Ladykiller

Wood’s bracing debut centers on a pair of potentially venomous best friends. Gia Torres, a wealthy heiress, and Abby Corman, whose mother was once Gia’s personal chef, have been friends since childhood. When the two were 18, Gia saved Abby’s life by killing a man who attacked her, then turned the experience into a successful memoir—though the women’s memories of the incident differed. More than a decade later, Abby gets an invitation to join Gia on an all-expenses-paid vacation to Sweden. Though initially reluctant, Abby accepts, hoping the trip will help mend the rift that developed after Gia married a shady shipping magnate. Once Abby arrives in Sweden, however, Gia is nowhere to be found. After rushing to Gia’s home in Greece, Abby discovers the draft of a memoir about the days leading up to Gia’s disappearance, but she can’t untangle fact from fiction within its pages. Alternating Abby’s perspective with passages from Gia’s manuscript, Wood ingeniously orchestrates the plot to a series of powder-keg reveals. Fans of Paula Hawkins will devour this wily, sun-soaked thriller. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (July)