Magpie

by Elizabeth Day

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Pub Date May 03 2022 | Archive Date May 03 2022

General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers

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Description

For fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish comes a twisty psychological suspense about motherhood, obsession, and just how far some will go for the perfect family. “Great, plain and simple” (Stanley Tucci).

Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. And Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate—and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for the baby of their dreams.

Except—no one is truly perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly-familiar with Jake. But Marisa doesn’t let it concern her, knowing that soon Kate will be gone, and it will just be her, Jake, and their future baby.

Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession—with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake?

In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create—her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self.

Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created—and what she stands to lose.

For fans of Gone Girl and The Perfect Nanny, Magpie is a tense and twisting novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

Advance Praise

“Magpie is a gorgeous thriller-cum-manifesto that I am going to recommend to every single person I know. Elizabeth Day has written that rare book I always go hunting for, something that will keep me breathless with suspense but also buoyant with good energy. It is both sinister and comforting, outrageous but grounded, with a head-spinning plot twist that makes all the sense in the world, yet will take you completely by surprise. There are so many books in the world, and we are better for most of them, but Magpie is a book that needed to exist in the world. It is the book that was missing.” --LISA TADDEO, AUTHOR OF ANIMAL and THREE WOMEN

"Completely, terrifyingly BRILLIANT."--MARIAN KEYES, AUTHOR OF GROWN UPS

"Magpie is a clever, suspenseful read with a brilliant central pivot and a keen eye for relationships, including the toxic ones. A compelling, twisting read. Elizabeth Day is a wonderful writer and this Magpie has strong wings."--MATT HAIG, AUTHOR OF THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

"Superbly taut and well-written, noirish with a big and beating heart."--JESSIE BURTON, AUTHOR OF THE MINIATURIST AND THE CONFESSION

"An absorbing exploration of infertility and mental illness combined with the pace and plot of a heart-racing thriller … I literally couldn’t put this down. Sublime."--SARA COLLINS, AUTHOR OF THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON

"The most mind-blowing book of the year"--JOANNA CANNON, AUTHOR OF THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP

"Deft, thrilling, and merciless, Magpie is a book I raced through trying to guess the next twist and turn of the tightly woven plot Elizabeth has crafted. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough."--LAURA JANE WILLIAMS, AUTHOR OF THE LUCKY ESCAPE AND OUR STOP

"Magpie is tightly plotted, crackling with an uneasy tension, and has an ingenious twist you won’t see coming. Stylish, sinister, and clever, this is a sublime thriller."--LOUISE O’NEILL, AUTHOR OF AFTER THE SILENCE

"I raced through Magpie. A very elegant, tense, literary thriller full of misdirection, unreliable witnesses, motherhood, madness, rage, and the most heartbreaking account of infertility I've read."--SARAH VAUGHAN, AUTHOR OF ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL AND LITTLE DISASTERS