Murder Bimbo - by Rebecca Novack (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Deviously intelligent...Irresistible." --The New York Times Book Review - "Murder Bimbo is Gone Girl for the Luigi Mangione era." --Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X

The exhilaratingly twisty story of a sex worker turned political assassin on the run, Murder Bimbo is an unputdownable and wholly fresh take on truth, murder, and optics in our national moment.

A thirty-two-year-old sex worker is shocked when she's approached by undercover government agents to aid them in a top-secret plot to assassinate a politician known as Meat Neck. But once the deed is done, she realizes what made her the perfect recruit: She's 100% disposable.

Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits, and a laptop to save her own life.

Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos. In a hastily typed series of emails, the newly minted "Murder Bimbo" explains how she was recruited and then trained by a cabal of code-named US agents to take out Meat Neck.

Then she opens a new email. This time, it's addressed to her ex, and the facts line up a little differently...

Constructed in three increasingly unhinged acts, each a more subversive version of the story than the last, Murder Bimbo can be read as a gloriously bold literary thriller, a satirical vigilante's manifesto, or a raucous send-up of the political insanity we all live inside every day. Either way, it's a dead-serious announcement of an electric new voice in American literature.

Review Quotes

"Even if you're not primed to root for assassins, Murder Bimbo's deadpan observations and emotional intelligence may wear you down...The novel's three-act structure is a daring narrative choice, and pays off . . . It's a genuine pleasure to sift through her contradictions (a Marxist who loves money!) and pan for the truth . . . Trust me when I say Novack has a great ear for the inanities of contemporary language, just like all great satirists do. . . as she shows time and again, blurring the facts can lead you to a deeper truth."--Joumana Khatib, New York Times Book Review

"Murder Bimbo is an ingeniously structured prism: at first look it plays satirically on true crime sensationalism, at second, it flays the political moment of grift, greed, and exploitation, and finally, it contemplates the desperate and lasting things we do for love. At all levels, it is a blast." --Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

"Rebecca Novack's Murder Bimbo is an engrossing, hilarious revenge novel that perfectly captures our paranoid political moment. Is it a spy thriller? Is it a love story? It's both and so much more--sharp, surprising, bold, and impossible to put down. Novack's debut doesn't miss." --Isle McElroy, author of People Collide

"Murder Bimbo is Gone Girl for the Luigi Mangione era, and Rebecca Novack is one of our funniest and most acerbic new writers." --Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X

"A riotously sharp, darkly glittering debut that detonates every expectation of the contemporary thriller. Rebecca Novack dazzles as she turns satire, desire, and rage into something electric and new--this is the rare book that feels like it's brilliantly inventing its own genre as it goes." --Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman

"Murder Bimbo takes each one of its brazen hairpin turns with giddy gusto. Its cunning, charismatic narrator leads us confidently past 'unreliable' into something much wilder and more fun. Rebecca Novack's debut is keenly observant, frenetically funny, and a hell of a good time." --Temim Fruchter, author of City of Laughter

"What elevates the novel is its biting satire. The narrator is slippery, funny, image-obsessed and fully aware that storytelling is power. Truth becomes transactional. Morality becomes aesthetic. Murder Bimbo isn't about uncovering answers; it's about interrogating the need for them." --The Seattle Times

"The protagonist's voice is sharp, subversive and unrepentant, holding a mirror to misogyny, media spectacle and political hypocrisy. This book earns its place on a list about female fury because its narrator literally detonates the expectations placed on women, weaponizing stereotypes to survive and control her own story. It's fierce, funny and incredibly original -- a modern riff on crime fiction with feminist bite." --BookTrib.

"She's a sex worker and a political assassin--or is she? This highly comedic novel about one woman's quest to clear her name after being involved in a high profile murder is a wild satire for the world we live in." --Forbes

"This book is doing something totally fascinating and unexpected... It's a romp. [Murder Bimbo] is having fun and we're having fun with her. . . An accomplishment."--New York Times Book Review Podcast, Books We're Looking Forward to this Winter

"A thrilling premise in its own right, made all the more memorable by the titular killer's twisty (and unreliable) narration. From beginning to end, Murder Bimbo will keep you on your toes." --Bustle

"Murder Bimbo is unlike anything I've ever read. It's as unhinged as you can imagine and the best thing you could do is read it without reading any reviews or publicity copy. Just dive in and experience the thrill of Novack's work." --Debutiful

"A compelling tale and hilarious metamystery in which the titular bimbo may or may not commit murder, may or may not be a spy, and may or may not be a bimbo...It's so good." --CrimeReads

"A great thriller but also a tremendous literary trick. And it's so funny." --WAMC

"Sly and incendiary. . . Novack's novel forges fascinating connections . . . . Readers will be seduced." --Publishers Weekly

"Propulsive, electric, Murder Bimbo conceals and reveals and conceals again, as any disruptive queer act must. . . . Novack plays with our readerly expectations about motive, audience, authorship, and the genre of true crime." --Electric Literature

About the Author

Rebecca Novack grew up in the Rocky Mountains. She has a master's in theological studies from Harvard Divinity school.