Masks Encouraged☺*
If you have questions or concerns about our safety protocols, please email rsvp@squarebooks.com
Can't make it? Reserve a signed first edition here. Personalization available. Can't make it? Tune in virtually via Facebook Live.
*please note, as Covid case numbers change, these protocols may too. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
“Not without its moments of welcome suspense and it will attract and engage the ever-increasing audience for domestic suspense.” — Booklist
Join us in welcoming Polly Stewart and her new novel The Good Ones. Polly will be in conversation with local author Bill Boyle. Thursday, June 15th at 5:30 PM at Off Square Books.
About the Book
An engrossing work of literary suspense that illuminates the push and pull of female friendship and the costs of being good when the rules for women begin to chafe.
The last time Nicola Bennett saw Lauren Ballard she was scraping a key along the side of a new cherry-red Chevy Silverado. That was the night before her friend mysteriously vanished from her home, leaving a bloodstained washcloth and signs of a struggle—as well as her grieving husband and young daughter—behind.
Now, nearly twenty years later, Nicola, newly unemployed and still haunted by the disappearance of her childhood friend, is returning to her Appalachian hometown. For Nicola, Tyndall County has remained frozen in time. Everywhere she turns she’s reminded of Lauren. Yet shockingly, her former friends and neighbors have all moved on. Drawn to stories of missing girls, Nicola obsessively searches the internet, hoping to discover a clue to Lauren’s ultimate fate.
Driven by a desperate need to know what happened to her friend, Nicola takes a job in her hometown, determined to uncover any bit of information, any small clue, that can help. Deep down she knows the answers are tucked in the hollows and valleys of this small Blue Ridge county. As secrets come to light and the truth begins to unravel, will Nicola finally find release and break free of the past—or lose herself completely to unanswered questions from her adolescence?
About the Author
Polly Stewart grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, where she still lives. She graduated from Hollins University and has an MFA in fiction and a PhD in British literature from Washington University in St. Louis. Her short fiction has appeared in literary collections and journals, including Best New American Voices, The Best American Mystery Stories, Epoch, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, Crime Reads, and Poets & Writers, among other publications.
About the Host
William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His novels include: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, an Amazon Best Book of the Year; and, most recently, City of Margins, a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
Praise For...
“A startling, riveting tale about female friendship, past trauma, and the secrets we keep. Breathlessly entertaining and sharply incisive, Polly Stewart’s debut is a must read." — Kirstin Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Counterfeit?
"Polly Stewart's The Good Ones is a fantastic achievement. A classic Southern Gothic tale told through the prism of modern-day sensibilities. Not to be missed." — S. A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears
"Polly Stewart's stunning novel The Good Ones is reminiscent of Gone Girl with elements of Yellowjackets thrown in. This book dives straight into the heart of Appalachia, unearthing teenage tensions and full-grown fears which connect in ways I never saw coming. Fans of Megan Abbott will rejoice in this intricately textured addition to the rural noir canon." — Eli Cranor, author of Don't Know Tough and Ozark Dogs
“Polly Stewart's The Good Ones is a fantastic achievement. A classic Southern Gothic tale told through the prism of modern-day sensibilities. Not to be missed.”—S. A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of Razorblade Tears