Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2024 Adult Fiction

DOLL PARTS de Penny Zang

The Virgin Suicides meets I Have Some Questions For You with a dash of the horrors of Nightbitch in this debut suspense following one woman as she begins to uncover the truth of the death of her estranged best friend and the Sylvia Plath adoring girls they attended college with decades ago.

DOLL PARTS
by Penny Zang
Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2025

For Nikki and Sadie, life at Loch Raven College was supposed to be filled with poetry and days spent trying on thrifted clothes. But there’s a dark story that plagues the school halls – that of the Sylvia Club, a campus legend surrounding the death of multiple Sylvia Plath adoring girls, all written off as suicides. Aspiring writer Nikki finds herself drawn to the stories, so much so that dead girls begin to haunt her dark imagination. To satiate her obsession, Nikki begins to dig into the deaths, and she soon suspects there’s more to the story than just a tragic group of sad girls – a suspicion that will lead to a tragedy of its own, one that will tear her and Sadie apart.

It’s been twenty years since Sadie saw her estranged friend. Now, Nikki is dead. And when Sadie ends up pregnant with Nikki’s grieving husband, she finds herself stepping into her seemingly perfect life. But Nikki’s eerily preserved home seems to hold clues for Sadie from beyond-the-grave, and soon, she’s spiraling into a deep obsession that will make her question her own reality. Because it seems Nikki never stopped looking for answers about what happened to the girls of the Sylvia Club, and she may have been its latest victim.

A provocative and irresistible debut, DOLL PARTS is at once an exploration of the dark chasms that break apart friendships, an ode to the aching beauty of girlhood, and a sharp portrayal of grief that can physically haunt you.

Penny Zang is from Maryland and graduated with an MFA in Fiction from West Virginia University. Her work has appeared in the Potomac Review, Louisville Review, and Superstition Review, among others. She is the 2024 Elizabeth Boatwright Coker fiction fellow via the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She lives in South Carolina, where she teaches English at a two-year college.



FELLOW CREATURES d’Emma Lowther

Obsession and ambition collide in FELLOW CREATURES when outsider Shannon – a new student at one of London’s most prestigious drama schools – becomes dangerously infatuated with a fellow classmate. Perfect for fans of dark academia and toxic friendships, FELLOW CREATURES is Saltburn meets If We Were Villains, with a dash of The Talented Mr Ripley.

FELLOW CREATURES
by Emma Lowther
Quercus, April 2026
(via Mushens Entertainment)

I wasn’t like the ‘Victoria’s of the world.
My future wasn’t written in the stars.
It was scratched in the dirt…

Shannon Bell is a nobody. She’s the girl who hangs around the edges, the girl whose name you forget. But Shannon has a hidden talent: she can act.

When she’s accepted into one of London’s most selective drama schools, northerner Shannon finds herself uprooted from her old life and thrown into a dazzling yet cut-throat new world.

It’s there that she meets the beautiful, wealthy and well-connected Victoria, who is everything Shannon has always wanted to be. When Victoria takes a liking to her, the two become inseparable, forming an intense bond. And suddenly, Shannon is no longer a nobody – instead she finds herself on the inside, part of Victoria’s exclusive group of friends.

But Victoria’s privilege soon begins to prove its worth – winning her countless auditions and opportunities. Poisonous jealousy begins to seep into her relationship with Shannon and the others, driving the group apart, with deadly consequences.

Emma Lowther is a queer, neurodivergent, Northern writer. She was the winner of the 2021 London Writers Award. She trained as a performer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now works as an actor, voiceover artist and freelance copywriter. FELLOW CREATURES is her debut novel.

EL DORADO DRIVE de Megan Abbott

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout comes a simmering, atmospheric novel of friendship and betrayal, following a women-led pyramid scheme in suburban Detroit.

EL DORADO DRIVE
by Megan Abbott
Putnam/PRH, June 2025
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

All I want is to be innocent again. But that’s not how it works. Especially not after the Wheel.

When Harper moves in with her sister Pam, she’s surprised to find Pam doing so well financially after her messy divorce. After all, Pam’s ex-husband wiped their bank accounts, even stole from their kids. But Pam managed to find her way back. Thanks to the Wheel…

Twice a month, the women of the Wheel meet. New members bring cash to the party that is pooled together and then gifted to one lucky member. It’s all about giving back. Lifting each other up. As women should. As they must.

