The email from Kathleen Quinlan at Random House said, " I devoured Ladykiller in an afternoon about two months ago, and I haven’t been able to stop talking about it." I just finished and I can see why, my heartrate is up and I'm still recovering from the tension. It was one of those books where you think you know what's coming, but then no you did not. A mystery with steamy romantic scenes weaved in, this one will keep you looking over your shoulders.

The story written by Katherine Wood is told in two ways, Abby's straight perspective, and clips from her best friend Gia's manuscript. Gia and her brother Benny are the children of the late Hugo Torres, who notoriously left his billion dollar fortune to charity, leaving his ex-wives and children to fend for themselves. Abby met Gia when her mother was the Torres' family cook when they were children. Abby and Gia instantly became friends and Hugo was so impressed with Abby, he sent her to the same boarding school as Gia, and paid for her education at Georgetown. Abby and Gia summered at Gia's family home in Greece. They were thick as thieves. After one particularly scandalous and traumatizing summer, Abby went back to the states to finish law school and begin her career, and Gia wrote a bestseller monetizing her experience. Their friendship was never the same. Abby warns Gia about the man she is about to marry, but Gia disregards her childhood bestie's warning and follows her heart and marries him anyway. When Abby thinks Gia is in trouble, she rushes to Greece before it's too late.
What unfolds in this story is how the truth of that summer comes back to haunt them both, and how Gia's mistakes in trusting the wrong men become a problem for the whole family, including Abby. The book is filled with unsavory characters, the writing is so good you can feel the fear and apprehension as the story progresses. Betrayal, romance, friendship, intrigue- this one is coming out just in time to be one of your favorite summer reads of 2024.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House and Ballantine Books for this ARC. Can't wait to share with friends next summer!

This book was so good! Absolutely 💯 loved it. Thanks NetGalley and to the publisher for this. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I've enjoyed Katherine's other books (written under Katherine St. John) so I was excited for this one. The premise is great, and the writing drew me in right away. Some readers won't appreciate the format, but I thought it worked very well to have the manuscript for what's essentially the past storyline. This is an entertaining and suspenseful novel. At times I grew tired of the "rich behaving badly" aspect, but the author kept me turning the pages. While the ending is a bit unsettling, I understand why the author made this choice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance electronic ARC; all opinions in this review are my own.

Ladykiller is the perfect summer vacation, beach read. It's a fast-paced mystery/thriller set in Greece. Abby and Gia have been best friends since childhood, but grow apart after Gia marries a man she barely knows. In the hopes of repairing the relationship, Gia invites her brother, Benny, and Abby to meet in Sweden. When Benny and Abby arrive, Gia is nowhere to be found. There is so much that happens in the book. I thought I knew what was going on, but by the end I wasn't so sure. The author does a phenomenal job of keeping the reader in suspense. Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC.

Steamy, exotic, intriguing, confusing. Set mostly on a Greek island, the description of the food, sea, and geography are awesome. An abundance of pleasures of the flesh. The clues in the book are clever and the premise is interesting, though not unique. The POVs from two main characters move between a manuscript written in the past and a current view. These crisscross in ways that are intriguing but initially confusing. The ending is odd - maybe deliberately with the theme of the book - dropping the reader in an unsettling place.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I see a few reviews mentioning they weren’t a fan of how this story was told- but I disagree. It kept me hooked and needing more. I read this in one sitting because I was enthralled by the manuscript and then because I NEEDED answers. That being said, I STILL NEED MORE ANSWERS. My opinions on every character wavered back and forth constantly, which is something I enjoy when it’s intentional (as it is in Ladykiller)

I will say, I don’t get the title choice. Also, all of the Greek mythology mentioned flew right over my head.

3.5 stars rounded up. While I liked the premise of this book, there were a lot of slow-moving parts, and the ending wasn't my favorite. I liked the characters and the dual telling. The mystery of it is fun, the open interpretation of the ending I do like but could have ended without the epilouge.

Gone Girl meets The Lion’s Den, with several of my favorite thriller themes: Toxic friendship, rich people behaving badly, murder and con artists, all in a glamorous Greek island setting. A fun, spicy and well-paced read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I love my mystery/thrillers with a side of rich people escapism, so this hit and it hit deliciously. I'm into this trend of Greek island vacation noir, all sunlight and the sea and bad husbands and too much money, like let's gooo. In the midst of all this scenery the plot left me wanting a little bit, I could have done with a bit more finality to the ending. (And props to Gia for banging out a flawless first draft of a novel while on vacation...share your tips, girl.)

I do think this book had something interesting to say about underprivileged kid/wealthy benefactor relationships and I appreciated the presence of that theme undergirding everything, though it felt ultimately undercut by the way things ended up. Overall, though, the setting was so vividly rendered and the writing solid enough that any complaints I have feel more like debut novel foibles that can be shaken off on the next go-round - which is to say I'll be looking out for what Katherine Wood writes next!

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you #NetGalley and #RandomHousePublishingGroup for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.When an heiress goes missing, her best friend races to unravel the secrets behind her disappearance using clues left behind in an explosive manuscript.I loved the chapters where you're reading Gia's Manuscript up until Abby finds it and it is up to you to decide if she's really lying or not. I loved the characters and the writing. The story was super fast paced and i couldn't put it down.

