The Fox

A propulsive, emotionally layered suspense novel about two women linked by a romance scam—and by their shared hunger to be seen. 

In Dublin, Carmel has built what appears to be a fulfilling life: a successful career, a comfortable home, three grown sons. Yet a year after her husband’s death, she finds herself alone in a way she never expected. The shape of her days has changed, and the future she once imagined has quietly slipped away. Then, on a dating site, she meets a widower living in London. What begins as a distraction soon becomes the brightest part of her day—a source of comfort, excitement, and possibility. For the first time in years, Carmel allows herself to imagine love again. 

Hundreds of miles away in London, Lisa lives a precarious life shaped by past family trauma. She divides her days between caring for her mentally unstable sister and helping those failed by England’s broken class system. Smart, sharp, and resourceful, she understands the lengths people will go to for a second chance at hope—and will do whatever she can to make ends meet. 

As the lives of the two women begin to converge, Annie Macmanus unfolds a gripping story of love and deception. Moving between Dublin and London, privilege and instability, The Fox is a novel about grief, self-invention, and the distance between people in an age of constant connection.