You Can't Hurt Me
A Novel
-
-
3.5 • 8 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
“An absolutely gripping read... both satisfying and chilling.” –Ellery Lloyd, author of the New York Times bestseller The Club
Meet Eva, who can’t feel pain, and Anna, who can’t escape it.
Everyone has heard about the case of Eva Reid. Ever since she was born, she’s felt no pain: she can get a paper cut, break a limb and even give birth without feeling a single thing. Her story has long captivated the minds of reporters and researchers—including Dr. Nate Reid, Eva’s husband and acclaimed scientist, renowned for his work in the Pain Laboratory. Also among them is Anna Tate, a ruthless journalist with a dark past of her own.
When Eva is suddenly found dead inside her home, it raises a flurry of questions about the last night of her life—and who might’ve been involved. Anna finds herself growing increasingly obsessed with Eva’s case: her protected, painless existence, her promising career as a psychotherapist, and especially her toxic relationship with the alluring Dr. Reid, whom Eva met and married as his former patient. But what other secrets could they be hiding?
When Dr. Reid embarks on the process of writing a book about Eva, an opportunity arises for Anna to work on it alongside him. As she slowly inserts herself into their home to uncover what’s fact and what’s fiction, shocking discoveries await her—and not everyone may come out unscathed…
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This is a powerful and strange work of psychological suspense. Journalist Anna Tate is willing to put herself through the wringer (almost literally) to ghostwrite the memoir of Dr. Nate Reid, a scientist who’s spent his career researching the neurological basis of pain. To attain her goal, Anna’s willing to participate in his burning, prickly experiments—and to write a magazine profile that soft-pedals the many controversies. Like the suspicious death of his wife, Eva, originally one of Dr. Reid’s former research subjects who had a unique genetic inability to feel either pain or anxiety. As Anna embarks on her research, you’ll start suspecting everyone’s motives—including Anna’s. Author Emma Cook has crafted a brilliant slow-burn thriller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cook keeps readers on their toes in her exhilarating debut, which centers on a journalist who takes a ghostwriting gig for a well-known neuroscientist. Anna Tate has fought hard to land a job helping Dr. Nate Reid write a biography of his artist wife, Eva, whose body was found in her West London studio two years earlier. Eva's rare medical condition—first diagnosed by Nate—made it impossible for her to feel pain, and Nate rose to prominence by researching her disorder. As Anna parses Eva's diaries and delves into the couple's history, she discovers that her own past may intersect with the dead woman's in ways she never knew. Complicating matters are a new inquest into Eva's death, championed by her sister, Kath; the reemergence of Tony, Anna's protective younger brother, who fears for her safety as she gets closer to Nate; and the opaque machinations of Nate's publisher, Priya. Each character harbors just enough dark secrets to keep readers guessing about where their sympathies should lie. When the reveals finally come, they're richly satisfying. Rarely has the frustration of not knowing who to trust been so much fun.
