You Can Trust Me

Heard (The Kill Club) smartly engages with questions of gender, privilege, and accountability in this rousing thriller. Pickpocket Summer, deserted by her mother as a teen, picked up fellow grifter Leo one day while both were panhandling. In the five years since, they’ve traveled around California running scams on rich marks. Leo hopes to convert the billionaire philanthropist Michael Forrester’s interest in her Instagram account into a cash cow, but when Leo fails to contact Summer after her and Michael’s date, Summer cozies up to one of Michael’s confidants so she can gain access to his private research island and search for her missing friend, turning up potentially deadly secrets in the process. Heard follows the women separately, on slightly different timelines, peppering in flashbacks to their early lives without breaking the real-time tension of the main plot, and ably balances an anxious sense the women are in over their heads with satisfying moments highlighting their resourcefulness, all integrated into a story that packs more surprises than the setup initially promises. Readers will want to ride with Summer and Leo all the way to the end. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada US Literary. (June)