced Lie to Barrett House, a homeless shelter for women in Albuquerque. David and his wife, Patty, live in the suburbs of DC.

David Crow

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Rating: 4.6/5

Author: David Crow

Publisher: Sandra Jonas Publishing House (Illustrated edition)

Publishing Date: May 7, 2019

Edition Language: English

Genre: Native American and Aboriginal Biographies, Sibling Relationships, Survival Biographies, True Crime, Personal Memoir, Children's Studies, Social Science

ISBN-10: 0997487178

ISBN-13: 978-0997487176

Pages: 352 (Hardcover)

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

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From Prep to American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld has made a place as contemporary fiction's foremost chronicler in the most popular shelves of the literature world. This time she has turned towards the realm of 'what-if' where she has done an excellent job in jolting down the readers by letting them know, "What would have happened if Hillary Rodham had never agreed to marry Bill Clinton?"

"Delviously clever...Sittenfeld's Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She is a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She's whoever she wants to be."-- O: The Oprah Magazine

Named one of the Best Books Of The Year by The New Yorker. NPR. The Washington Post. Marie Claire. Cosmopolitan (UK). Town & Country. New York Post

The novel takes its readers on the life-journey of the two dynamic individuals. 

In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she is attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. And then she catches the eye of driven, handsome, and charismatic southerner fellow law student-Bill Clinton. Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times, although she said no more than once, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton.

But in Curtis Sittenfeld's powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail--One that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life.

With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. Uncannily astute and witty in the telling, RODHAM is a singular and brilliant reimagining - an unmissable literary landmark and truly a novel of our times.

About the Author

Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld (born August 23, 1975, Cincinnati, Ohio) is a best-selling American writer. She is the author of six novels: Prep, the story of students at a Massachusetts prep school; The Man of My Dreams, a coming-of-age novel and an examination of romantic love; American Wife, a fictional story loosely based on the life of First Lady Laura Bush; Sisterland which tells the story of identical twins with psychic powers; Eligible, a modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and Rodham, an alternate history political novel about the life of Hillary Clinton.

Her collection of short stories 'You Think It, I'll Say It' has been translated into thirty languages. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, of which she was the 2020 guest editor. Her non-fiction has appeared on public radio's 'This American Life' and in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair.

Cutis Sittenfeld

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Rating: 4.2/5

Author: Curtis Sittenfeld

Publisher: Random House

Publishing Date: May 19, 2020

Edition Language: English

Genre: Political Fiction, Women's Friendship Fiction, Women's Domestic Life Fiction

ISBN-10: 0399590919

ISBN-13: 978-0399590917

Pages: 432 (Hardcover)

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The Vanishing Half: A Novel by Brit Bennett

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The Vanishing Half is a 2020 novel by Brit Bennett. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books. It debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list. As of September 6, 2020, the novel had spent 12 weeks on the list. HBO acquired the rights to develop a limited series with Bennett as executive producer.

The story of identical twin sisters who grew up in a small, southern black community. These two inseparable Vignes sisters live two different lives after running away at the age of sixteen. It's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it is everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. One lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly pass for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fate of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughter's storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the deep south to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a compulsive, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decision, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative 'Rave' rating with only one 'mixed' review.

Kirkus Reviews wrote, "The scene in which Stella adopts her white persona is a tour de force of doubling and confusion."

The New York Times wrote, "Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterization with the historical and social realities of her subject matter."

The novel has been shortlisted many times for various awards:

• In 2020, National Book Award for Fiction
• In 2020, Prix Médicis étranger
• In 2021, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

It was selected for the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2020". And, was the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction for the year 2020.

Adaptation

Within a month of publication, it was reported that HBO had acquired the rights for "low seven-figures" to develop a limited series with Brit Bennett as executive producer. 

About the Author

Brit Bennett is an American writer raised in Los Angeles, Southern California, and received an undergraduate degree in English from Stanford University. She later attended the University of Michigan for her M.F.A. She also studied at Oxford University. While at Michigan she has won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. She has since published other nonfiction essays, including a history of black dolls called "Addy Walker, American Girl" for the Paris Review.

Her debut novel The Mother (2016) was a New York Times best-seller and been a finalist for the NBCC John Leonard Prize for the best first book, The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honorees. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Jezebel.

Her second novel, The Vanishing Half (2020), was also a New York Times best-seller and chosen for Good Morning America Book Club selection. 

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Rating: 4.4/5

Author: Brit Bennett

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Publishing Date: June 2, 2020

Edition Language: English

Genre: Historical Fiction, Family Saga, Mystery

ISBN-10: 0525536299

ISBN-13: 978-0525536291

Pages: 352 (Hardcover) 

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War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains a classic of World Literature. 

Tolstoy said War and Peace is "not a novel, even less it is a poem, and still less a historical chronicle."  Large sections, especially the later chapters, are philosophical discussion rather than narrative. Portions of an earlier version titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867, then the novel was published in its entirety in 1869.

