Synopses & Reviews
You don't remember her--but she remembers you.On the face of it, Emma and Nina have very little in common. Isolated and exhausted by early motherhood, Emma finds her confidence is fading fast. Nina--sophisticated, generous, effortlessly in control--seems to have all the answers.
It's easy to see why Emma is drawn to Nina. But what does Nina see in her?
A seemingly innocent friendship slowly develops into a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Nina eases her way into Emma's life. Soon, it becomes clear that Nina wants something from the unwitting Emma--something that might just destroy her.
Review
"A gripping, chilling, powerful novel of unintended consequences and undeserved retributions, youthful innocence and middle-aged regret, parental guilt and filial obligation, all played out on the dangerous edge of rationality."--Chris Pavone, author of The Expats
Review
"Compelling and chilling. Like all good thrillers, HER creeps up on you. You can't stop lapping up the rich domestic details, the astute observations about modern motherhood and female friendship, but you're skittish, aware of the growing shadow. What happened in the past? Which one is the psychopath? The end will make you yelp."--Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth
Review
"Never have I seen the angst and vulnerability of early motherhood so vividly portrayed. Harriet Lane explores the "tyranny of domesticity" and the almost primitive bonds that link women to their children and also to other mothers. HER is at once funny and terrifying. I read it in one sitting and when I was finally able to put it down, my heart was pounding."--Ann Leary, author of The Good House
Review
"This book knocked the breath out of me in the very best sense. HER is mesmerizing, nail-biting, deeply atmospheric and, ultimately, haunting. Harriet Lane has crafted an intoxicating interplay between friendship and betrayal, mothering and memory, vulnerability and opportunity. Watching the story unfold is like watching the perfect storm gather at sea and roll in toward the coast. The creeping sense of inevitability, combined with warning signals that foretell something dangerously wrong, adds up to a suspense novel that's all kinds of right."--Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
Review
"In her captivating new novel, HER, Harriet Lane crafts a tale of suspense that seeps slowly and inevitably between the cracks of two otherwise ordinary lives. Writing with a quiet confidence and an eye for the most perfect details, Ms. Lane lures her readers into the lives of Nina and Emma, two women at opposite ends of raising a family. Ms. Lane finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, and this gift will keep readers enthralled until the novel's thrilling end."--Lori Roy, author of Bent Road and Until She Comes Home
Review
"A spellbinding book. Think of Virginia Woolf under the influence of Claude Chabrol. Just beneath the smooth, beautiful sentences lies a world alive with terror."--Tom McNeal, author of To Be Sung Underwater
Review
"Lane is a brilliant observer of the intricacies of the everyday.... As seductive as it is chilling, HER is quality literary fiction meets psychological thriller, the devil of which is in the detail."--Lucy Scholes, Guardian (UK)
Review
"Lane is brilliant at creating a sense of foreboding.... It's a little like being in the audience at a very sophisticated pantomime where the cast are decked out in chic black and the lives unravel in a sleek villa in Nice...with its own infinity pool. Unlike conventional thrillers, the perverse pleasure of this compelling novel is not a big reveal but the pin-sharp unpicking of personality."--Eithne Farry, Sunday Express (UK)
Review
"Lane excels at everyday detail. Emma's total absorption by motherhood is rendered with beautifully stinging observations."--Claire Allfree, Metro (UK)
Review
"Early contender for book of the year. Another triumph from Harriet Lane."--Erin Kelly
Review
"The ultimate frenemy thriller."--Now (UK)
Review
"A taut revenge drama.... Lane is a deft conjurer of menacing middle-class scenarios."--Patricia Nicol, Independent (UK)
Review
"With chilling precision, Lane narrates the re-entwining of these two women's lives through domestic details. Afternoon teas, disastrous shopping trips, cluttered homes and even well-populated playgrounds begin to seep with danger. And the net inexorably tightens. A domestic thriller of the first order."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
"A gracefully written psychological thriller about friendship wielded as a weapon.... Like Nina herself, the novel is subtle, deliberate, chillingly effective, and hauntingly sad."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"Lane gradually pulls the threads of her story tighter and tighter...the ambiguity of her characterization is excellent, and your loyalties shift. Acutely observed, it's also a meditation on parental legacy, motherhood, and not always believing that the grass is greener on the other side."--Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist, for Self.com
Review
"In her sophomore novel, Lane continues to channel Alfred Hitchcock by way of Bridget Jones.... Expect to turn pages at a rapid pace and compile a comprehensive list of anyone you might have wronged."--Dujour
Review
"Suspenseful, boundary-pushing, and very difficult to put down."--Vendela Vida, author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers
Review
"Lane (Alys, Always) writes searingly about the strain of minding young children and the fears and frustration involved in parenting... the overall creepy factor is high-a tense read for fans of the intellectual psychological thriller."--Library Journal
Review
"A chilling novel of predator and prey."--More
About the Author
Harriet Lane has worked as an editor and writer at Tatler and the Observer. She has also written for the Guardian, the Telegraph and Vogue. Her debut novel, Alys, Always, was published in 2012. She lives in north London with her husband and two children.