El Dorado Drive

About the book

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Named A Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025 by Elle and Crime Reads • An NPR 2025 Book We Love • A Best Book of 2025 by Library Journal

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout comes a simmering, atmospheric novel of friendship and betrayal, following a women-led pyramid scheme in suburban Detroit.

"Abbott is a superstar of the suspense genre." -NPR

All I want is to be innocent again. But that's not how it works. Especially not after the Wheel.

The three Bishop sisters grew up in privilege in the moneyed suburbs of Detroit. But as the auto industry declined, so did their fortunes. Harper, the youngest, is barely making ends meet when her beloved, charismatic sister Pam-currently in the middle of a contentious battle with her ex-husband-and her eldest sister, Debra, approach her about joining an exciting new club.

The Wheel offers women like themselves-middle-aged and of declining means-a way to make their own money, independent of husbands or families. Quickly, however, the Wheel’s success, and their own addiction to it, leads to greater and greater risks-and a crime so shocking it threatens to bring everything down with it.

Megan Abbott turns her keen eye toward women and money in El Dorado Drive, a riveting story about power, vulnerability, and how desperation draws out our most destructive impulses.

Praise for this book:

"Tense, chilling and beautifully written, El Dorado Drive is an absolute knockout." - Harlan Coben

"El Dorado Drive is a dizzying ephemeral journey where Megan Abbott confirms what many of us already knew. She is one the finest writers to ever put pen to paper in the crime genre. A rare tour de force." - S A Cosby

"As surprising and electrifying as a summer storm, El Dorado Drive deftly examines hope, need, greed and the complicated angles of sisterhood. It is suspenseful, beautifully written and, quite simply, exquisite." - Gillian Flynn

"El Dorado Drive is a silky devious ride. It's suspenseful as all hell but also beautifully observed and filled with trenchant observations about the price of greed and the debilitating weight of modern womanhood." - Dennis Lehane

"Layer by magnetic layer, Megan Abbott reveals the story of a family coming undone beneath the paralyzing weight of material pressures. Abbott is a skilled storyteller and El Dorado Drive is a smart, twisty, and riveting family drama." - Karin Slaughter

"Sharp, shocking, beautiful and brilliant. El Dorado Drive is a thrilling, clever and powerful story of family, class, money and morality. Megan Abbott is a phenomenal storyteller." - Chris Whitaker