Tolstoy also said that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War and Peace a novel. Instead, he regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel. For War and Peace to have the recognition of the greatest historical-fiction novel ever composed is an understatement, as it does not include its aspect of the philosophy of history provided by Tolstoy. 

The novel chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era and Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. It is equally entertaining as it delves into Russian traditions, home life, adventure, love, ambition romantic manipulation, and the responsibility of parents and landlords. In addition, is the incorporation of Tolstoy's Christian humanist philosophy by using several characters of the novel as his mouthpiece. Individual agonies of the difficulty of dealing with life's issues in so many aspects are included in almost every chapter.

The novel that made its author 'the true lion of the Russian literature' enjoyed great success with the reading public upon its publication and spawned dozens of reviews and analytical essays, some of which formed the basis for the research of Tolstoy scholars. 

This volume is a new translation in contemporary English of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace by Daniel H Shubin, for the American reader. He has translated several of Tolstoy's books.

Adaptations

All modes of media have adapted War and Peace and seen a grand success for years. The first-ever Russian adaptation was in 1915 as a film which was directed by Vladimir Gardin. After that, it has been adapted more like film, stage, radio, theatre, television, opra, and music.

About the Author

A Russian author of novels, short stories, plays, and philosophical essays, Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born into an aristocratic family and is best known for the epic book War and Peace and Anna Karenina. These two are the greatest works of Russian literature.  After serving in the Crimean War, Tolstoy retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world-wide fame.

He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909. That he never won is a major controversy.

Leo  Tolstoy

The translator, Daniel H. Shubin, has translated many books from Russian into English on Russian philosophy, religion, biography and history, and especially much of Leo Tolstoy. He has also traveled extensively throughout Russia.

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Rating: 4.3/5

Author: Leo Tolstoy (Edition translated by Daniel H. Shubin)

Publisher: Lulu.com 

Publishing Date: June 30, 2020

Edition Language: English

Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Philosophy

ISBN-10: 1716787319

ISBN-13: 978-1716787317

Pages: 798 (Paperback)

Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker

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Quit like a Woman is a national bestseller (USA) autobiography by Holly Whitaker who has been a drinking addict. This book is the result of the thinking to offer a radical new path to sobriety and recovery program for a drinking addict. 

"You don't know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life."-- Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO

We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at the baby showers and work events, brunch and book clubs, graduation, and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol's ubiquity -- in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn't drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don't imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. 

When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What's more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. 

Alcohol is a poison, a drug "designed to keep us down," writes Whitaker, founder of the online Tempest Sobriety School, in this empowering mix of memoir and self-help aimed at women. A one-time binge drinker and "train wreck," Whitaker got sober at 33. 

When Holly found an alternate way out of her addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their ways as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it.

Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit like a Women is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cut out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again. The narrative offers personal stories (such as making new friends while sober) and tips on managing one's recovery (find a therapist, snack healthily).

About the Author

Holly Whitaker is the founder of Tempest, a modern, trauma-informed, human-first recovery program, which is started in 2014, a year after becoming sober, Holly is a writer and bestselling author of Quit Like A Women: The Radical Choice to Not drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol, a memoir/self-help book about drinking, the mammoth and often under-recognized influence of Big Alcohol, and what women+ really need to recover.

Holly has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Vogue, TechCrunch, Refinery29, Goop, and was named in Inc's 2019 Female Founders 100 list. She lives in the Catskills region of New York with her cat Mary Katherine.

Holly Whitaker

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Rating: 4.4/5

Author: Holly Whitaker

Publisher: The Dial Press

Publishing Date: December 31, 2019

Edition Language: English

Genre: Alcoholism Recover, Women's Studies, Motivational Self-Help, memoir, Auto-Biography

ISBN-10: 1984825054

ISBN-13: 978-1984825056

Page: 368 (Hardcover)

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Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra

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Unfinished is a memoir of an Indian origin film actress Priyanka Chopra who broke that thin glass and became one of the most recognized personality globally. The book is expected to be available for its readers on February 9, 2021. 

In this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world's most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery.

"I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, and our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone..."

A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas's childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odd as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her callings, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty.  The result is a book that is philosophical, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. 

From her dual-continent twenty-year-long career as an actor and producer to her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, from losing her beloved father to cancer to marrying Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas's story will inspire a generation around the world to gather their courage, embrace their ambitions, and commit to the hard work of following their dreams.

About the Author

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a multi-award-winning actor, producer, and one of the most recognized and influential personalities in the world. A former Miss World, she made her movie debut in 2002 and has appeared in more than sixty films produced in India and the United States. In 2015, she made history as the first Indian-born actor to lead an American network TV series when she starred as Alex in the ABC drama Quantico. For her work during her longtime association with UNICEF, Chopra(Jonas) was awarded the prestigious Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award in 2019. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Nick Jonas, and their three dogs--Diana, Gino, and Panda.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas

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Rating: NA

Author: Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Expected Publishing Date: February 9, 2021 

Edition Language: English

Genre: Social Activist Biographies, Television Performer Biographies, Rich and Famous Biographies, Memoir

ISBN-10: 1984819216

ISBN-13: 978-1984819215

Pages: 256 (Hardcover)

The Dark Secret (Wings of Fire #4): The Graphix book by Tui T. Sutherland

Description

The Dark Secret  is a graphic novel of the series Wings of Fire by a Venezuelan-American author Tui T. Sutherland. It is the fourth book of the series and features Straflight as the protagonist. It was released on December 29th, 2020. 

