Literary fiction so well written each character comes alive draws me into each of their lives.A mystery that kept me turning the pages.Book that stays with you after you read the last page.Will be recommending to my book club.#netgalley#harpercollins

If I had to reduce this book to two words, they would be: grief and rage.

This is one of those books that tears into you and doesn’t let you go – even after you read the last page.

These Women is about the women people whisper about and scoff at. It’s about the women who die in a filthy alley and instead of caring, the police and the press and the neighbors all look down their noses at the corpse saying, “But the way she lived…”.

It’s the addicts and the sex workers and the women who simply die for being brown or poor.

And, yes, it’s grief and rage.

It’s not an easy read, but it’s powerful and compelling and I simply didn’t want to put it down.

Five well deserved stars.

• ARC Provided via Net Galley

VISITATON STREET was my first foray into the fiction of Ivy Pochoda. I loved every poetic word of that novel. Now, with THESE WOMEN, Pochoda has cemented her place as one of the best literary thriller writers alive. This is a powerful story steeped in the texture of loss. A serial killer story, sure, but so much more as well. There are echoes of feminism and social change. There are sentences so beautifully written as to be savored. There are characters that leap from the pages. On the surface, this is the tale of seventeen women murdered over the course of nearly twenty years, and the renewed interest in the murders that occur after two new victims. Told in alternating voices, we are introduced to Dorian, who has never recovered from her daughter’s murder almost two decades earlier. There’s also Julianna, a dancer with the stage name of Jujubee, who has a front-seat connection to that earlier murder. There’s Essie, a Latina Vice cop with a beautiful for puzzles, and the only officer on the force, it seems, who hears “these women” when they speak. Marella, an artist who not only captures but inhabits the darkness and violence that peppers our world. And Anneke, Marella’s intense mother, who has known a lot more about the murders than she has ever let on. This is highly recommended reading.

These Women is incredibly engaging and wonderfully written. I took my time to read this book because I didn't want it to end. This is the type of book that stays with you after you read it. The characters felt real and the multiple mysteries kept me engaged until the end.