Original Sins
It’s a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It’s a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment.
Teamed with a man she’s not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself—while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas—Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor. Gradually, she traces a disturbing connection between this case and the hunt for the Sin Eater. Through snow, ice, violence and lies, Riley Fisher is drawn towards a terrifying revelation.
Erin Young follows up her acclaimed crime debut, The Fields, which has drawn comparisons with MARE OF EASTTOWN, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and TRUE DETECTIVE, with another stunning thriller full of dark menace, surprise and suspense.
Reviews
A nimble, assured thriller.
This book will chill you to the bone. So atmospheric I feel like I’ve actually been to Des Moines. A complex, tense, dark thriller with a cop to root for and a killer to fear. So good!
THE FIELDS was an assured and thought provoking debut, but with ORIGINAL SINS Erin Young takes the authenticity and pacing of her story telling to a new level. This book is both meticulously researched and enthralling.
A meticulously plotted police procedural that absolutely has it all: an icy setting in rural Iowa, a timely political backdrop... and one of the most chilling villains I've read in recent history. This book is perfect for fans of Tana French.
Intricate plotting, breakneck pacing - and, in FBI agent Riley Fisher, a compelling heroine you’ll not soon forget.
Bold, gritty and deeply immersive, the compelling plotline, richly drawn characters and authentic sense of place wrapped up in taut heartfelt prose, drew me in and had me racing through the pages well into the night. A stunning and hugely suspenseful follow up to THE FIELDS.
ORIGINAL SINGS is compelling form the first page to the last, dealing with important and challenging issues through a propulsive, edge-of-the-seat narrative. A brilliant thriller, and Young’s superb writing on every page, along with her engaging cast of characters, lifts the novel into a class of its own.
A proper cinematic thriller!
Young transforms a seemingly rote procedural into a high-octane, ardently feminist thriller with surprising narrative layers and a nightmare-worthy villain.
A totally fresh take on the FBI procedural, ORIGINAL SINS is beautifully written and utterly absorbing - an absolute must-read.
Incredible. A chilling, terrifyingly plausible and white-knuckle of a thriller. Erin Young's masterful writing makes you not only feel you've been airdropped into Des Moines but that the horrors that unfold are happening around you.
Riley Fisher's resilience and tenacity as she's thrown curveball after curveball - in both the case and her personal life - will have readers rooting for her as she puts the pieces of the mystery together.
This fast-paced feminist thriller marks a series hitting its stride; pair it with Joanna Schaffhausen's Annalisa Vega procedurals.
An intoxicating, atmospheric and tense thriller that compels you from the first page.
Horrifyingly compelling, ingeniously twisted, each character, every plot turn meticulously crafted. Forensic knowledge of middle America & pitch perfect detail. Brilliant.
Both books, featuring the Iowa detective Riley Fisher, convey a strong sense of the Midwest and a nimble familiarity with American police investigations — all the more impressive since Young… is British
A dark and timely thriller.
The plot explodes with excitement and suspense, proving that Young has become a thriller writer to treasure.
ORIGINAL SINS" shows Young can take what could be a routine procedural and reshape the plot into a feminist thriller… starts on a high note, barely giving the characters, or the readers, time to take a breath as the plot careens to a stunning finale. Fans of thriller writer Karin Slaughter will find much to like.
Young has the unusual gift in a British author of being able to convey superbly her US setting… A thriller to be on your radar, not under it.
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