Zoe Ball's BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick.

Mesmerising and haunting, Emma Flint's Other Women is a devastating story of fantasy, obsession inspired by a murder that took place almost a hundred years ago.

'A pitch-perfect historical mystery' - The Guardian
'Bloody brilliant' - Dinah Jefferies, author of The Missing Sister
'Compelling, twisty, and wonderfully suspenseful' - Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

It is 1923 and a country is in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in the war, millions more returned home wounded and forever changed.

Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless. After her brother's death, she decides to make a new life for herself. She takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies' club and a job in the City. But just when her new world is starting to take shape, a fleeting encounter threatens to ruin everything.

Kate Ryan is an ordinary wife and mother. Since the end of the war, she has managed to build an enviable life with her husband and young daughter. From the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family. But when two policemen knock on Kate's door and jeopardize the facade Kate has created, she knows what she has to do to protect the people she loves. And suddenly, two women who never should have met are connected for ever . . .

'Exquisite' - Will Dean, author of Dark Pines

'This is a book that will stay with you' - Ann Cleeves, bestselling author of the Vera series

'A thoroughly captivating and unsettling page-turner' - iNews

A heady, gripping and unforgettable novel of obsession, fantasy and evil, Other Women is the story of a doomed love triangle set in interwar London.

About the Author

Emma Flint was born and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne. She graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA in English Language and Literature, and later completed a novel-writing course at the Faber Academy. She lives and works in London.

Since childhood, she has been drawn to true-crime stories, developing an encyclopaedic knowledge of real-life murder cases from the early twentieth century. Her first novel, Little Deaths, was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, for the Desmond Elliott Prize, for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, and for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.

Other Women is her second novel.

Reviews
The tension grows throughout the book until it's almost unbearable. This is a book that will stay with you. -- Ann Cleeves
This beautifully written, pitch-perfect historical mystery is based on a real case - here, a murder that took place in 1924 . . . a moving study of loneliness, desperation, shame and public prurience. -- Laura Wilson * The Guardian *
Exquisite and my book of the year. Utterly brilliant. -- Will Dean, author of Dark Pines
Flint maintains suspense in what is a thoroughly captivating and unsettling page-turner that deserves to land her on awards lists again. -- Robert Epstein * iNews *
Emma Flint reworks the details of a notorious historical murder and unspools the fate of her three entirely convincing main characters. * Daily Mail *
Based on a shocking real-life murder in the 1920s Other Women focuses on Beatrice, almost invisible until she falls in love with a colleague, and Kate, seen as a devoted wife and mother, until their lives converge. I expect to see it on all the awards shortlists. * Red *
Other Women is compelling and twisty, and wonderfully suspenseful, and yet still full of empathy for the female characters. -- Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
Moving, gripping . . . Other Women takes another tale of a true crime and reimagines it into a novel - this time, the murder of Emily Beilby Kaye by her married lover, Herbert Patrick Mahon. -- Alison Flood * The observer *
Bloody brilliant -- Dinah Jeffries
Set in the early 1920s, this clever mix of romance, thriller and courtroom drama proves love and heartbreak never ages, whatever the era. * Woman & Home *
Utterly, utterly brilliant. Other Women is compelling, thought-provoking, harrowing and incredibly urgent. -- Caroline Lea
Staggeringly brilliant, harrowing, haunting and entirely beautiful. Other Women takes a thrilling yet compassionate look at the making of a murder, at loneliness and love, at fixation and the sting of shame. A wonderful novel. -- Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End
The tension is superb and I honestly couldn't put it down. * Prima *
Poignant and elegant, brutal and beautiful, Other Women, is a masterclass in modern storytelling. -- Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually
A glittering black diamond of a book. Beautiful and devastating literary true crime. Emma Flint takes a real murder from the 1920s and gives voice to the women involved. Bubbling anger beneath exquisite prose. -- Anna Mazolla, author of The Clockwork Girl
It is brilliant. I was swept up in a turmoil of emotion as I read. This is a book that starts as a love story and turns into something much darker indeed. -- Harriet Tyce, author of The Lies You Told
The disturbing narrative unspools with a veneer of unsettling normalcy, which make the reveals which Flint masterfully serves up all the more gripping and profound when we reach them. -- Philippa East, author of I'll Never Tell
Passion, betrayal, and obsessive love combine to create the stunning tour de force that is Other Women . . . Chilling and heart-stopping, this is an instant classic. -- Eleni Kyriacou, author of She Came to Stay
Heartbreaking. I wanted it to go on and on, even as I raced to the end. Excellent, absorbing and totally gripping. -- Melanie Golding, author of The Replacements
Other Women is a book about fantasy and the lengths that people will go to to protect what they love, whether that's another adult, a child, or the dream of another kind of life. * Take a Break *
. . . this haunting tale of love and obsession will stay with you. * Heat *
Emma Flint has used a murder that shocked Britain almost a century ago - and paved the way for forensic science - as inspiration for her latest thriller. * The Sunday Express *



Book Information
ISBN 9781509840540
Author Emma Flint
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 476g
Dimensions(mm) 224mm * 145mm * 37mm