The Shark
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jun 2, 2026
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
In this captivating new crime thriller, a serial killer is stalking the beaches of Western Australia, as two teenage girls dead-set on revenge take matters into their own hands.
At the height of Australian summer, a serial killer dubbed The Shark stalks a beachside suburb, targeting young female swimmers whose bodies are later found on the shoreline.
Disempowered and angry at the failures of the police to protect them, two young women—Raych and Carmen—are hell-bent on revenge. Raych has lost someone and will go to any length to discover what happened to her, while Carmen suspects her own disturbing connection to the killer.
Together they form an uneasy alliance and, in a moment that changes the trajectory of their lives, Carmen and Raych find and capture the prime suspect. Do they think they can save the day—or are their intentions darker? Can they trust one another's agenda? And when another young woman goes missing, do they start suspecting each other of something more devious?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Styles (No Country for Girls) probes the obsessive rage of two young women as a serial killer stalks their Perth, Australia, beach community in this nerve-shredding thriller. Inspired by the real-life case of the Claremont Stalker, the novel alternates between the perspectives of Raych, whose widowed father frequently travels for work, leaving her to fend for herself, and Carmen, who's relentlessly bullied by her adoptive sister. The two teenagers meet in a psych ward, where both have been confined following violent outbursts, then go their separate ways. A short time later, a killer dubbed "the Shark" murders young female swimmers in Perth. Raych's best friend, Piper, for whom she harbors romantic feelings, has gone missing—a possible victim of the Shark—and she and Carmen seek revenge. Motivated by their shared anger at "men muzzling in on everything," the girls track down and enact bloody vengeance on the prime suspect, but the truth of the case is more complicated than they realize. Though some plot developments strain credulity, Styles delivers jolts aplenty with her pitch-black plunge into wounded psyches and the costs of revenge. It's a gut-wrenching ride worth taking.
