Nothing Without Me
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The gripping tale of a film director with a shadowy past, her missing lead actress, and the disturbing cost of fame—from “addictive” (People) suspense writer Helen Monks Takhar
“A pulse-pounding roller coaster through the shadows of the silver screen.”—Jaclyn Goldis, author of The Chateau
Fame is a deadly game. . . .
April Eden is about to have the night of her life. After years struggling uphill as a female director, her debut movie The Vanished Woman is up for a major British film award, placing her firmly on Hollywood’s radar. Her leading lady, Essie Lay—a fragile but magnetic former TV host—is on the cusp of a stunning comeback after being canceled for a disturbing scandal.
When Essie messages April saying she can’t face the ceremony, April heads to Essie’s palatial London mansion, Lotus Lodge, to convince her to enjoy their big night together. But upon arriving, April is faced with tragedy: Essie’s body is floating in her swimming pool, all signs pointing to suicide. Panicked, April activates Essie’s team—her put-upon sister/manager, Janine, and her wily agent, Jonathan—expecting them to do damage control while she heads to the awards ceremony; she’s devastated yet determined to do what she can to protect Essie’s legacy.
But by the time April returns to Lotus Lodge to face the fallout, Essie’s body has vanished. Was Essie actually murdered? Is this an elaborate hoax or publicity stunt gone wrong? And why does April start receiving unsettling messages, trying to pin the blame on her?
Taut, twisty, and deliciously page-turning, Nothing Without Me examines the high price of female fame, how far some will go to climb the slippery ladder of celebrity, and the unbearable pressure of being the woman everyone wants to be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Monks Takhar (Such a Good Mother) explores the dark side of celebrity in this diabolically plotted and ferociously feminist psychological thriller. April Eden and her best friend, disgraced former national sweetheart Essie Lay, are favored to win British Film Association awards for The Vanished Woman, a movie starring Essie that April wrote and directed. It's a huge win for April, who's fought for years to break through as a female filmmaker, so when Essie messages April before the ceremony to say she's staying home, April and her boyfriend, Jags, stop by the actor's Hampstead mansion to change her mind. Instead, they discover a gown-clad Essie face down in her pool with champagne and pills nearby. Jags convinces April to leave Essie for someone else to deal with and attend the awards ceremony as though nothing happened, but when morning breaks and the news hasn't, the couple return to find Essie and the intoxicants gone—along with Essie's passport. Paranoia seeps into April's first-person-present narration, while expertly timed flashbacks from April and Essie's alternating perspectives gradually reveal the women's fraught history, adding dimension and context to the central mystery. Exquisitely rendered, realistically damaged characters help make the novel's jaw-dropping twists feel earned rather than contrived. Liane Moriarty fans, take note: this is a must-read.
