I am rating this book 3/5. It started off very slowwwww. The middle and end were a bit better, but i was skimming at the end to try to finish.

Megan Abbott remains the queen of cultural femme-noir, taking us to unique places often not covered thematically in noir thrillers or suspense—the ballet, cheerleading, and now MLMs.

Her latest El Dorado Drive is about the Bishop sisters who have lost their financial security due to the downfall of Detroit’s auto industry. Pile on situations out of their control and some personal secrets and the suspense builds. Pam has lost everything due to divorce. All she can think about is how she’ll pay for her son’s college. Debra faces unmanageable medical bills due to her husband’s loss of a job and cancer. The youngest, Harper, carries a crippling secret debt that threatens her relationship with her sisters.

But when Pam buys a new car, the sisters know something has turned—and it’s the Wheel. When confronted, Pam tells them about a group of women and how they are helping each other through the financial crisis.

Dressed up as a tool of sisterhood and liberation, the Wheel feels like their way out. Pam recruits her sisters who are desperate even though they smell the whiff of a pyramid scheme and are aghast at the $5K buy-in. Pam however, reassures them that a lawyer was consulted and assured them there was nothing illegal about what they are doing. Each meeting of the Wheel is kept hush-hush and carries an upscale party atmosphere along with suspense—who will be rewarded the $25k? Champagne flows, food amazes, and laughter ensues. The women chant, “I know a woman who believes in her power! I know a woman who is ready for change.” Then the money crowns the night. Each hostess tries to outdo the last. Everyone feels the surge of adrenalin, hope, and power.

Until they don’t.

The suspense in El Dorado Drive burns slowly. The pressure to recruit new members implodes and the sisters’ unspoken feelings toward each other do too. Megan Abbott’s writing style, voice, and language takes her novels a notch above most. She’s one of the few who improves upon a second read, just to savor her attention to detail and ability to immerse a reader in all senses. Take this for example;

“Harper found herself whispering, tugging at the black stockings she’d bought an hour before at Bob’s Drugs. Tacky to the touch, they reminded her of the ones that used to come in those plastic eggs when she was little.”

El Dorado Drive works in so many ways. With Abbott, she builds sympathy for these women with high level motives and family needs. As Harper thinks to herself: “Money isn’t about money. It’s about security, freedom, independence, a promise of wholeness.” But underneath the highly-sympathetic motives lies the human need to keep a rosy reputation and affluent life-style. When greed takes over, the pyramid scheme causes rifts between winners and losers.The secret of the Wheel’s existence leaks to less desirable recruits. To keep the Wheel going forces the recruitment of people they don’t want involved, yet they need. The pressure builds, leading the sisters to the shocking ending. This is cultural femme-noir at its best.

Thank you to #MeganAbbott, #NetGalley, #PenguinGroupPutnam for this advanced copy of #ElDoradoDrive in exchange for an honest review.

While I will read ANYTHING she writes, this novel wasn’t my favorite. While still superior to most other writers, “El Dorado Drive” just didn’t hook me the way her other novels have. I’m not sure exactly why I wasn’t a fan, but I appreciate her writing.

*Thank you to Putnam and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to PRH Audio for the gifted ALC*

Megan Abbott is so good at building tension in her reads. Harper quickly finds herself entranced by The Wheel, a glorified MLM that promises to make all of her money problems go away. But of course, we know it's too good to be true... The narration was so immersive, keeping me engaged as the story unfolded. The big downside here was the ending... It felt really rushed and sapped out most of my enjoyment.

El Dorado drive is a domestic thriller about a group of women in a pyramid scheme and what the women would do to survive. This was not my favorite Megan Abbott novel. I found myself bored in the middle. I love Megan Abbott and will always read her.

An enjoyable read with interesting characters & storyline. I will be looking for more from this author! Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

Just finished El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott and I can’t stop thinking about this one. Dark, twisty, and full of family drama, this book pulled me in from page one and didn’t let go.

Debra, Pamela, and Harper Bishop grew up in extreme privilege until their father’s auto fortune collapsed. Decades later, life is tough: Debra is buried under her husband’s medical bills, Pamela is fighting a messy divorce while paying for her son’s tuition, and Harper is teaching riding lessons at the country club she used to belong to, heartbroken and on the brink of eviction.

