Real Easy: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Bringing to mind Gillian Flynn and Tana French but completely unique, Marie Rutkoski's Real Easy is a compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller.
"[R]iveting...An adrenaline ride filled with grit and compassion."
—People, Book of the Week
It's 1999 and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She's not used to mixing work and friendship—after all, between her jealous boyfriend and his young daughter, she has enough on her plate. But the newest dancer is so clueless that Samantha feels compelled to help her learn the hustle and drama of the club: how to sweet-talk the boss, fit in with the other women, and make good money. One night, when the new girl needs a ride home, Samantha agrees to drive: a simple decision that turns deadly.
Georgia, another dancer drawn into the ensuing murder and missing person investigation, gathers information for Holly, a grieving detective determined to solve the case. Georgia just wants to help, but her involvement makes her a target. As Holly and Georgia round up their suspects, the story's point of view shifts between dancers, detectives, children, club patrons—and the killer.
Drawing on her experience as a former dancer, Marie Rutkoski immerses us in the captivating world of the club, which comes alive with complicated people trying their best to protect themselves and those they love. Character-driven and masterfully plotted, Real Easy gets to the heart of the timeless question: How do women live their lives knowing that men can hurt them?
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Marie Rutkoski. (2022). Real Easy: A Novel. Henry Holt and Co.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Marie Rutkoski. 2022. Real Easy: A Novel. Henry Holt and Co.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Marie Rutkoski, Real Easy: A Novel. Henry Holt and Co, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Marie Rutkoski. Real Easy: A Novel. Henry Holt and Co, 2022.
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- bioText: Born in Illinois, Marie Rutkoski is a graduate of the University of Iowa and Harvard University. She is a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College and a New York Times bestselling author of books for children and young adults, including The Shadow Society and the Kronos Chronicles, which includes The Cabinet of Wonders. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
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Bringing to mind Gillian Flynn and Tana French but completely unique, Marie Rutkoski's Real Easy is a compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller.
"[R]iveting...An adrenaline ride filled with grit and compassion."
—People, Book of the Week
It's 1999 and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She's not used to mixing work and friendship—after all, between her jealous boyfriend and his young daughter, she has enough on her plate. But the newest dancer is so clueless that Samantha feels compelled to help her learn the hustle and drama of the club: how to sweet-talk the boss, fit in with the other women, and make good money. One night, when the new girl needs a ride home, Samantha agrees to drive: a simple decision that turns deadly.
Georgia, another dancer drawn into the ensuing murder and missing person investigation, gathers information for Holly, a grieving detective determined to solve the case. Georgia just wants to help, but her involvement makes her a target. As Holly and Georgia round up their suspects, the story's point of view shifts between dancers, detectives, children, club patrons—and the killer.
Drawing on her experience as a former dancer, Marie Rutkoski immerses us in the captivating world of the club, which comes alive with complicated people trying their best to protect themselves and those they love. Character-driven and masterfully plotted, Real Easy gets to the heart of the timeless question: How do women live their lives knowing that men can hurt them?- reviews
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- source: Neel Mukherjee, Booker-finalist author of The Lives of Others and A State of Freedom
- content: "Very possibly the best crime fiction book since Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects, Real Easy is turn-your-phone-off-and-cancel-all-your-meetings gripping. But it is also so much more than that: every character is instantly alive and recognizable the moment they appear on the page; the writing is sustainedly beautiful and intelligent, at times lyrical, at others, sassy and crackling; and the psychological underpinnings are unerring, resonant, utterly convincing. This book is a winner, whichever way you turn it."
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- source: Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here
- content: "With gorgeous prose, well-drawn characters, and crackling suspense, Real Easy is an unforgettable thriller that stuck with me long after the last page. Beneath the drum-tight plot is a brilliant examination of femininity, safety, and the roles women play. I couldn't put it down."
- premium: False
- source: Sara Sligar, author of Take Me Apart
- content: "This book blew me away. Real Easy is an electric thrill ride that takes a hard look at the high price women pay for men's desire. Rutkoski renders her characters with exquisite compassion and detail, even as the book accelerates toward an unforgettable conclusion. Gritty, glittery, and pulsing with life."
