"Everyone has a story. But not everyone's story is true.

When a young woman vanishes from her remote Greek island estate, her best friend races to find her, using clues found in the explosive manuscript she left behind.

Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood, forever bonded by the tragedy that unfolded in Greece when they were eighteen. Now thirty, heiress Gia is back in Greece with her shiny new husband, entertaining glamorous guests with champagne under the hot Mediterranean sun, while bookish Abby is working fourteen-hour days as an attorney. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby's thrilled to reconnect.

But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email that threatens to unearth the skeletons of her past, and when she and Gia's brother, Benny, arrive in Sweden, Gia isn't there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia's beachfront estate eerily deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts the manuscript she penned, detailing the events leading up to her disappearance. Gia's narrative reveals the dark truth about her provocative new marriage and the dirty secrets of their seductive guests, a story almost too scandalous to be believed. But the pages end abruptly, leaving more questions than answers.

How much of Gia's story is true? Where is she now? And will Abby find her before it's too late?"

The dark gritty reboot of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants I've longed for!

Thank you @netgalley @bantambooksuk @randomhouse for this #gifted e-galley!
Gia and Abby, childhood friends bonded by a tragic event in Greece at eighteen, now lead very different lives. Heiress Gia lives a glamorous life in Greece, while Abby works long hours as an attorney. Gia invites Abby to Sweden for her birthday, but Abby receives a threatening email just before her flight. When Abby and Gia’s brother Benny arrive in Sweden, they find Gia missing. They return to Greece and discover Gia’s estate deserted, with only a manuscript revealing dark secrets about Gia's marriage and guests. The story ends abruptly, leaving Abby to question its truth and race against time to find Gia.

Truth, lies, and everything in between. What I enjoyed most about reading this novel is that there’s so much uncertainty going on. Never knowing what’s the pure truth or the ratio of lie to truth. Everything surrounding the characters and the circumstances of the events is all jumbled up. It just makes you want to keep reading to figure out what it all leads to because of how invested you become. This was a quick and fun suspense novel!
4 stars

The title, cover, and synopsis of this book is everything! I was more than intrigued; downright edge of my seat excited to start in. The story begins strongly with introductions to Gia and Abby. I thought it was super odd the wealthy father disinherited his children for no better reason than giving money to charity, BUT he provided for his ex-wives??? I digress…

A crime was committed a decade ago. Abby believes Gia knew more than she has admitted and she has been harboring guilt. Gia, atypical rich girl, has been flitting her way through life from one destination to the next. Problem is the money is running out and her brand new husband is off to filch what is left.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for a complimentary copy of this novel!

Abby and Gia are best friends and have known each other since childhood. When they were 18, an incident occurred while in Greece and since then, it was left in the past. Now, Gia is married and enjoying a lavish life and Abby is working as a lawyer. Since that incident, they have not kept much in contact. So, Gia invites her brother Benny and Abby to Sweden so they can rekindle their friendship. However, Abby begins to receive threatening and suspicious emails that may very well expose what occurred in Greece when they were both 18. Benny and Abby arrive in Sweden, but Gia is nowhere to be found. And the only clue to where she may be is a typed manuscript by Gia. But how much of it is true? With so much going on and unreliable narrators, you don’t know who is telling the truth in this story until the very end.

I really enjoyed reading this novel!!! This author is new to me and look forward for more of her works!!! It was fast-paced and kept you guessing and second guessing what the truth is and what is not. Definitely recommend!!!

I enjoyed this book. It has romance, drama, thriller. I thought it was very well-rounded. I did wish that the ending would be a bit more sinister like how I normally want my books. I think there was a potential to give it a better twist. What I did like was that it opens up the possibility for a sequel.

While I love a good thriller, this one just didn't do it for me. The described Greece landscape did take me there and helped me imagine the setting very well. In the beginning, the story started strong, with that usual intrigue of what could happen. Halfway through, that fell off. The story started lacking and it was left open-ended, with not a strong middle to be able to put it together by the end. I enjoyed this story and appreciate the ARC from NetGalley and Random House, it would be a good beach read or airport time killer!

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House/Ballantine for allowing me to review this book.

Unfortunately I did not care for this book. The premise of what happened to Gia intrigued me to read this , but that didn't seem to be the big focal point. Instead I got fraud, embezzlement, erotic sex, and 2 back and forth time lines with a manuscript that did not flow. It took so much time to really build up to what happened to Gia that I didn't know really what to believe. And the ending just left me hanging. Can't recommend.

This is a new author to me and I eagerly jumped into reading the book. It is a wonderful description of Greece and really makes me want to go there. The story deals with sex, greed, crime, mystery and unlikeable characters, and the lives of the wealthy. I honestly never got into the story and about midway I decided that the book was simply not for me.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine - Bantam for allowing me to read a copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I found "Lady Killer" by Katherine Wood to be an addictive & well written mystery/thriller that pulled me in right away & didn't let me go until its final page.
There were alot of unexpected twists & turns to keep the me interested.
I would love to read another book by this author.

This story started off strong with intriguing characters and multiple POVs, but I was losing interest at the halfway point. I had to push through to finish. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy!

"Ladykiller" delves into the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy heiress who vanishes from her family's Greek Island mansion. Using a typewriter, she leaves behind a salacious tale chronicling the events preceding her absence. As her childhood best friend and brother embark on a quest to locate her, the narrative unfolds amidst the backdrop of scams, lies, and deception. While the novel's title suggests various interpretations within the story's context, I found myself occasionally disengaged. I particularly did not enjoy the focus on the sexual exploits of all of the characters. I wouldn't call it a full open-door, more of a cracked-open door.

