Our Kind of Cruelty: A Novel

One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Thrillers of 2018

“This is simply one of the nastiest and most disturbing thrillers I’ve read in years. In short: I loved it, right down to the utterly chilling final line.” ―Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

“Hall’s novel is a page-turner with a timely message.” ―Real Simple

“[A] slow-burn, sinister psychological thriller . . . Hall’s depiction of stalker mentality and behavior is chilling. Perhaps most interesting is the examination of gender politics and how women are punished for sexual behavior in ways that men are not.” ―Library Journal

"Hall brings the unreliable narrator to new heights in this disturbing narrative . . . For fans of Nabokov’s Lolita [and] Highsmith’s Ripley tales." ―Booklist

"Here's a change―a psychological thriller in which a man is the crazy one . . . Which is worse―an emotionally disturbed murderer or a woman with a fierce libido? Hall's U.S. debut is designed to show just how much trouble society has answering that question." ―Kirkus

"Like Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, Nabokov’s Lolita, or Highsmith’s Ripley novels, Hall’s Our Kind of Cruelty draws us into the twisted mind and far-fetched excuses of a killer, telling his own tale. The perfect unreliable narrator, gaslighting his way to anti-hero greatness, with a stunning conclusion that chills with its unadorned bitterness and terrifying plausibility." ―Lit Hub

“A perfect nightmare of a novel―as merciless a thriller as I’ve ever read. Astonishingly dark and sensationally accomplished.” ―A. J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window

“A tense, intelligent thriller that kept me gripped and guessing until the last page―and thinking long after that.” ―Erin Kelly, author of He Said/She Said

"I tore through Our Kind of Cruelty―toxic love, obsession, and the unflinching unraveling of a mind. Scarily plausible and a great read.” ―Ali Land, author of Good Me Bad Me

"A propulsive and addictive study of the darkness of obsessive love. I was completely gripped from the first word to the last!" ―Lisa Jewell, author of The Girls in the Garden

“Taut, fascinating . . . Be prepared for questions to linger in your head for a longtime afterward.” ―Julia Heaberlin, author of Playing Dead

“Love and desire turn into obsession. Denials and lies become disillusions. This combination turns deadly for Verity (V), her new husband, Angus, and her former lover, Mike. Beginning with a dangerous sex game and ending in a murder and subsequent trial, this psychological thriller gives today’s headlines a gripping and frightening veracity.” ―Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault

“Despite a rough start, Mike has made a good life for himself: he’s a rising star at the firm where he works; he just bought a posh house in London; and he’s in peak physical condition. The only thing missing is his ex-girlfriend, but if he can just prove his devotion to her, he’s sure to win her back. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems, though, is it? Parents can betray you, lovers can lie to you, and violence can lurk underneath even the most placid exterior . . . Our Kind of Cruelty is a toxic and addictive book, a menacing psychological thriller that radiates with the cruelest of good intentions.” ―Lauren Peugh, Powell’s Books

“Our Kind of Cruelty is a serious love story―or is it? Our Kind of Cruelty is a story of obsession―or is it one of manipulation by a strong character taking advantage of one who is severely damaged from childhood abuse? Is a narrator unreliable if he truly believes all he says? Our Kind of Cruelty is the ultimate psychological thriller which cleverly hides until the very end the fact that the entire book is a statement which has great relevance in current culture and a twist that I did not see coming.” ―Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction