The young nanny to get a prominent political family gets attracted right into a web of lethal lies-including her own-in this stunning debut thriller using the menacing twists of Megan Abbott and the exquisite suspense of Laura Lippman.

These are Phoenix’s First Family: handsome Philip Martin, son from the sitting Senator, an ex-football player who carries himself with a straightforward grace and appears destined to step into his father’s seat when the time is right; his wife Marina, the trendy and about Woman in the Rearview Reflection: A Book elegant movie director of Phoenix’s good arts museum; and their four-year-old child Amabel, beautiful and precocious and dearest.

Finn Hunt is certainly working a boring office job to repay her college debt when she matches Philip and charms Amabel. She eagerly agrees to nanny, considering she’s lucked into the job of an eternity. Though the glamour of the Martins’ way of life undeniably dazzles Finn, her genuine pleasure comes from being part of the family members: writing quick jokes with Philip in your kitchen before he leaves for work; staying late when Marina requires a last-minute sitter; and spending lengthy times with Amabel, who is often treated more like an image op than a child.

But behind every façade lurks a less attractive truth. When a young woman methods Finn, claiming a connection with Philip and requesting Finn to spread a note, Finn becomes caught up in a web of deceit using the senate seat at its center. And Finn isn’t precisely innocent herself: she too has a background she has held hidden, and under the sizzling Phoenix sunlight, everything is going to be laid uncovered . .