Good, mean fun. . . . [An] ingeniously plotted page-turner.-- "The Bookseller"

Well-plotted . . . . Lanchester blends the emotionally layered revenge story with a satirical battle of the generations. . . . This satisfies.-- "Publishers Weekly"

I love his books.--Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club series

Not since Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier has there been such a nasty little tale about a marriage. . . It shimmers with the author's characteristic black humour. Its pacing and suspense mean that you are captivated by a high-wire act between literary and commercial fiction. . . This cat-and-mouse game between two clever, sardonic women protagonists will be devoured by streaming audiences as well as book groups.-- "Spectator"

Couples facing upheaval, from romantic to criminal, are under the microscope in Whitbread award-winning Lanchester's unusual thriller. . . . Twists come into play to bring the stories together and the ending, which takes the 'dish best served cold' to incredible extremes, is both satisfying and strikingly strange.--Henrietta Thornton "First Clue"

A highly enjoyable novel full of memorable characters and Machiavellian scheming.-- "Daily Mail"

A pacy tale of treachery, deceit and deranged grief within a comedy about bitter resentment and generational rivalry.-- "The Independent"

A deliciously twisted contemporary Jacobean revenge drama, revolving around the battle between two compelling anti-heroines. I hope Netflix picks it up.-- "Mail on Sunday"

An absolute riot. It's both a black comedy of revenge and entitlement and a complex portrait of millennial/boomer conflict.-- "The Observer"

The Booker-longlisted author makes a punchy return with this darkly comic, Black Mirror-style novel.-- "The Times (UK)"

A black comedy of entitlement and generational resentment set amid the metropolitan elite.-- "Guardian"

This dark comedy about the clash between the generations is set to be a great succès de scandale.-- "Tatler"

If Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a score to settle.-- "Stylist"

An entertaining book with an unflinching ending, which makes powerful points about the ways in which boomers have screwed millennials and continue to do so.-- "Financial Times"

Twisty, clever, and gleefully nasty.-- "The Times"

A gleamingly accomplished black comedy. . . This ingenious whodunnit (and howdunnit) twists through a panorama of present-day London life. . . Lanchester winningly reactivates the sharp-eyed, keen-eared social satire that sizzled through Capital. . . A superbly well-crafted and immensely funny novel.-- "Literary Review"

A great read. A box of delights which is also a thrilling satirical torture chamber.--Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession

Reads with the inevitability of a classical tragedy. . . . Lanchester is an eminently skilled storyteller with a gift for laying in bits of backstory along the way that subvert what we think we know is going on . . . A splendidly twisted tale of love and vengeance.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2026-05-05

Length: 304 pages