The Shark

Styles (No Country for Girls) probes the obsessive rage of two young women as a serial killer stalks their Perth, Australia, beach community in this nerve-shredding thriller. Inspired by the real-life case of the Claremont Stalker, the novel alternates between the perspectives of Raych, whose widowed father frequently travels for work, leaving her to fend for herself, and Carmen, who’s relentlessly bullied by her adoptive sister. The two teenagers meet in a psych ward, where both have been confined following violent outbursts, then go their separate ways. A short time later, a killer dubbed “the Shark” murders young female swimmers in Perth. Raych’s best friend, Piper, for whom she harbors romantic feelings, has gone missing—a possible victim of the Shark—and she and Carmen seek revenge. Motivated by their shared anger at “men muzzling in on everything,” the girls track down and enact bloody vengeance on the prime suspect, but the truth of the case is more complicated than they realize. Though some plot developments strain credulity, Styles delivers jolts aplenty with her pitch-black plunge into wounded psyches and the costs of revenge. It’s a gut-wrenching ride worth taking. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath Literary. (June)