[Snack-Size Review] El Dorado Drive, by Megan Abbott

Quick Bite: I shouldn’t love her books, but I do.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Sisters Pam, Debra, and Harper grew up in the lap of luxury, until their father lost it all. Unprepared for the real world, dealing with their own financial hardships, they become devotees of The Wheel, a really obvious pyramid scheme. It’s all working out beautifully for them, however, until someone ends up dead….

A Word From The Nerd: Ms. Abbott’s prose is the juiciest shade of purple, every page dripping with overwrought emotions and sensations, which usually annoys me. But somehow, she makes overwriting work - maybe because there’s also lots of feminine rage and gobsmacking twists?

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a screwdriver - the boozy kind.)

A mystery with pyramid schemes, lies, and betrayal..
The desperation people face will pull them into things they thought they would never do.

#NetGalley

This was ok! Not bad but not my favorite by this author. I found the pyramid scheme portion to be kind of redundant and masking it as feminism was a far stretch.

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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my free copy.

I loved this one! This was such a a great thriller that held my interest to the very end. I definitely recommend this one!

Nobody does feminist, well written thriller like Megan Abbott! She really knows how to take a relevant, important topic and weave it perfectly with a fast paced thriller. Loved this.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

megan abbott is a great thriller writer - thinking of dare me and the turnout in particular - but this one was just ok to me! i think debt and financial problems are such a relatable thing today and that should've made it a slam dunk, thematically, but i had a hard time relating to the specific characters and didn't root for them as much as i would have liked to. i also found the pacing to be a litle tough, as the "thriller" aspect (i would call it more domestic suspense in this case) doesn't play a major role until more than halfway through the book.

what i'll applaud her on is the setting and how it is so specific and plays such a vital role in this story. that, to me, was one of the strongest traits of this book. i also did appreciate the ruminations on sisterhood, but it didn't go far enough for me. overall, this was serviceable! but it wasn't great.

⭐️⭐️/5. El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. You can’t win them all, and this one was not an enjoyable read for me. It dragged on and on plus it bordered on ridiculous. Harper is barely keeping her head above water financially. Her sister Pam is going through a contentious divorce. Her ex even stole their children’s college accounts! The oldest sister Debra is struggling too as her husband has cancer. These three sisters grew up wealthy in Grosse Point, Michigan where fortunes were made in the auto industry. The heyday of American car manufacturing has passed though, and many people in their town are looking for extra cash. Bubbly Pam turns everyone on to The Wheel. It’s a club - an investment club. Very quickly, these women start to see returns. New cars appear, then even some fur coats. Is it illegal? Do they care? The women will do anything to get their rewards, and it turns deadly. I finished it, but it wasn’t a winner. I say skip this one. #bookstagram #whatiread #whatsinyourbeachbag #meganabbott #bookgram #netgalley #goodreads #books #bookworm #reading

El Dorado Drive is a slow-burn psychological family drama set in the Detroit suburbs, and I really enjoyed it. This was my first book by Megan Abbott, and now I get the hype. Her writing is intense and atmospheric in the best way. The story centers around a mother-daughter relationship that starts to unravel after a mysterious incident, and the tension just builds from there. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you’re into stories that dig into family secrets, complicated emotions, and suburban unease, this one’s for you. As someone who lives in Metro Detroit, I thought all the local references were totally spot on. It really added to the authenticity for me. The setting felt real, not just a backdrop. I’ll definitely be checking out more of Megan Abbott’s books after this. 4.t stars rounded up to 5. Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Three middle-aged sisters find themselves mired in debt after the auto industry, and the whole economy, go pear-shaped in 2008. Harper moves in with her sister Pam, who’s two years removed from a nasty divorce. And yet, Pam seems to be doing better than ok: nice new car, big parties, money for her kids’ college. Pam shares her secret: The Wheel. Seems an innocent women’s support group at first, and their other sister Debra’s already in. But after Harper joins, a murder sheds light on the shady operation. Everyone’s a suspect, even Pam’s wild-child daughter Vivian.

I went on a true crime kick a few years ago. Probably need to get back. It’s both tragic and flabbergasting that people fall for these awful get-rich-quick scams.

That’s what happens in the first half here: we learn what The Wheel is REALLY about. Abbott does a fine job depicting the inner workings of a pyramid scheme. You have your rhythmic chants, your typical “marks,” and your recruiting practices. And, of course, outlays of cash. I liked how Harper “marked” Sandy: a sad, broke gambler who just wants to fit in. I liked the secrecy and the distant promise of “running the wheel” and finally pulling in the profit.

But isn’t Harper a little too smart to get roped into this? And was her desperation enough to compel her to engage in this all too obvious scam? And the payoff didn’t seem all that huge, a life-changing windfall. I wasn’t sure how Pam was affording all these luxuries, unless she did it all on credit. She “runs the Wheel” once, and stashes cash in a secret place. It just didn’t seem enough to make her a kingpin. And it wasn’t even sufficient to pay off Harper’s debt to a shady relative. Using a pyramid scheme to set up a violent crime is a good idea, but the execution here stretches my belief.

We get a preview of a murder in the first few pages, then the actual act around 60%. This is the strength of the book: anyone could’ve done it, and there are red herrings galore. All those debts and promises and rivalries come hurtling toward each other and end in a terrible collision. It’s emotional, tense, scary at times, and well-constructed.

Scene transitions and descriptions of action are often confusing and unclear. Maybe it’s just the ARC formatting, but there were breaks between action scenes or even conversations. Some paragraphs open with no indication of time or place. A guy can get lost. I also thought a little communication between sisters (and extended family) might’ve avoided some tragedy, but they’d had years of unresolved bitterness, so…ok.

