You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn’t she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she’s right. Ambition: it’s in the blood . . .

Give Me Your Hand is the latest blistering thriller from Megan Abbott.

'Stunningly twisty' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, author of The Push 'A modern-day Gothic, it is compulsively readable' LAURA LIPPMAN, author of Prom Mom 'Feverish, razor sharp, and pulsing with dread' RILEY SAGER, author of The House Across the Lake From New York Times bestselling author Megan Abbott, an eerie and prescient novel about a family holiday that takes a terrifying turn. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy has everything she ever wanted. When she and her husband, Jed, go to visit his father in his remote cottage, Jacy feels bathed in love by Dr. Ash, if less so by his housekeeper, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt. Then Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, all eyes are on Jacy's condition, and whispers about Jed's long-dead mother seem to be intruding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy feels trapped in the cottage, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is this -as is suggested to her-a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions to protect her unborn child? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside? 'A bewitchingly creepy tale [from] thriller queen Megan Abbott' OPRAH DAILY 'The work of a fearless cartographer of the darkest, seediest, most gloriously haunted landscapes of the human heart and psyche' KELLY LINK 'One of the finest writers working in any genre' MARK BILLINGHAM

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR DAILY TELEGRAPH * DAILY MIRROR * DAILY EXPRESS * WALL STREET JOURNAL * BOSTON GLOBE * LIBRARY JOURNAL * CRIMEREADS AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The mesmerising new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the bestselling and award-winning writer Megan Abbott. Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance. 'Compulsively readable' RUTH WARE 'A book you will not be able to forget' MARK BILLINGHAM 'My thriller of the year' JAKE KERRIDGE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption' STYLIST 'The feeling of menace grows stronger with every page' GUARDIAN 'Slow-burning and feverish, with all the intensity of a classic American film noir' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension' IRISH TIMES 'Dark and juicy and tinged with horror' NEW YORK TIMES 'Dark and mesmerising' HARRIET TYCE 'This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent' ATTICA LOCKE 'There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott' TANA FRENCH

'Megan Abbott at her very best. Cool, crisp, chilling.' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

Kit has risen to the top of her profession. She's on the brink of achieving everything she wanted, but someone is standing in her way - Diane. Diane made Kit who she is today, lit the ambition that's driven her - and now she knows something that could burn Kit's world to the ground.

But Diane has a secret of her own, and Kit hasn't forgotten. She remembers the worst thing Diane ever did, and how it blew their friendship apart. Diane is beginning to think that Kit is just like her. Maybe she's right.

Ambition: It's in the blood . . .

Give Me Your Hand is a blistering thriller from Megan Abbott.

A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" (Meg Wolitzer) psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me.

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn't let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way - Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret - the worst thing she'd ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine - and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she's worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn't she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she's right. Ambition: it's in the blood . . .

By the author of "Dare Me" and "The End of Everything"
""Femmes fatales. Obsessive love. Double crosses. How does a respectable young woman fall into Los Angeles's hard-boiled underworld?
Shadow-dodging through the glamorous world of 1950s Hollywood and its seedy flip side, Megan Abbott's debut, "Die a Little, " is a gem of the darkest hue. This ingenious twist on a classic noir tale tells the story of Lora King, a schoolteacher, and her brother Bill, a junior investigator with the district attorney's office. Lora's comfortable, suburban life is jarringly disrupted when Bill falls in love with a mysterious young woman named Alice Steele, a Hollywood wardrobe assistant with a murky past.
Made sisters by marriage but not by choice, the bond between Lora and Alice is marred by envy and mistrust. Spurred on by inconsistencies in Alice's personal history and possibly jealous of Alice's hold on her brother, Lora finds herself lured into the dark alleys and mean streets of seamy Los Angeles. Assuming the role of amateur detective, she uncovers a shadowy world of drugs, prostitution, and ultimately, murder.
Lora's fascination with Alice's "sins" increases in direct proportion to the escalation of her own relationship with Mike Standish, a charmingly amoral press agent who appears to know more about his old friend Alice than he reveals. The deeper Lora digs to uncover Alice's secrets, the more her own life begins to resemble Alice's sinister past--and present.
Steeped in atmospheric suspense and voyeuristic appeal, "Die a Little" shines as a dark star among Hollywood lights.

'Stunningly twisty' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, author of The Push 'A modern-day Gothic, it is compulsively readable' LAURA LIPPMAN, author of Prom Mom 'Feverish, razor sharp, and pulsing with dread' RILEY SAGER, author of The House Across the Lake From New York Times bestselling author Megan Abbott, an eerie and prescient novel about a family holiday that takes a terrifying turn. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy has everything she ever wanted. When she and her husband, Jed, go to visit his father in his remote cottage, Jacy feels bathed in love by Dr. Ash, if less so by his housekeeper, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt. Then Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, all eyes are on Jacy's condition, and whispers about Jed's long-dead mother seem to be intruding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy feels trapped in the cottage, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is this -as is suggested to her-a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions to protect her unborn child? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside? 'A bewitchingly creepy tale [from] thriller queen Megan Abbott' OPRAH DAILY 'The work of a fearless cartographer of the darkest, seediest, most gloriously haunted landscapes of the human heart and psyche' KELLY LINK 'One of the finest writers working in any genre' MARK BILLINGHAM

A Richard and Judy Book Club selection. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me, is a taut and suspenseful novel of friendship, loss and the dark undercurrents of adolscence. A close-knit street, the clink of glass on glass, summer heat. Two girls on the brink of adolescence, throwing cartwheels on the grass. Two girls who tell each other everything. Until one shimmering afternoon, one of them disappears. Lizzie is left with her dread and her loss, and with a fear that won't let her be. Had Evie tried to give her a hint of what was coming, a clue that she failed to follow? Caught between her imaginary guilt, her sense of betrayal, her own powerful need, and the needs of the adults around her, Lizzie's voice is as unforgettable as her story is arresting. This is no ordinary tale of innocence lost . . .

