Women Like Us — Katia Lief

Katia Lief's Women Like Us is a sharply-rendered literary thriller that examines the complexities and responsibilities of female friendship -- what brings women together, and what drives them apart.

Joni Ackerman was tired of being invisible.

It's been one year since Joni Ackerman tipped the antifreeze into her husband's cocktail. One year since he was found dead on the stairs. One year since she got away with murder. At first, Joni feared the consequences of her transgression, but she's learned to embrace the power of recklessness in a way she would have hated to see in anyone else. It was that recklessness, after all, that took her to this rewarding new life.

Joni now runs Sunny Day Productions alongside her daughter, Chris, and her best friend, Val. All is well in life and work until, one day, their balance is rocked when an unexpected, and unwelcome, visitor appears.

When Joni's brother, Marc, resurfaces after a twenty-year estrangement, Joni braces for the sibling she knew -- a cruel, vindictive conman who deftly switched between personas. But this Marc on her doorstep is different. He's older, softer. And he seems to have overcome the self-inflicted traumas of his past.

But Val isn't fooled. She knows exactly what sort of man Marc is, and she warns Joni to keep her guard up. When Mark inevitably betrays Joni's trust, Joni is forced to look inward. As dark thoughts, and darker compulsions, take form, Joni can't help but wonder: ‘Is psychopathy a family trait?'