Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Audiobook Length: 9 hours and 4 minutes
First Published: 2021
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Rachael’s Review
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Flatiron Books. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
After serving a prison sentence for a cruel crime, Nadja Kulka wants nothing more than a quiet, ordinary life. When Laura, Nadja’s friend and the wife of her boss, kills her lover, Nadja finds herself dragged into covering it up. As the plan to bury the body in the woods falls apart, Nadja realizes she has unwittingly set herself up as the perfect scapegoat for the murder.
After loving the uber-creepy Dear Child last fall, I was ecstatic to read Hausmann’s latest. I shouldn’t have been because it was the most confusing book I’ve read all year. Nadja’s story is interspersed with a past timeline of a man having an affair and letters from an unknown sender. It took about 100 pages for the stories to make even an ounce of sense, but by then I was completely put off. It pains me to say it, but Avoid Avoid Avoid is my advice.
Publisher’s Description
It’s been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she’s wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven–free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja’s boss–kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can’t seem to refuse.
The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer…
About Romy Hausmann
Romy Hausmann is a TV freelancer and author of the novels Dear Child and Sleepless. She was born in the former German Democratic Republic and currently lives near Stuttgart, Germany.
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