Genuine Fraud

Begin here:
 
 
Third week in June, 2017
 
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
 
 
 
It was a bloody great hotel.
 
The minibar in Jule s room stocked potato chips and four different chocolate bars. The bathtub had bubble jets. There was an endless supply of fat towels and liquid gardenia soap. In the lobby, an elderly gentleman played Gershwin on a grand piano at four each afternoon. You could get hot clay skin treatments, if you didn t mind strangers touching you. Jule s skin smelled like chlorine all day.
 
The Playa Grande Resort in Baja had white curtains, white tile, white carpets, and explosions of lush white flowers. The staff members were nurselike in their white cotton garments. Jule had been alone at the hotel for nearly four weeks now. She was eighteen years old.
 
This morning, she was running in the Playa Grande gym. She wore custom sea-green shoes with navy laces. She ran without music. She had been doing intervals for nearly an hour when a woman stepped onto the treadmill next to her.
 
This woman was younger than thirty. Her black hair was in a tight ponytail, slicked with hair spray. She had big arms and a solid torso, light brown skin, and a dusting of powdery blush on her cheeks. Her shoes were down at the heels and spattered with old mud.
 
No one else was in the gym.
 
Jule slowed to a walk, figuring to leave in a minute. She liked privacy, and she was pretty much done, anyway.
 
You training? the woman asked. She gestured at Jule s digital readout. Like, for a marathon or something? The accent was Mexican American. She was probably a New Yorker raised in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood.
 
I ran track in secondary school. That s all. Jule s own speech was clipped, what the British call BBC English.
 
The woman gave her a penetrating look. I like your accent, she said. Where you from?
 
London. St. John s Wood.

E. Lockhart wrote the New York Times bestseller We Were Liars, which is also available in a deluxe edition. Her other books include Fly on the Wall, Dramarama, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and the Ruby Oliver Quartet, which includes The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys, and Real Live Boyfriends. Visit her online at emilylockhart.com, and follow @elockhart on Twitter.

More Praise for E. Lockhart s Genuine Fraud:

5 STARRED REVIEWS!

"A brilliant, twisty thriller--I loved it!" --Karen M. McManus, bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying

"Fans of E. Lockhart's We Were Liars will love this . . . and definitely won't see the ending coming." --HelloGiggles Online

"Tangled secrets, diabolical lies and, ultimately, a mind-blowing outcome are crafted with the plotted precision we expect (and love!) from E. Lockhart." --Justine Magazine

"The coming-of-age plot and complicated friendship between its two main characters make Genuine Fraud seem like it could be Girls for a younger set." --Vanity Fair

"A sophisticated, emotionally literate whodunit." --The Guardian

"As with E. Lockhart's previous novel, the bestselling We Were Liars, [readers] will likely finish the last page and flip right back to the beginning to search for clues they missed." --Chicago Tribune

"If there are two things you can count on E. Lockhart for it's badass ladies and killer atmosphere--Genuine Fraud has both in droves." --Bustle

A bracing pace, a slew of far-flung locations, and a storyline that runs mostly in reverse will keep readers on their toes, never entirely sure of what these girls are responsible for or capable of.   PW, Starred Review

Captivating . . . bewitching.   Booklist, Starred Review

An excellent choice recommended for teens and adults who love twisty mysteries, stories about class conflict, and tough-as-nails teen girls.   SLJ, Starred Review

This thriller from the author of We Were Liars will challenge preconceptions about identity and keep readers guessing.   Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Intoxicating."  The Horn Book, Starred Review