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Scrap

On sale

14th March 2024

Price: £16.99

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Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781399719339

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‘Blackly humorous and enjoyably twisted’
Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

‘A knotted mystery too intriguing to leave unpicked’
Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

Binge-worthy . . . a brilliantly immersive and almost cinematic experience’
Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days

Recently dumped and stuck with the mortgage, artist Esther Ray wants to burn the world, but instead, she reluctantly accepts a scrapbooking job from the deliriously wealthy Naomi Duncan. The scrapbooks, a secret birthday gift for Naomi’s husband Bryce, trace the Duncan’s twenty-five-year marriage. The conditions: Esther must include every piece of paper she’s been sent, must sign an NDA, and must only contact Naomi using the burner phone provided. Otherwise she’ll spoil the surprise.

As Esther binges true-crime podcasts and works through the near-two hundred-boxes of Duncan detritus, she finds herself infatuated with the gilded family – until, mid-project, Naomi dies suspiciously. When Esther becomes convinced the husband killed her, she uses the scrapbooks’ trove of information to insert herself into the Duncan’s’ lives to prove it. But the more Esther investigates, the further she is dragged back to the scorched earth of her past and the famous artist who paid her to disappear.

Laced with pitch-black humour and conspiratorial unease, Scrap is a razor-sharp examination of wealth and power, art and truth, of the line between justice and revenge – and who gets to cross it.

See what readers are saying about Scrap

No book has kept me so gripped since Gone Girl!!!
NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘Such an original author . . . Highly recommended
NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘I loved every single minute of this book. Its dark and mysterious with a twisty, unexpected story
NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I absolutely devoured this book. It was the kind of weird and intriguing story I can never get enough of’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Reviews

Alice Slater, author of <i>Death of a Bookseller</i>
Scrap offers a bricolage of arson, true crime, mystery and murder that takes its readers from the cosy humility of scrapbooking to the lofty heights of champagne dinners, exclusive gallery openings and private jets. At its wicked heart - a knotted mystery too intriguing to leave unpicked.
Paula Hawkins, author of <i>The Girl on the Train</i>
Art, true crime and extreme wealth collide in this blackly humorous and enjoyably twisted mystery
Jenny Mustard, author of <i>Okay Days</i>
A binge-worthy novel . . . Her sharp, intelligent prose and ability to create settings real enough to touch makes Scrap a brilliantly immersive and almost cinematic experience. If morally grey is your favourite colour, Scrap should be your next read
PRAISE FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S CLOTHES
Stylist
Brutal, glamorous and genuinely unpredictable, it will blow your mind until the very last page
TLS
Sharply observed and very funny
Daily Mail
A wild, energetic gem of a novel
Daily Mail
Fans of White Lotus might find much that appeals in this screwy black comedy that revels in the fabulously entertaining dysfunction at the heart of the world's disgustingly wealthy . . . Henkel's lacerating eye for the morally ambiguous keeps you hooked
i
A darkly humorous mystery about true crime, art and revenge