"I dare you not to love this book. You lucky reader."---Tom Franklin, "New York Times" bestselling author of"Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter""
"Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.
Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.
Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.
The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

Sex, violence and corruption collide in this gritty vigilante thriller set in 1970s Washington DC. When her younger sister is found at the center of a brutal murder investigation, tough-as-nails Sheriff Normandy Gold is forced to dive headfirst into the seedy world of 1970s prostitution and soon discovers a twisted conspiracy leading right to the White House.

Almost unbearably tense, chilling and addictive . . . Exceptional' - Paula Hawkins, author of Girl on the Train A mother knows best . . . doesn't she? Talented and determined, Devon is the centre of her ambitious parents' world, and the lynchpin of their marriage. There is nothing Katie and Eric wouldn't do for her. When a violent hit-and-run accident sends shockwaves through their close-knit community, Katie is immediately concerned for her daughter, a rising star of the gymnastics world. She and Eric have worked so hard to protect Devon from anything that might distract or hurt her. That's what every parent wants for their child, after all. Even if they don't realize how much you've sacrificed for them. Even if they are keeping secrets from you . . . Plotted with all the brilliance of Dare Me, and written with the compassion of The Fever, the astonishing You Will Know Me - dark and tender by turns - is an unforgettable novel by Megan Abbott.

Shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Dark, dangerous and compulsively readable, Dare Me by Megan Abbott is a gripping exploration of the teenage psyche. There's something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls. Coach said that once. She said it like she knew, and understood. When Colette French arrives at school one fall and takes charge of the cheer squad, she brings a hint of threat. Sleek, remote and careless, she transforms the girls into warriors - and rivals. Addy and Beth find that for the first time they have secrets from one another. But their mentor is playing her own deadly game, and there is everything to lose. 'Tense, dark and beautifully written' Gillian Flynn

Deenie, Gabby and Lise are best friends - a tight girl-unit negotiating their way through the troubled waters of their teens, a world of sex, secrets and intense relationships. When first Lise then Gabby falls prey to a mysterious illness, hysteria sweeps their school and, as more girls succumb, Deenie finds herself an outsider, baffled by the terrifying illness and scared that it could all be because of something she has done. Suffering with Deenie are her dad and her brother, both protective of Deenie, but each with secrets of their own . . . The Fever is an explosive novel in which Megan Abbott explores the lethal power of guilt and desire, and how mass hysteria can grip a community, making real our deepest fears.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR DAILY TELEGRAPH * DAILY MIRROR * DAILY EXPRESS * WALL STREET JOURNAL * BOSTON GLOBE * LIBRARY JOURNAL * CRIMEREADS AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The mesmerising new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the bestselling and award-winning writer Megan Abbott. Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance. 'Compulsively readable' RUTH WARE 'A book you will not be able to forget' MARK BILLINGHAM 'My thriller of the year' JAKE KERRIDGE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption' STYLIST 'The feeling of menace grows stronger with every page' GUARDIAN 'Slow-burning and feverish, with all the intensity of a classic American film noir' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension' IRISH TIMES 'Dark and juicy and tinged with horror' NEW YORK TIMES 'Dark and mesmerising' HARRIET TYCE 'This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent' ATTICA LOCKE 'There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott' TANA FRENCH

'A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption' STYLIST It was the three of them. Always the three of them. Until it wasn't. Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance. The instant New York Times bestseller 'Compulsively readable' RUTH WARE 'A book you will not be able to forget' MARK BILLINGHAM 'My thriller of the year' JAKE KERRIDGE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'The feeling of menace grows stronger with every page' GUARDIAN 'Slow-burning and feverish, with all the intensity of a classic American film noir' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension' IRISH TIMES 'Dark and juicy and tinged with horror' NEW YORK TIMES 'Dark and mesmerising' HARRIET TYCE 'This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent' ATTICA LOCKE 'There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott' TANA FRENCH

"I dare you not to love this book. You lucky reader."---Tom Franklin, "New York Times" bestselling author of"Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter""
" Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.
Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.
Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.
The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

In the Ozarks, what you are is where you are born. If you're born in Venus Holler, you're not much. For Jamalee Merridew, her hair tomato red with rage and ambition, Venus Holler just won't cut it. Jamalee sees her brother Jason, blessed with drop-dead gorgeous looks and the local object of female obsession, as her ticket out of town. But Jason may just be gay, and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks that is the most dangerous and courageous thing a man could be.
Enter Sammy Barlach, a loser ex-con passing through a tired nowhere on the way to a fresher nowhere. Jamalee thinks Sammy is just the kind of muscle she and Jason need.

Are there feasible alternatives to the present "up-or-out" policy for U.S. military officers? Most military officers are subject to a policy known as "0up-or-out," which requires separation from service if they are not promoted or selectively continued within a certain period of time or when they encounters established grade/tenure limits. RAND considered a range of potential substitutes for, or modifications of, the existing policy and recommends that the Department of Defense implement four demonstration projects to establish the relative value of specific policy alternatives and requirements.