Review: Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski

Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski

Blurb from Goodreads:

A compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller set in a midwestern strip club, told by New York Times bestselling author Marie Rutkoski in the spirit of Gillian Flynn and Tana French

It’s 1999, and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She’s not used to taking anyone under her wing―after all, between her disapproving boyfriend and his daughter, who may as well be her own child, she has enough to worry about. But when Samantha overrides her better judgment to drive a new dancer home, they are run off the road. The police arrive at the scene of the accident―but find only one body.

Georgia, another dancer, is drawn into the investigation as she tries to assist Holly, a Harvard-educated detective with a complicated story of her own. As the point of view shifts from police officers and detectives to club patrons and children, the women round up a list of suspects, all the while grappling with their own understandings of loss and love.

Drawing on her personal experiences as well as interviews with police, Rutkoski immerses us in a subculture that is all too often reduced to cliché. Gripping, deeply feminist, and character-driven, Real Easy spellbinds us and gets to the heart of this timeless question: How do women live out their lives knowing that men can hurt them?

 I enjoyed this but something felt a bit lacking -- like the story concluded in too pretty a wrapped up and neat bow?  I'm not sure -- I can easily see this being adapted to a movie or TV show and I would watch it.  The characters were good and there was almost enough development (could have used a touch more) but I still felt something was missing when it was over.  Definitely recommend if you like Law & Order.

Real Easy comes out next month on January 18, 2022 and you can purchase HERE.  

She didn't know how to express the expectedness of sexual violence. It is so common that a warning might as well be stamped on the birth certificate of every newborn girl.