Death in the Downline

Abrams aims to skewer the world of multilevel marketing in her breezy if undercooked debut. After a failed stint as a journalist in New York City, 30-year-old Drew Cooper has reluctantly returned home to Clearwater, N.J. Adrift and depressed, she crawls through her days until she runs into her high school best friend, Stephanie Murphy, at the supermarket. Taken aback by Stephanie’s pristine, youthful appearance, which she attributes to the products she sells for cosmetics company LuminUS, Drew agrees to join her as a sales rep. After an initial boost to her self-confidence (and her bank balance), Drew starts to sense simmering animosities among her LuminUS cohorts. Stephanie, however, admits to no such divisions—even when one of the region’s top sellers turns up dead under suspicious circumstances and another murder follows. Abrams’s attempts to expose the dark heart of pyramid schemes by satirizing the predatory glee of their sales reps are amusing enough, but the book’s brisk pacing becomes a liability by the time the rushed conclusion rolls around. Though there’s some tongue-in-cheek fun to be had, this feels like a missed opportunity. Agent: Lane Heymont, Tobias Literary. (Jan.)