Flashout - by Alexis Soloski (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A thrill-seeking young woman joins a radical theater troupe in this taut, suspenseful novel of art, seduction, and the deadly limits of liberation. New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom. California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made? Riveting and atmospheric, Flashout is a coruscating coming-of-age story and an immersive thriller exploring the enchantments and perils of art"--

Book Synopsis

A thrill-seeking young woman joins a radical theater troupe in this taut, suspenseful novel of art, seduction, and the deadly limits of liberation.

New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom.

California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made?

Riveting and atmospheric, Flashout is a coruscating coming-of-age story and an immersive thriller exploring the enchantments and perils of art.

Review Quotes

Praise for Here in the Dark

"Alexis Soloski's debut--a sharp, captivating thriller about a cynical theater critic who gets pulled into an investigation of a stranger's disappearance--is a suspenseful page-turner filled with complex characters.... Good luck not finishing it in one sitting." --Bustle

"Soloski smoothly transfers her masterful journalistic writing to this novel, creating a classic yet entirely modern noir. Fast-paced, funny, sexy, and witty, Here in the Dark is a satisfying read to the very last word." --Chicago Review of Books

"Here in the Dark moves briskly as Soloski nicely incorporates character development in the plot that accelerates into the noir. Theatergoers especially will enjoy Vivian's references to classic and modern plays." --South Florida Sun Sentinel

"A tightly paced and expertly crafted noir whose heroine is both hilariously wisecracking and deeply troubled. From curtain up to curtain call, Here in the Dark is flawless." --Bookpage (starred review)

"How could I resist a suspense novel in which a critic becomes an amateur detective in order to avoid becoming a murder suspect or even a victim? I inhaled Alexis Soloski's debut thriller, Here in the Dark; but, even readers who don't feel a professional kinship with Soloski's main character should be drawn to this moody and erudite mystery. Soloski... [has] written a genuinely disturbing suspense tale that explores the theater of cruelty life can sometimes be." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

"Twisty, foreboding, addictive, Here in the Dark is the perfect noir, a novel that blurs truth and fiction, and at the very end delivers a stinger that turns everything on its head. You'll think about it the next time you're sitting in the dark, waiting for the curtain to rise. Don't be surprised if there's something unsettling on the other side of it." --BookTrib

"Frightening, delicious, engrossing, and unforgettable." --Julia Kastner, Shelf Awareness

"Theater critic Alexis Soloski goes behind the curtain in this thriller about the blurry lines between art and reality.... Soloski combines her knowledge of the theater world with the twists and turns of the best psychological suspense." --Entertainment Weekly

"A moody, taut dose of noir, Here in the Dark is a poised, daring debut--the kind of novel I relish and can't get out of my head, evoking the work of icons like Megan Abbott and Margaret Millar in its hypnotic prose and mesmerizing characters. Readers will not forget Vivian Parry--and they won't want to." --Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity

"Soloski does not disappoint--in either her sharp-eyed and unflinching portrait of an unravelling critic, or in her delicious upending of genre. Hitchcock meets a slippery metatheatrics of power, performance, desire, and escape. This is a novel--and a protagonist--who moves with a precarious velocity, constantly choosing the most dangerous move and bringing us careening after." --Jen Silverman, author of We Play Ourselves

"From its very first page to its final revelation, Here in the Dark will possess you with a mix of acerbic wit and Highsmithian invention. I blazed through this book, delighting equally in the cleverness of its plot and the delicious wickedness of Vivian Parry--a woman you can't look away from even for a second. And why would you, when there's a life-or-death mystery, dialogue that feels beamed in from a classic noir, and a ballet about rabies on offer? Even if you've never seen a play, you'll be thrilled by the ways author Alexis Soloski takes the novel of suspense and turns it into a meditation on seeing and being seen, knowing and being known, judging and being judged." --Isaac Butler, author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to ACT

"Here in the Dark lives up to its title and is indeed a dark tale; it's also hilarious, addictive, elegantly constructed, and composed. It's ultimately a book about art and the love of art, but it's cleverly disguised as a thrill ride, a jolt of pulp and a shot of noir. It became a New York classic to me the minute I read the last sentence." --Michael Imperioli, actor, writer, and musician

About the Author

Alexis Soloski is the author of the bestselling novel Here in the Dark. A prize-winning New York Times theater critic and culture reporter, she holds a PhD in theater from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.