But when Harper is invited, with the promise of an end to her financial burdens, the sisters inadvertently unleash a darkness lurking within the group. If they’re not careful, it might just get them killed.

Megan Abbott turns her keen eye toward women and money in EL DORADO DRIVE, a riveting story about greed, power, and vulnerability, and how desperation draws out our most destructive impulses.

“Tense, chilling and beautifully written, EL DORADO DRIVE is an absolute knockout.” — Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of thirty five novels and the renowned Myron Bolitar series

“Layer by magnetic layer, Megan Abbott reveals the story of a family coming undone beneath the paralyzing weight of material pressures. Abbott is a skilled storyteller, and EL DORADO DRIVE is a smart, twisty, and riveting family drama.” — Karin Slaughter, # 1 New York Times and international bestselling author

Megan Abbott is the Edgar-winning author of the novels Beware the Woman, The Turnout, Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know Me, The Fever, Dare Me, The End of Everything, Bury Me Deep, Queenpin, The Song Is You, and Die a Little. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The Believer. Her stories have appeared in multiple collections, including the Best American Mystery Stories of 2014 and 2016.

RUNNING COLD de Susan Walter

In this heart-pounding story of deception, murder, and survival, a former Olympian retreats to the Canadian wilderness for a fresh start, only to find out that the past will always catch up to her.

RUNNING COLD
by Susan Walter
Lake Union/Amazon, October 2024
(via Laura Dail Literary)

Julie Adler’s perfect facade is shattered by grief when her husband commits suicide. His death reveals that their luxurious California life was a house of cards, and his secret business dealings have left Julie penniless.

As she strikes out on her own, Julie feels drawn to her old stomping grounds in Banff, a charming and isolated ski town where she once trained for the Olympics. She finds work as a housekeeper at a luxury resort, but just as she starts to piece together a new life, an eccentric guest turns up dead. And Julie, the last person seen in her hotel room, is the prime suspect.

The evidence is stacked against her, but even in the encroaching blizzard, Julie knows her way around these mountains. She just needs to evade the police long enough to find the truth behind the murder…and before the real killer finds her first.

“Set in a stunning but unforgiving landscape, Running Cold is chilling—both literally and figuratively. This twisty tale of murder, secrets, and exceptional human grit had me flying through the pages!” —Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Drowning Woman

“When Julie’s life is ripped apart by her husband’s untimely death, it’s just the beginning of the journey that will lead her into her dark past and the secrets that swirled around her, sight unseen. A taught page-turner that draws you in and never lets go…” —Catherine McKenzie, USA Today bestselling author of I’ll Never Tell

Susan Walter is the author of Lie by the Pool, Good as Dead, and Over Her Dead Body. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After being given every opportunity—and failing—to become a concert violinist, Susan attended Harvard University. She had hoped to be a newscaster, but the local TV station had different ideas and hired her to write and produce promos instead. Seeking sunshine and a change of scenery, Walter moved to Los Angeles to work in film and television production. Upon realizing writers were having all the fun, Susan transitioned to screenwriting, then directing. She wrote and made her directorial debut with the 2017 film All I Wish, starring Sharon Stone.

SAVAGE BLOOMS de S.T. Gibson

Wuthering Heights meets a grown-up The Cruel Prince by way of Sierra Simone, in the first of a dark new romantasy series by bestselling author S.T. Gibson.

SAVAGE BLOOMS
by S.T. Gibson
Orbit, October 2025
(via KT Literary)

Adam has been in love with his best friend Nicola since college, but the closest he can come to admitting his feelings is inviting her to travel with him to Scotland in search of a legendary cave from his grandfather’s bedtime stories.

When a storm washes out the road, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of Eileen, an eccentric aristocrat, and Finley, her brooding groundskeeper. The Americans quickly get more than they bargained for as they become entangled in Eileen and Finley’s world of mind games, kink, and ancient enchantment.

S.T. Gibson is the British Fantasy Award-nominated and Goodreads Choice -nominated author of the USA Today bestseller Evocation and Sunday Times bestseller A Dowry Of Blood and She holds a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from UNC and Masters of Theological Studies from Princeton Seminary.