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I love a soapy thriller. It’s over-the-top with rich people behaving badly? With beautiful backdrops, too? Count me in. Enter Retreat, the second novel from actor and author Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones, Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23) .

Retreat is a wild, soapy romp of a thriller about a con who poses as a wealthy socialite with unintended and unexpected consequences. Liz Dawson, our con, goes to an expat enclave in Mexico to manage the delivery of a major art piece for a new client, Isabelle. And she’s enough of a doppelganger that none of Isabelle’s friends and neighbors seem to notice it’s not her.
You’ve got shady business dealings, frenemies, a nosy neighbor, and Liz’s past starting to catch up with her. Set against a moneyed beach community backdrop, this has TV written all over it. The plot does require some suspension of disbelief (true crime junkies, look away), but Liz/Isabelle is such a compelling character, you’re sucked right in. Just as she intends.
If you enjoyed Katherine St. John’s The Lion’s Den, Retreat should definitely be in your beach bag.
Ritter is also doing the audiobook narration and I can’t wait to hear her voice Liz/Isabelle. Book tour stops this week include Warwick’s in La Jolla; Barnes & Noble at the Grove, Los Angeles; and Book People in Austin. Full list here.
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*P.S. If you’re saying “second novel?” Yep, Krysten Ritter’s debut, Bonfire, came out in 2017.