I received a digital advance copy of Ladykiller by Katherine Wood via NetGalley. Ladykiller is scheduled for release on July 9, 2024.

Ladykiller follows two women, Gia and Abby, who have been friends since their childhood, despite the tragic event that occurred in Greece when they were eighteen. Gia dealt with the tragedy by writing a memoir, while Abby turned her attention to becoming a lawyer. Now they are thirty and Gia is newly married. She has invited her brother and Abby to join her in Sweden. Abby and Benny make the trip, but Gia does not appear. Strange messages via text and email lead to the realization that Gia has gone missing, forcing Benny and Abby to return to the house in Greece in search of the missing Gia. At the house, they find nothing but a manuscript left behind that seems to detail the events leading up to Gia’s disappearance, triggering a search for the missing woman that will raise questions about both her new relationship and the event of the past.

This story is told in alternating points of view. We get most of the story from Abby in the current day, with some flashbacks to the past. Other chapters are taken from the manuscript Gia left behind, giving her version of events in the house. Almost immediately, there are questions about the reliability of Gia’s manuscript. While it presents itself as a factual recounting of events, some aspects seem to have been polished, or even completely made up. With no Gia present to vouche for her words, both Abby and the reader are forced to question everything in Gia’s version of events. This gave the story a sense of instability that worked well. There was clearly something very wrong, but we had to gather clues to figure out what had happened and who was to blame.

This sense of uncertainty kept me reading and engaged with the novel. While I did predict a couple of the twists and reveals before they happened, I was able to appreciate them within the story. I don’t think these were obvious and predictable, more that I have recently read and seen other stories that put in the right mind set to read the clues we were given.

The uncertainty worked less well for me in the end, however. While some questions are answered within the novel, at the end of the day, many of the big questions remain unanswered. While I don’t need every thread to be tied, this story had so many unanswered questions that it felt like an unended story. I was left with questions about both events in the novel and the characters involved in a way that left things feeling incomplete. While I think the author intended for some uncertainty to remain, it was a bit too much uncertainty for me.

Overall, Ladykiller is a mystery/thriller that leans hard into the mysteries of the story. I recommend it for readers who are okay with very open endings, as there are no clear answers here!

Although their backgrounds couldn’t be more different, Gia (whose family is very wealthy) and Abby (the daughter of the chef for Gia’s family) become close childhood friends. When they are 18, they become involved in a tragedy in Greece (where Gia’s family has an estate), and then they somewhat go their separate ways but stay in touch. Some years later, when Gia invites Abby to her birthday celebration in Sweden, Abby eagerly accepts, only to discover when she arrives that Gia has mysteriously disappeared. Abby and Gia’s brother Benny then travel to Greece to try to begin to unlock the mystery of what happened to Gia and why. This novel really had me intrigued from the very beginning, but seemed to lose a lot of steam starting at about the midway point. Additionally, the ending was not a definitive one, and instead was so open-ended that it left the reader to make assumptions about what really happened. All in all, though, this was a good read.

This book was quite an adventure! The beautiful settings, predominantly Switzerland and Greece, really set the stage for the drama that unfolds. His is established early on as a fun loving person who is madly in love with her new husband without a care in the world. As time goes on we learn that Gia isn’t all we’re led to believe she is, and her husband definitely isn’t. Abby harbors her own dark secrets that are intimately connected to Gia. I really loved following along this wild ride as I learned more about Gia and her husband as well as Abby. Nothing is what it seems!

Wow this book put me through some whiplash!! I loved it! A great poolside mystery/thriller for the summer. Great writing. Although I was able to piece together one direction, there were so many twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. I wish there was a little more detail towards the end of the book before it jumped into the epilogue.

Definitely room for this book to have a sequel.... (i'm hopeful!) . Definitely check this one out! Thanks NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Wood - queen of luxurious, psychological thrillers! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted copy.

I have been a fan of hers since THE LION's DEN (under pen name Katerine St John) and everything she touches is golden! LADYKILLER is a perfect thrilling summer escape to the Greek islands to pack in your beach bag. I highly recommend!

I'm a sucker for a good Greek island setting as well as the "rich people behaving badly" mini genre, so this book appealed from the description. Unfortunately, I found that this book moved more slowly than I like and it was hard for me to keep going as it felt like a thriller that I had read before. I enjoyed the ending, but overall found this one to be just okay for me.

I wanted to like this book. It just felt so similar to others I have read before and I couldn’t keep the story straight in my head.

I do like a good psychological thriller. And, "Ladykiller", doesn't disappoint. There are lots of twists and turns that make you question what you already know. But the characters are interesting, the plot original, and the fact that you keep guessing throughout, is terrific. The setting, for the most part, is Greece, and with Ms. Woods' writing, it is easy to picture yourself right in the middle of all these warped people and situations. I do recommend this book.

4.5 stars - It doesn’t take long for this book to suck you in with it’s secrets, twists and turns and before you know it you’ll be feverishly turning the pages wanting to know what happened to Gia, who is blackmailing Abby, and who in this cast of characters is actually “good”. Set in the picturesque countries of Greece and Switzerland, Wood paints a vivid picture as we read through Gia’s manuscript to learn what happened to our leading lady, her husband, and a mysterious couple they became fast friends with. Some twists were kind of obvious, but there were plenty to keep you guessing which I really appreciated. I didn’t have a problem with the ending being a bit open, but if you’re someone who needs complete resolution, be warned you may not get what you’re looking for.