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Starred review from November 29, 2021
YA and children’s author Rutkoski (The Kronos Chronicles) makes her adult debut with a haunting crime novel. Victor Amador, a police detective in an unnamed state, is hoping for a quiet overtime shift when he gets a call to investigate a report of an abandoned car in a ditch. When he responds, he finds blood and, eventually, the corpse of a woman who worked at a nearby strip club. The exact cause of death isn’t immediately clear, but the coroner finds date-rape drugs in the woman’s system, and the figure of a crown was carved into the sole of one foot. Amador investigates, with the help of colleague Holly Meylin, who is still traumatized by her infant’s accidental death due to her ex-husband’s negligence. Rutkoski uses the familiar plot of a police search for a killer targeting women to paint moving portraits of desperate lives on both sides of the law. She’s especially good at making the strippers more than clichés. Fans of psychologically rich thrillers will hope for more from Rutkoski. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners.
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Starred review from January 1, 2022
Samantha Lind, known to the patrons of the Lovely Lady as Ruby, disappears while ferrying home another dancer, Jade, who was found blitzed on GHB in the middle of her shift. Hours later, police find Samantha's empty car abandoned with its seat belts slashed and Jade's strangled body dumped nearby. Samantha appears to have been snatched by a killer whose carnage yields few clues. The case lands with detectives in the small town of Fremont, Illinois, Victor Amador and Holly Meylin, who must draw information from the Lovely Lady's secretive employees, as well as from Samantha's guilt-ridden boyfriend and a seemingly infinite number of suspicious patrons. When the killer's carving of a crude crown into Jade's heel is linked to the nearby murders of several other exotic dancers, Meylin is certain they'll find the killer at the Lovely Lady, and she recruits a dancer, Gigi, to work as her confidential informant. Gigi, a sharp-witted survivor, quickly unravels the club's secrets but not before she becomes the killer's next target. Veteran children's author Rutkoski's writing is a pleasure here; she weaves well-calibrated suspense with gritty portrayals of dancers and detectives that hold strikingly parallel themes of loneliness, painful pasts, and heavy doses of distrust.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from December 15, 2021
It's 1999, and the case of one woman murdered and another kidnapped takes on nuance as the story is conveyed from the points of view of at least a dozen different voices. Samantha's time is split between two worlds: There's her longtime job as a stripper at the Lovely Lady and her domestic life with boyfriend Nick and his daughter, Rosie, whom she longs to mother. Despite Nick's objections, she finds something meaningful in her relationships with her fellow dancers and in the care of Dale, the Lovely Lady's owner. She even becomes a mentor of sorts to Jolene, the newest dancer at the club, offering to drive the girl home one night when she turns up high. They never make it to their destination. Detective Victor Amador responds to the call of a car in a ditch and finds Jolene's body; the girl has been strangled. Samantha is missing, apparently kidnapped. The rest of the novel follows this unfolding mystery, with every chapter told from a different character's point of view. Some characters, like dancers Samantha and Georgia as well as Victor and detective Holly Meylin, get multiple chapters, while others, like Nick and Rosie and the bouncer, Jimmy, get only one each, but the multiplicity of perspectives provides layers of narrative detail that lend complexity to this thriller. Rutkoski's writing is lyrical, offering quiet metaphors and imagery despite some pointedly crude language, primarily directed at the dancers by men at the club. The language disparity and the multiple perspectives serve to emphasize a larger point: that even in ugliness, loss, and tragedy, there is humanity. Though the killer is unmasked, the takeaway is much more universal--and satisfying--than just finding out whodunit: This is a story about flawed people just doing the best they can to live their lives and find love. Vulnerable yet steely, this thriller rises above the rest.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Bringing to mind Gillian Flynn and Tana French but completely unique, Marie Rutkoski's Real Easy is a compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller.
"[R]iveting...An adrenaline ride filled with grit and compassion."
—People, Book of the Week
It's 1999 and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She's not used to mixing work and friendship—after all, between her jealous boyfriend and his young daughter, she has enough on her plate. But the newest dancer is so clueless that Samantha feels compelled to help her learn the hustle and drama of the club: how to sweet-talk the boss, fit in with the other women, and make good money. One night, when the new girl needs a ride home, Samantha agrees to drive: a simple decision that turns deadly.
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