Enter The Wheel, a secret women’s club promising independence. But greed, jealousy, and ambition turn it dangerous… and when one sister ends up dead with thousands buried in her backyard, the questions start rolling in… who did it, who knew too much, and how far will someone go for money and power?

Abbott nails sisterhood in all its messy glory tangled with rivalry, loyalty mixed with resentment. Every secret, every decision, every twist had me hooked. The suspense builds slowly but relentlessly, until the shocking, inevitable fallout hits like a punch to the gut.

If you love suspenseful family drama with layered, complicated women and jaw-dropping twists, El Dorado Drive is the ultimate page-turner. Thank you Netgalley and G.P. Putnam for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A very interesting insight into family dynamics in a small town. Generally the characters are very realistic and likable. The story takes a while to get going but once it does it is a nice mysterious story

Great book! It had me sucked into the plot the whole way through and I couldn’t put it down! The characters seemed so real and nuanced; the plot was snappy and swiftly paced. I really enjoyed reading this and can’t wait for more from this author.

When family ties tighten, they can strangle as easily as they hold you close.

𝙈𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨:

This one pulled me in from the first page, full of Megan Abbott’s signature mix of dread and intimacy. Set in a Detroit suburb (which is coincidentally the very same suburb where my sister lives), it follows a group of sisters who find themselves drawn into something they cannot quite name at first, a glamorous, intoxicating social circle that slowly reveals itself as a pyramid scheme in disguise.

Abbott is so good at writing complicated families, and she nails the way sisterhood can be both protective and suffocating. The shifting loyalties, buried resentments, and desperate need to belong make every choice feel dangerous. The suspense builds with quiet precision until the fallout feels inevitable and devastating.

A tense, beautifully written story about manipulation, desire, and how even the closest bonds can be used against you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam, and Megan Abbott for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

El Dorado Drive is available now!

This was an average thriller for me. I enjoyed reading it, but nothing stands out as particularly memorable after. I liked the concept of a woman’s “investment group” and the theme of sisterhood throughout the book.

This was a DNF for me. I've loved Megan Abbott's books in the past, but after picking this book up three separate times, I just could not get into it.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book was not for me. The characters were way too obsessed with money and were just driving me crazy. They really had no depth either. I found the book boring and the writing just ok.

I hope others enjoy this one.

I picked this one up for something fun and suspenseful. This book was realllly long, slow, and just very repetitive. I am obsessed with pyramid schemes and thought I’d like this but it missed for me.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

In this read we follow three adult sisters, each dealing privately with their own struggles, particularly financially. When Harper comes back into town, she was surprised to learn that her sisters were living differently before, and she was intrigued. They ended up bringing her into a their club to "spin the wheel". Of course this brings up questions amongst her and eventually those around them. How far will they go to protect the wheel?

A bit too long for me for a thriller - dragged on some with not much new evidence being shared. My enjoyment of this one hinged a lot on the setting of late 2000s Detroit - I grew up here during that time and could relate to the atmosphere here during the auto crash.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fun book - it was a slow burn filled with sisters, secrets, and greed.

Harper is truly just at the end of her rope - she doesn't know what to do so she moves in with her sister, Pam. Pam is doing well; perhaps a little bit too well. And it all comes down to the Wheel. The wheel is a textbook pyramid scheme; a bunch of women helping women is how it's presented, but when Harper joins it becomes a bit more intense. There are dark moments, and how you get the money to join the group felt bizzare and confusing but I still really enjoyed all of the family issues and problems that came up.

The twist was also incredibly fun - it was well thought out, and well written.

This wasnt my favorite. I’ve read one of this author’s books in the past and decided it was too disturbing to pick up any others. This one convinced me because it takes place in my home town, but I think this author just isnt for me. Well written, just not my cup of tea.

Three sisters become involved in a "women supporting women" group, which is basically a pyramid scheme to pay each other for money. Murder and mayhem ensue.
This was too over the top for me. And boring and repetitive for a lot of it.
Thanks to #netgalley and #gpputnamssons for this #arc of #eldoradodrive in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Abbott knows how to write a compulsively readable thriller and it's going to have elements that are so haunting they will stick with you long after you turn the final page! Her latest definitely fits that pattern. I didn't find the obvious pyramid scheme very compelling, but I did appreciate the complicated sister relationships and the way she depicted how money warps relationships.