The American Girl

by Kate Horsley

Overview

From a bright new talent comes a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France involved in a suspicious accident, and the journalist determined to break the story and uncover the dark secrets a small town is hiding.

On a quiet summer morning, seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn’s appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes—the French family with whom she’s been staying—have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family’s disappearance.

Though she is cynical about the media circus that suddenly forms around the girl, Boston journalist Molly Swift cannot deny she is also drawn to the mystery and travels to St. Roch. She is prepared to do anything to learn the truth, including lying so she can get close to Quinn. But when a shocking discovery turns the town against Quinn and she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in Molly.

As a trial by media ensues, Molly must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town’s past in an effort to clear Quinn’s name, but even she is forced to admit that the American Girl makes a very compelling murder suspect. Is Quinn truly innocent and as much a victim as the Blavettes—or is she a cunning, diabolical killer intent on getting away with murder…?

Told from the alternating perspectives of Molly, as she’s drawn inexorably closer to the truth, and Quinn’s blog entries tracing the events that led to her accident, The American Girl is a deliciously creepy, contemporary, twisting mystery leading to a shocking conclusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062438515
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/02/2016
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kate Horsley’s first novel, The Monster’s Wife, was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Best British Crime Stories. She coedits Crimeculture, a site dedicated to crime fiction and film offering articles, reviews, and interviews with writers.

Editorial Reviews

06/27/2016
In this gut-wrenching, sometimes gory psychological thriller from Horsley (The Monster’s Wife), Quinn Perkins, a 17-year-old American student who’s boarding with a family, the Blavettes, in tiny St. Roch, France, is hospitalized after emerging from the woods mute and bloody. The Blavettes—mother and father, daughter and son—have disappeared. Molly Swift, an American journalist working for a sensationalist website back home, poses as a relative and gets into Quinn’s hospital room—and her life. Molly sees a great story but then has scruples about Quinn. Can she protect the girl from whatever horrors have overtaken her? When the bodies of the Blavettes are discovered, the authorities think Quinn murdered them. Meanwhile, Molly develops feelings for Valentin, the local policeman. Where does he fit into the big picture? The narrative alternates between the viewpoints of Quinn and Molly, who has the stronger voice, creating something of a structural imbalance. Still, this fierce, convoluted tale offers one surprise after another. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Beguiles from its first fevered pages. We creep tantalizingly closer to the secrets at the heart of the novel—secrets that both shock us and speak volumes about our preconceptions about teenage girls...A rich, captivating novel you simply can’t put down.” — Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and The Fever

“The American Girl is a psychological suspense novel written for the 21st century, where threats play out on Snapchat and hashtags lead the way toward the dark and sinister truth. A modern-day gothic tale that will have readers holding their breath until the last page.” — Lori Rader-Day, Mary Higgins Clark-winning author of Little Pretty Things

“[A] compelling psychological thriller...[with] Poe-like dread and David Lynch-like surrealism...Recommend this one to fans of Allison Brennan, Jennifer McMahon, and Wendy Corsi Staub.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Beguiles from its first fevered pages. We creep tantalizingly closer to the secrets at the heart of the novel—secrets that both shock us and speak volumes about our preconceptions about teenage girls...A rich, captivating novel you simply can’t put down.

Megan Abbott

The American Girl is a psychological suspense novel written for the 21st century, where threats play out on Snapchat and hashtags lead the way toward the dark and sinister truth. A modern-day gothic tale that will have readers holding their breath until the last page.

Lori Rader-Day

[A] compelling psychological thriller...[with] Poe-like dread and David Lynch-like surrealism...Recommend this one to fans of Allison Brennan, Jennifer McMahon, and Wendy Corsi Staub.

Booklist

[A] compelling psychological thriller...[with] Poe-like dread and David Lynch-like surrealism...Recommend this one to fans of Allison Brennan, Jennifer McMahon, and Wendy Corsi Staub.

Booklist

2016-05-18
A reporter and an exchange student fight their way through a dangerous psychological maze in coastal France.The camera is still running on the video recording German tourists are making of sunrise over the lavender fields in France when a barefoot and bloodied girl emerges from the woods and is hit by a car. The video goes viral with the plea to help the #AmericanGirl, and Molly Swift cuts short her holiday to try to get past the other hacks camping outside the hospital where the girl, identified as Quinn Perkins, lies in a coma. She's a student from Boston who's been living in St. Roch with the Blavette family on a cultural exchange program. Passing herself off as Quinn's aunt, Molly learns that the girl's chances of coming out of the coma are 50/50. Molly should be pleased that she's so well-placed to scoop her competitors and get a story for her podcast, American Confessional, especially since the Blavettes have gone missing and are therefore good copy. But sympathy for the helpless girl leads her to a more auntlike role than she'd planned. She finds an ally—and a lover—in Inspector Bertrand Valentin, head of the St. Roch police. Molly asks for Quinn to be discharged to her care and begins helping the girl piece together her lost memories. A disturbing picture emerges of Quinn's host family. The father had to sell the family mansion and then disappeared two years ago. The wife was forced to teach school and take exchange students to make ends meet. The daughter starves and cuts herself. Quinn is obsessed with the handsome and charming son even though some of his romantic ideas are a little strange. The mystery of a past student's death, a plea for help sent to Quinn's phone, and the twin caves Les Yeux teach both Molly and Quinn a terrifying lesson about how deceiving appearances can be. Throughout her novel's shifts in narration and chronology, Horsley plays the reader as cleverly as she does the characters.

Kirkus Reviews

Having two narrators makes it easy for the listener to switch points of view while listening to this story. Quinn is a troubled teenager who is suffering from amnesia . . . and is possibly in a mess of trouble. Molly is a reporter who will do what it takes, including breaking the rules, to obtain her story. Sometimes a story that jumps back and forth in time is difficult to keep up with in audio format, but not this one. Both Julia Whelan and Nan McNamara use their vocal skills to smoothly shift to whatever character, time, or emotion they are portraying. Even their “teen in a snit” voices, rather than repelling the listener, serve to enhance the story. A.K. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile