The Shining Girls
August Derleth Award 2014.
The girl who wouldn’t die, hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist… A terrifying and original serial-killer thriller from award-winning author, Lauren Beukes.
“It’s not my fault. It’s yours. You shouldn’t shine. You shouldn’t make me do this.”
Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature – it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades – and cut the spark out of them.
He’s the perfect killer. Unstoppable. Untraceable. He thinks…
Chicago, 1992. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Tell that to Kirby Mazrachi, whose life was shattered after a brutal attempt to murder her. Still struggling to find her attacker, her only ally is Dan, an ex-homicide reporter who covered her case and now might be falling in love with her.
As Kirby investigates, she finds the other girls – the ones who didn’t make it. The evidence is… impossible. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn’t mean it didn’t happen…
Lauren Beukes
Lauren Beukes is a journalist who has contributed to The Big Issue, Colors, The Hollywood Reporter, Marie Claire, Nature Medicine, and The Sunday Times. She is the head writer for the TV cartoon Clockwork Zoo Animation, the cocreator of the show URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, and the author of Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past, which was nominated for the Sunday Times Alan Paton nonfiction award.