Retreat
A Novel
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3.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Multitalented Krysten Ritter is back with a sexy, breakneck thriller that immerses readers in the sometimes glamorous and sometimes deadly life of a con artist. Full of surprises and edge-of-your-seat scenes, Retreat is a wild ride.”—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of She’s Not Sorry
“Smart, sexy, and wickedly fun: this is everything you want in a sun-drenched thriller. Ritter can really write—you’ll race through Retreat in a day, rooting for its sparky anti-heroine (just try not to drop it in the pool at the jaw-dropping twist).”—Ellery Lloyd, bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby
A beautiful con artist insinuates herself into a wealthy socialite’s life . . . with deadly consequences, in this serpentine thriller about identity and obsession, from actress, director and bestselling author Krysten Ritter.
Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze, moving seamlessly through elite circles, sparking instant connections and making every new acquaintance feel like an intimate friend. She’s clever, smooth, and confident—qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist.
Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast—attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. She longs for a reset, a chance to finally shed the grip of her addiction to the conning game.
But when Liz, with her lush dark hair and intense green eyes, is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help effortlessly slipping into the socialite’s identity. The transition is so easeful, it almost feels like fate. But just who is Isabelle Beresford really, and why does she seem to have abandoned this stunning life of hers?
As Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling—and deceptive—world of the Punta Mita resort community, she draws closer to the dangers surrounding the real Isabelle. Dangers that may have already ensnared Liz, too. This might not be the con of her life—but the con that ends it.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Actor Krysten Ritter, star of the action-packed Marvel series Jessica Jones, is our guide through this thrill ride about a con artist who just might be out of her depth. When Liz Dawson’s latest con—attempting to sell a Keith Haring painting that doesn’t actually exist—threatens to go south, she leaps at the chance to go on to the next thing: running an art installation for ultra-wealthy Isabelle Beresford at her exclusive Mexican beach villa. While the real Isabelle vacations in Bali, Liz allows herself to slip into Isabelle’s glamorous, luxurious identity at Casa Esmerelda. But pretending to be Isabelle stops being all fun and games after two suspicious deaths. Is this new con too dangerous to handle? You’ll root for this slightly shady protagonist every slippery step of the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jessica Jones actor Ritter follows Bonfire with a lukewarm tale of scams, larceny, and murder among the mega-rich. While posing as an art consultant, fraudster Liz Dawson bumps into the glamorous Isabelle Beresford—wife of prominent venture capitalist Oliver—at a gallery opening in Chicago. The pair hits it off, and the next day, Isabelle offers Liz a job overseeing the installation of an artwork at her new villa in the wealthy community of Punta Mita, Mexico, while Isabelle remains stateside. Eager for an escape from the Midwestern winter, Liz agrees. When she arrives, her dark hair and green eyes get her mistaken for Isabelle, and she encourages the confusion, integrating herself with a clique of rich women whom she plans to fleece. Then two people close to Isabelle turn up dead, and Liz starts to worry she's being set up. Her plans are thrown into further chaos when the handsome brother of one of the victims arrives in Punta Mita, adding new layers to the question of who's deceiving whom. Ritter keeps things moving at an steady pace, but many of her plot twists are too predictable to shock. Suspense fans have plenty of better options.
