Purgatory Bay

A fiendish quest for revenge drives Gruley’s tense second thriller set in the same region of Michigan as 2018’s Bleak Harbor. In 2007, angry teenager Jubilee Rathman is traumatized by the massacre of her gang-connected family. In the 12 years since, Jubilee has used her intelligence and wealth to organize an elaborate scheme to hurt all the people she blames for her pain, including Mafia members, insensitive newspaper reporters, and crooked cops and politicians. Even if they all aren’t actually guilty, she believes they deserve to suffer anyway. Most of the novel is told from the viewpoint of those forced to act out Jubilee’s cruel scenario, as she and her hideously disfigured assistant, Caleb, kidnap hostages and manipulate a fleet of weaponized drones to kill or terrorize people in the town of Bleak Harbor. No surprise, it all ends badly. Readers with the patience for the antics of maniacal, over-the-top villains will have fun. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Jan.)