The Butterfly Trap - by Clea Simon

Book Synopsis

"Darkly inventive and full of grit" --New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt

Anya and Greg seem to be the golden couple, until dark secrets come to light and unleash inevitable devastation in this slow-burn he said/she said psychological suspense novel.

Greg has his life all planned out: become a doctor, buy a house, and have a wife and children - and when he meets Anya during his post-doc studies in Boston, all of his dreams seem to come true. It's love at first sight, and Greg doesn't shy away from changing his life to provide Anya, his beautiful butterfly, with everything she wants and needs.

Anya is a struggling artist, determined to make it as a painter in Boston's art scene - but getting involved with shy and sweet Greg could thwart her lifelong ambition. Their relationship unfolds like a classic love story . . . except that Anya seems to be hiding something that unsuspecting Greg soon must face.

Are Greg and Anya truly the perfect couple, or will jealousy, uncertainty, and dangerous machinations break them apart in the most dreadful way imaginable?

Megan Abbott meets Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train mixed with Patricia Highsmith creepiness that will make you turn the pages! A novel "darkly inventive and full of grit" (NYT bestselling author Caroline Leavitt).

Review Quotes

Fast-paced and deeply satisfying . . . Simon is at the height of her considerable powers . . .
The prose here is propulsive, stylish, and pleasingly spare, with narrating crime reporter Emily Kelton's voice sliding often into noir territory. Bad Boy Beat is a top-notch read, securing Simon's position as one of the sharpest voices working in crime fiction today

-- "Linda L. Richards, award-winning author of the Endings series, on Bad Boy Beat"

A sense of foreboding builds from the first page until the shocking conclusion . . . Block out time for this one - you won't be able to put it down-- "Karen E. Olson, award-winning author of An Inconvenient Wife"

Clea Simon delivers a cautionary and dark tale . . . you won't be disappointed-- "Gabriel Valjan, Agatha, Anthony, and Shamus nominated author of the Shane Cleary series"

Darkly inventive and full of grit and suspense . . . a deliciously sinister take on 'he said/she said, ' sexual politics, and what we do for what - or whom - we love. Truly, film noir on the page-- "Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Days of Wonder"

If you are looking for a relationship book that seems both familiar and fresh simultaneously, Clea Simon's The Butterfly Trap is an excellent choice-- "The BOLO Books Review"

Readers will quickly find that the twists and turns of the plot more than satisfy - with a particularly stellar final act that is guaranteed to please even the harshest critic of crime fiction-- "BOLO Books on Bad Boy Beat"

Simon's fans will appreciate this swerve; it's also a must for readers who enjoyed the dueling male and female narrators in Araminta Hall's One of the Good Guys-- "First Clue"

Simon's keen eye for the way in which her characters willfully deceive themselves is on point-- "The Arts Fuse"

Simon's staccato prose sets a tense mood that keeps readers on the edge . . . New territory for Simon that's definitely worth another chapter-- "Kirkus Reviews on Bad Boy Beat"

The theme of fear and control in a relationship emerges in Simon's tense, slow-burn latest-- "Booklist"