That said, some readers didn’t like the ending, and it did go on for a while. But I thought the reveal was clever and the culprit / culprits (no spoilers!) made sense. Abbott also deftly and tastefully portrays the family tension and conflict when one or more members are LGBTQ. She encourages respect and understanding without making the issue political or overly rational.

All this makes me curious what the author can do with a more traditional murder-mystery storyline. With a less complicated premise, I’ll bet she can tell a heck of a story.

Every book has its audience, and while I may not have been the right fit for this one, I’m confident others will find it good/thrilling. Grateful for the ARC nonetheless

Ooooof. I have really enjoyed some earlier Megan Abbott novels, but this one did not hit for me. I found all of the characters to be unlikable and the ending really disappointed as well. Would definitely try this author again based on previous books, but this one is one I won’t be recommending.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advance Reader's Copy of El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott from Penguin Group Putnam via NetGalley. It will be published around June 24, 2025.

El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott is about three sisters, struggling to make ends meet, who get swept up in a pyramid scheme. There can be a lot of money earned for those who get in early. It can solve some problems and create plenty of others. The interplay among the sisters felt realistic. I kept thinking that this is why my mother said never to have three children. There are also plenty of secrets that keep you guessing up until the end.

3.5 stars for me. Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the eARC. I appreciated the themes in this book: sisters, loyalty and betrayal, having a comfortable life but then having that upended. My only issue is the book itself read a bit choppy and disconnected due to the very short scenes and frequent changes in character voice. It didn't feel like you got deep enough with any of the characters. The concept of "The Wheel" and its club like environment caused me to struggle a bit. It felt somewhat farfetched like people would go from Mahjongg or a book club to something like the Wheel which felt more like your typical pyramid scheme that I hope most people would be smart enough to recognize and stay away from. But the amount of characters that were sucked in was surprising. I did appreciate the author's ability to keep me guessing on who the true villain was and I would read another Megan Abbott book in the future.

El Dorado Drive is an interesting read.  It is about three sisters, Harper, Debra, and Pam, who each have a need for money in 2008 Detroit, before the financial and housing crisis hits. Each sister is college educated but went from a privileged background to being down on their luck for various reasons.  They find an opportunistic financial windfall that will surely end poorly, but convince themselves all is fine and drag others in. 

This “opportunity” leads to an unspeakable tragedy, with fingers pointing in all directions.  The first half of this book sets up the women’s financial opportunity but is less interesting and sometimes requires the suspension of reality to believe these smart women are doing what they do.  Keep reading, though, as the second half of the book has twists and turns that will keep you reading. I only gave it three stars because I had a hard time believing these smart women with so much to lose would do something so obviously illegal and harmful to others, no matter how desperate they were for money.

Thank you NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy.

Prime Megan Abbott; dark and twisty, with great emotional depth and understanding of familial relationships.

Honestly, I should’ve DNF ELDORADO DRIVE, but something kept compelling me to push through 😬 This was not the “thriller” for me. I wouldn’t categorize it as one either.

The writing was very straightforward and juvenile, the dialogue was not great, and the characters were all unlikeable with no redeeming qualities.

My advice: skip on this one.

I have to admit that I’m a Megan Abbott fan. Her books are an auto buy for me. El Dorado Drive is her newest release and I’m glad that I got a chance to read it. This book is more of a slow burn that her previous books and it also one of the first that I can remember that involves the dynamics of sisterhood.

This one deals with the three Bishop sisters, a family that lost wealth in the past and their growing desperation to somewhat return to semblance of stability. The sisters get involved in a pyramid scheme with the other women of their community but things start to get out of hand as greed takes over.

As I said before, this book was a little bit of a slow burn. It takes its time to set up the world and characters. You get to see the dysfunctional family dynamics before the sisters and other family members. But it doesn’t take long for the story to ramp up and once things start to go wrong, you’ll want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

Abbott is a master of mystery and she delivers again with a book about family, wealth and betrayal.

Ughhh I just love everything Megan Abbott does. I'm a huge fun of John Updike's books and Megan Abbott gives me the same strong "something's wrong in suburbia" vibes as Updike. (This book in particular reminded me of The Witches of Eastwick.) But listen, Megan Abbott is *better* because she really understands girlhood and womanhood and how to convey those experiences. I just love all the details of this book -- the cookie jar, the fuzzy pink mittens, the box of tampons... There's just a bit of a surreal feel, and Abbott's most recent books give me just a touch more horror, like she's been book clubbing with Mona Awad and Ainslie Hogarth.

OK so what's wrong in suburbia this time? It all comes down to money. We are introduced to three sisters: Harper, Pam, and Debra. They grew up well off in Detroit, but their standards aren't quite being met as adults. Pam in particular is struggling as she's going through a contentious divorce and her ex-husband Demon Doug has taken her for a ride. What's a woman to do besides join a pyramid scheme with a bunch of waif-y blonde women who love to make cocktails and make cash gifts? It's like a book club without the books. It turns out Harper is also in Doug's crosshairs and she needs money too. The book opens with fragmented scenes -- Harper and Pam digging in the yard, Pam's dead body... and then we backtrack to understand how it all went so wrong. The characters are great, the setting is so real, and the story arc is fantastic. If you love Megan Abbott, this book is one of my favorites by her, and if you haven't read her yet, this is a great place to start.

For this reader, Abbott is the poster child for reliable. While I cannot claim this one as a favorite, it ticks all of the boxes for domestic suspense. It's a little light, a little ridiculous, absolutely well written and, as always, entertaining as hell.