Reputation

British writer Vaughan (Anatomy of a Scandal) considers the corrosive impact of social media on the lives of girls and women in this timely, twisty story. Divorced English parliament member Emma Webster divides her time between the house she shares in London with fellow politicos and her home in Portsmouth, where she lives with her 14-year-old daughter, Flora. After she does an interview with a London paper complete with a photo shoot that makes her look “more like an Oscar-nominated actress than a Labour politician,” she’s swarmed by trolls on social media. Meanwhile, Flora endures an equally intense online campaign directed against her by her former best friend, until she finally snaps, with consequences that lead to trouble for both her and her mother. But there’s a more pressing problem: the dead body found at the foot of the stairs in Emma’s London home. Just who the person was, and what Emma did or didn’t have to do with its appearance, are the questions Vaughan explores with nail-biting suspense. While the focus is more on hot topics than character development, Vaughan delivers plenty of insights into how a person’s reputation can slip, and the ways violence can spring out of the pressures of being in the spotlight. This is as thoughtful as it is surprising. Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Assoc. (July)