This was an automatic approval from Netgalley that I got in my email. So since that was kind of exciting I decided to check it out. I took a lot of time to get into it. This is dual POV from Gia’s manuscript and Abby in present day. By the time you get to Abbys POV the stuff with Gia has already happened so that can get confusing. At about 50% things start getting crazier and I was more hooked. However this book was so open ended that I was frustrated and not sure what even happened. There’s no definite conclusion. Did they do it or not. I need a conclusion in my books unless there’s a sequel which I truly hope the author continues with something.

Where is Gia?

This novel centers around the disappearance of Gia, who vanishes from her luxurious Greek island home.

Her friend Abby and brother Ben join forces to find her, using the journal she left behind.

I found this book incredibly easy to read. The setting was lush, the characters misbehaved, and there were lots of twists and turns. The use of the journal reminded me of the novel Verity, in a way. Can a journal ever be completely truthful? Is it filtered, and if so what truth is it trying to portray, if, in fact, it can be trusted at all.

This was one of 3 islands set on a remote Greek isle that I read back to back, so it did blur a bit with the others. Maybe Greece is the hot novel setting for this Summer?

Regardless, I give this book 4 stars for sheer enjoyability. What a great beach day Summer read this will be!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reader copy of this novel for my review.

Exciting read for suspense readers. Really enjoyed the dual pov bouncing between Abby and Gia’s Manuscript. I really couldn’t figure out what was truth and wasn’t. Still I don’t know who to believe about Gia’s story. Did Garret really do everything or does she embellish A LOT!

I thought this was a pretty fun read, centered on best friends Gia and Abby who plan a fancy trip (along with Gia’s brother Benny) for which Gia doesn’t show. This takes us on a journey of alternating timelines between Abby trying to figure out where Gia is and a manuscript Gia wrote a month before that may or may not be autobiographical. I enjoyed the alternating timeline and I love an unreliable narrator!

The setting is on a Greek island and was atmospheric; I could easily picture myself there. I was very fascinated by the abandoned island nearby as well. I felt that Gia’s character was a little bit of a caricature but I still enjoyed reading about her. Abby was more believable, but both made a few decisions that I thought seemed out of character. The twists were somewhat predictable for the most part, but were still fun to read, and there was one that did catch me off guard. I thought the ending was interesting; though it didn’t leave me super satisfied, I appreciated where the author was going.

Overall, fun read that held my interest throughout and had interesting characters - would recommend to those who like psychological thrillers. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the eARC.
Wow, what a fabulous book, it blew my mind!
It had everything I want in a book: a great setting on a Greek island; the rich; con artists; lies; cheating; and mysterious secrets from the past.
We get two pov's: Gia's and Abby's, two best friends who are supposed to meet in Sweden. Abby plus Gia's brother Benny wait at a lush Swedish hotel for Gia, but she never shows. They rush back to Greece to search for her.
There are so many ways the story could go, and I loved every bit of it. Hope they make it into a movie!

First of all, the author used masters suite instead of primary ( we aren’t doing that anymore Katherine) over and over again. I have never seen that word come up so much in a fiction novel. Hopefully, Katherine is listening and learning. Anyway, it’s a fairly enjoyable but fairly predictable tale as old as time…the rich behaving badly. I had a fairly good time but don’t know if I would recommend it. I wanted a little more depth. If this is your niche genre I would! Thanks to NetGalley for the preview of this novel.

Wow!! Ate this up in 2 days. This thriller/mystery had it all - rich people, fabulous Greek island setting, lies, cheating, con artists, secrets, murders, and everything in between.

This was a bit of a slow/medium burn at first, which I actually enjoyed for once - I could read about rich people and their escapades in a fabulous villa in Greece all day. It really picks up towards the end and becomes more of a thriller. You get answers at the end but is also left a bit ambiguous which I surprisingly loved.

This book was fabulous, sexy, and a wild ride. Definitely recommend!!

Thank you @netgalley and Bantam for an advanced copy of this book. Definitely grab this one when it comes out on July 9!!

This was a very engaging book and I could hardly put it down. But, oh those characters! I couldn't believe any of them, not even the ones who were supposed to be trustworthy. Everyone was shady, everyone told lies, everyone took relationships for granted. Even the one real good guy turned out to be (probably) fictitious. What a messed up bunch of people, but together they made for an interesting book.

This started a little slow, but then i became so sucked in I could hardly put it down. Towards the end it got quite twisty and I imagined who I thought was the true villain. It would have been a perfect plot twist. Then it ended and it was such a let down. I sincerely hope the ending is tweaked a bit before publication. So much potential! But as the ARC stands I give it a 2.5 for the ending as I read it.

An interesting story about friendships and betrayal. I read it one go and couldn't put it down. It had several twists and turns, but towards the end I believe there could have been one more twist that didn't come. The author chose to play safe.

Having said I enjoyed reading about the friendship between Gia and Abby. Gia was the popular, pretty, rich friend who befriended quiet and nerdy Abby who always felt she owed Gia her friendship and whatever she needed because Gia's dad was paying for Abby's education. The ramifications of following Gia blindly led Abby down a dark path.

Overall a fun thrilled I recommend to others.