"Fans of the series will be drawn to the visual representation of their favorite characters, as will those who enjoy epic, animal-based fantasies"-- School Library Journal

The #1  New York Times Bestselling Wings of Fire series soars to new heights in the fourth graphic novel adaptation! A fantastic fantasy novel for all age readers, especially for young-adults.

The Wings of Fire saga continues with a visit to the mysterious land of the NightWings, where Starflight is stolen by his own tribe. He must face a terrible choice--his home, or his friends?

In the shadows, trouble is brewing...

Like all other dragonets of destiny, Starflight has always wanted to see his home-- but he's also been afraid of fellow NightWings. Starflight doesn't have mindreading powers like his tribe and he doesn't understand why they are so secretive. No one has ever seen the NightWing queen. 

Straflight hopes to light on some of the long-held secrets of NightWing--what magical powers they really have, who they're allied within the war, and where they've been living all this time. But the truth about Starflight's tribe is more terrible than he ever imagined: Not only do the NightWings live in a dark and miserable place, but they have imprisoned several innocent RainWings there, too.

Stranded and alone, Straflight only wants to get back to his friends. He is the only hope to all the dragonets'- he must find a way to negotiate with NightWings to free the RainWings dragons. He is the smartest of the dragonets... But the fate of two kingdoms now rests in his talons, and with no one to save him. Starflight will have to find a way to be brave... before its too late. Is he brave enough or will he oscillate in his mission and betray them all?

About the Author

Tui T. Sutherland is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Wings of Fire series, the Menagerie trilogy, and the Pet Trouble series, as well as a contributing author to the bestselling Spirit Animals and Seekers series ( as part of the Erin Hunter team). In 2009, she was a two-day champion on Jeopardy. 

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons and two very patient dogs. To find Tui's books check out her website @tuibooks.com

Tui T. Sutherland

Mike Holmes has drawn for comics series Bravest Warriors and Adventure time. He has also illustrated for graphic novel series Wings of Fire. Holmes is the creator of the art project Mikenesses. His books include Secret Coders (written by Gene Luen Yang), Animal Crackers: Circus Mayhem (written by Scott Christia Sava) and the True Story collection.

He and his wife, Meredith, live in Philadelphia with their son-Oscar, Heidi the dog and Ella the cat.

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Rating: 4.9/5

Author: Tui T. Sutherland

Illustrator: Mike Holmes

Publisher: Graphix

Publishing Date: December 29, 2020

Edition Language: English

Genre: Children's Action & Adventure, Comics & Graphics Novel, Children's Dragon, Unicorn & Mythical Stories

ISBN-10: 1338344218

ISBN-13: 978-13338344219

Pages: 224 (Paperback)

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

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The Silent Patient is a 2019 psychological thriller novel written by British-Cypriot author Alex Michaelides. The audio-book version was released on the same date which is read by Louise Brealey and Jack Hawkins. Upon its release, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list at No.1. It later won the Goodreads Choice Award 2019 in the Mystery and Thriller category.

"An unforgettable--and Hollywood-bound--new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy." --Entertainment Weekly

The story is narrated by an English psychotherapist, Theo Faber, dealing with a patient who turns mute after murdering her husband.

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect, she lives a life anyone would dream of. One evening Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia's silence turns a domestic tragedy into a big mystery that becomes the talk of the town and flings Alicia into notoriety. The price of her artworks shoots up to the sky and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations--a search for the truth that threatens to drag him in.

The novel got mostly positive reviews from critics. The Guardian concurred, praising its "tight, uncluttered prose" and "skillful [of] tension until the novel's shocking denouement.

 The Washington Post praised the plot as "fresh" but criticized its "hacky horror tropes, trite scenes, and comically shifty red herring characters.

About the Author

Alex Michaelides (born 1977) is a bestselling British-Cypriot author and screenwriter. His debut novel, the psychological thriller The Silent Patient, is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller.

He studied English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He studied psychotherapy for three years and worked for two years at a secure unit for young adults. This work provided material and inspiration for his debut novel.

Michaelides' as yet unpublished second novel, The Maidens, is a psychological detective story about a series of murders at a Cambridge college. Michaelides also wrote the film The Devil You Know and co-wrote The Con is On.

Alex Michaelides

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Rating: 4.5/5

Author: Alex Michaelides

Publisher: Celadon Books

Publishing Date: February 5, 2019

Edition Language: English

Genre: Psychological Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Murder Thriller

ISBN-10: 1250301696

ISBN-13: 978-1250301697

Pages: 336 (Hardcover)