Our Kind of Cruelty
A Novel
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3.4 • 16 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“A searing, chilling sliver of perfection . . . May well turn out to be the year’s best thriller.” —Charles Finch, The New York Times Book Review
“This is simply one of the nastiest and most disturbing thrillers I’ve read in years. I loved it, right down to the utterly chilling final line.” —Gillian Flynn
“A perfect nightmare of a novel—as merciless a thriller as I’ve ever read. Astonishingly dark and sensationally accomplished.” —A. J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.
This is a love story. Mike’s love story.
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job; he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.
It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his e-mails or phone calls.
It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus.
It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he’ll know just when to come to her rescue . . .
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Love has turned into obsession…or has it? That’s the key question in Araminta Hall’s psychological thriller Our Kind of Cruelty. Mike and Verity used to be a couple in a passionate relationship. Now, Verity says she’s moved on—but Mike isn’t so sure that’s true. The novel is filled with twists and turns, forcing us to question reality: Is Mike a stalker who can’t let go of the past, or is Verity still playing the same kind of sexy games they used to indulge in when they were together? Every time we thought we had a handle on the answer, Hall shook things up, leaving us spinning once again. This book manages to be a breathless nail-biter and a stinging examination of 21st-century sexual politics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British journalist Hall (Everything and Nothing) makes her U.S. debut with a disturbing psychological thriller. Sometimes there's a fine line between crazy in love and just plain crazy, and for glossy London golden couple Mike Hayes and Verity "V" Walton, it's one that becomes blurrier when, after years of all-consuming passion, V decides she wants something different. Or does she? Investment banker Mike refuses to accept her moving on to advertising tycoon Angus Metcalf at face value, viewing it instead as a new, higher-stakes version of the Crave, their kinky private role-playing game. Hall constructs a suspenseful plot that capitalizes on considerable ambiguity about her characters' motivations, especially the key issue of the extent to which V, a scientist working in AI, might be manipulating Mike. But with the story unfolding through the eyes of the emotionally damaged Mike, who was abused as a boy, readers never learn enough about V and arguably a lot more than they might wish about a narrator whose head is an uncomfortably creepy place to be. Still, Hall is a writer to watch.
