Pitched as Succession meets Saltburn, Anna Sophia McLoughlin’s A Girl Like Us will appeal to fans of Rachel Hawkins and twisty thrillers featuring wealthy, dysfunctional families.
In this solid debut, sexy reality-star-turned-entrepreneur Maya Miller has married into SterlingCo, one of the world’s first global marketing companies. Upon taxing down in New York after her honeymoon, security guards materialize to inform Maya and her husband, Colin, that per “protocol 202,” they must immediately gather in lockdown at the Silver House in the English countryside with the rest of family. Arianna, the heiress to the family fortune, has been murdered, and this is the procedure for purposes of both safety and strategy.
Maya is not warmly received by the power players in Colin’s family. While she’s not a kept woman–she’s earned her own money by leaning into her reality persona and establishing a beauty brand–she doesn’t have the generational wealth and class of the other Sterlings. Her baby with Colin is also younger than her marriage to him.
While the initial action is a slow burn, with considerable time spent on setting the stage, the plot gets rolling with the reading of the will and revelation that Arianna has left the entirety of her fortune to Maya. The family does not take kindly to this; and the spotlight on Maya is unwelcome given her lack of alibi during Arianna’s murder. Where was she? And what is the other secret she’s desperate to hide?
Meanwhile, Arianna’s diary, which is woven through the narrative in snippets, unspools the dark family history and mystery of Arianna’s estrangement from the family. Something within this history may hold the key to solving Arianna’s murder.
With a hateful aunt, party girl hothead cousin, and loyal servants among the entourage gathered at the estate, there are many moments of drama that have an air of soap opera set against the backdrop of 2004. While Colin, the husband, is a throwaway character, Maya has enough grit and layers to carry the novel all on her own.
Anna Sophia McLoughlin is a fresh new voice in the rich people behaving badly thriller genre.
Sarah Reida only reviews books she overall recommends. A writer of dark comedy thrillers, she is in the process of revising her sophomore novel. Her debut, Neighborhood Watch, received a Kirkus Star and was honored as an Amazon editorial pick as one of the Best Books of the Year So Far 2024. Join Sarah’s elite group of Instagram followers here.
