Price range: £5.99 through £9.99
Greta Vinet Seville, E-Discovery Counsel and Deputy General Counsel at the international law firm of Coarse & Cotton, finds herself on the run from her own firm after absconding with firm data to conduct her investigation, and enlists a diverse cast of friends and experts to help her comb through the mountains of data that confirms a trail of corruption that has shaped generations.
Her off-the-books, rag-tag legal team includes a genius litigation technology professional, a possibly psychopathic (but effective) summer associate, an AP investigative reporter, a classical painting art restorer, Greta’s philosophy professor brother, and Greta’s love interest, a compliance attorney at Tenkill. Romance, action, technology law, corruption are all explored, and married with Greta’s personal backstory about a renegade, vigilante aunt who’s been on the run for decades and fighting her own politically-charged battles.
They create a make-shift war room in a historic Salem, Massachusetts home, and their pursuit of more evidence leads them in action-packed chases around Boston… and a massive hospital – Tenkill – that is at the center of the corruption. But this investigation is like no other Greta has ever conducted, as people who have millions to lose and careers to ruin have and will kill to keep what she seeks to uncover secret.
A surrealist thriller for fans of early John Grisham, with an all-female-led cast, and a secret at the end that will shake you to your core.
“Right from the opening chapter, where the narrator wakes up with no memory of who she is, The Glass Woman instantly hooks you with a timely take on the rise of AI, and burrows under your skin. It manages to be both a deliciously creepy and mysterious thriller and also a thought-provoking meditation on identity and memory. Hugely entertaining and relentlessly readable.”
– Alex Michaelides, bestselling author of The Silent Patient
“Stepford Wives meets 2001 Space Odyssey, The Glass Woman is a twisty, thought-provoking read with characters full of heart engaging with the debate around AI in a truly inventive and original way.”
– Chris MacDonald, author of Happily Ever After and The Actor
“More than simply a psychological thriller, The Glass Woman is a chilling invitation to witness what might be our future. The science is well-researched and completely believable. A novel that stayed in my mind long after I read the final page. The definition of a thought-provoking read.”
– Julie Corbin, author of Whispers of a Scandal
“McIlroy packs a lot into this slim novel, calling into question the permanence of memory, the infallibility of technology, and the trustworthiness of those we love. Taking central themes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Severance, and Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island to new dramatic heights, McIlroy’s well-paced novel will keep readers guessing until the final pages.”
– Booklist
“Completely absorbing, I haven’t been able to put it down.”
– Sarah Ward, author of The Birthday Girl and The Sixth Lie
“Raises fascinating questions about consciousness and its relation to objective and subjective reality.”
“A twisty psychological thriller that plays on our current fears about AI as well as ideas about memory, trauma and the self.”
– The Guardian
“A successful example of the genre with a chilling modern feel.”
– The Critic
“The Glass Woman is that too-rare a beast – an urgent thriller with solid intellectual underpinning.”
– Shots Magazine
“McIlroy’s sharp sci-fi thriller debut is one part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and two parts Black Mirror… raising salient questions about the ethics of AI. This will keep readers up late.”
– Publishers Weekly
