Set in 2008 and flashing back to the grunge-era 1990s, Little Threats is a literary suspense about the new questions and old tragedies that surface after a young woman who pleaded guilty to her best friend’s murder is released from prison.
GP Putnam's Sons, November 10th, 2020, 368 pages
ISBN 9780593086995
In the summer of 1993, twin sisters Kennedy and Carter Wynn are embracing the grunge era and testing every limit in their privileged Richmond suburb. But Kennedy’s teenage rebellion goes too far when, after a night of partying in the woods, her best friend, Haley, is murdered, and suspicion falls upon Kennedy. She can’t remember anything about the night in question, and this, along with the damning testimony from a college boy who both Kennedy and Haley loved, is enough to force Kennedy to enter a guilty plea.
In 2008, Kennedy is released into a world that has moved on without her. Carter has grown distant as she questions Kennedy’s innocence, and begins a relationship with someone who could drive the sisters apart forever. The twins’ father, Gerry, is eager to protect the family’s secrets and fragile bonds. But Kennedy’s return brings the tragedy back to the surface, along with a whole new wave of media. When a crime show host comes to town asking questions, murky memories of Haley’s death come to light. As new suspects emerge and the suburban woods finally give up their secrets, two families may be destroyed again.
With the same standout voice and fearless insights celebrated in her debut, The Blondes, Emily Schultz has crafted an electrifying modern gothic story where the past refuses to stay in the past…
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BOOKCLUB AND REVIEWER RESOURCES
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A BARNES & NOBLE BEST SELLER
TOP TEN ON KINDLE
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No. 4 in Psychological Literary Fiction
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No. 7 in Mystery, Thriller and Suspense
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No. 9 in Psychological Fiction
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“Schultz’s finely honed thriller led us through a nerve-racking maze of dubious memories and questionable intentions. All the while Kennedy’s dark journey toward the truth takes shocking, Gillian Flynn–level twists and turns. Little Threats is exactly the kind of thriller you want on a cozy night in.” APPLE BOOKS' BEST OF NOVEMBER PICK
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"A taut psychological thriller...Schultz knows how to keep the reader engrossed." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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"A masterful slow-boil, with a palpable sense of menace suffusing nearly every scene, it is also a stark and realistic depiction of the traumatic legacy of violent crime and tragedy." THE TORONTO STAR
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“Fans of Tana French and Kimberly Belle will fall under this book's spell. . . Terse and tense, Little Threats investigates righteous anger, teenage angst, and the enormity of setting the record straight.” BOOKLIST
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"Brilliantly structured and gorgeously written, Little Threats is a captivating mystery about a young woman accused of a brutal murder--one she isn't sure she's committed. It's a story of love and loss, the power of guilt and the savagely delicate fabric of family,"
—Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia and A Good Marriage
"A gripping character study of an accused girl making sense of her reality." KIRKUS
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"Schultz delivers an energetic plot fueled by incisive character studies." SHELF AWARENESS
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"Schultz unwraps one of the greatest horrors of all: the monsters we fear, aren't monsters at all, not in the cinematic sense anyway, they’re not sociopathic serial killers or even strangers who lurk around corners, they're people we know." LitReactor
"Emily Schultz unfolds her story with masterful precision and restraint, delivering a novel that is pure emotional dynamite.” – Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before
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"A pulsating mystery, where small details enlighten and illuminate." — Lori Lansens, author of The Girls, and This Little Light
“Little Threats hooked me from the first line. A gripping, haunting story about family, memory, and most of all, grief—this book is difficult to put down, and more difficult to stop thinking about.”
– Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse
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“Emily Schultz’s Little Threats is a complex, powerful, emotionally wrenching thriller with a deceptively simple premise: what if you agreed to serve 15 years in prison for a murder you have no memory of committing? Intense, twisty, and compelling—once you begin reading, you won’t be able to stop!”
– Karen Dionne, author of the #1 internationally bestselling The Marsh King's Daughter
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"Emily Schultz's Little Threats is an exquisitely written and thrilling novel about growing up and breaking apart, about the past refusing to loosen its grip on us, and about the impossibility of going back and righting the wrongs that send us spiraling out of control. And, of course, it's a whale of a whodunnit. This is a riveting and powerful novel about friendship and fate, youth and time, and the toll these things take on all of us. Don't miss it!"
—David Bell, USA Today bestselling author of The Request
“At its heart, Little Threats is a devastating and elegiac novel about teenage friendships, sexuality, drug use, and ultimately betrayal. Emily Schultz is unflinching in revealing the way prison isn't merely a place, but a feeling that can haunt a girl who grew into a woman behind bars. Freedom isn't absolution, and the answers are as painful as the questions in this heart-stopping, powerful story.”
– Bryn Greenwood, the author of The Reckless Oath We Made and All the Ugly and Wonderful Things