Other Women

the devastating historical murder mystery inspired by a true story, and Radio 2 Book Club pick

By: Emma Flint

Narrated by: Chloe Massey, Sara Poyzer

Zoe Ball's BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick.

Mesmerising and haunting, Emma Flint's Other Women is a devastating story of fantasy, obsession inspired by a murder that took place almost a hundred years ago.

'A pitch-perfect historical mystery' – The Guardian
'Bloody brilliant' – Dinah Jefferies, author of The Missing Sister
'Compelling, twisty, and wonderfully suspenseful' – Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

It is 1923 and a country is in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in the war, millions more returned home wounded and forever changed.

Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless. After her brother's death, she decides to make a new life for herself. She takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies’ club and a job in the City. But just when her new world is starting to take shape, a fleeting encounter threatens to ruin everything.

Kate Ryan is an ordinary wife and mother. Since the end of the war, she has managed to build an enviable life with her husband and young daughter. From the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family. But when two policemen knock on Kate's door and jeopardize the facade Kate has created, she knows what she has to do to protect the people she loves. And suddenly, two women who never should have met are connected for ever . . .

'Exquisite' - Will Dean, author of Dark Pines

'This is a book that will stay with you' – Ann Cleeves, bestselling author of the Vera series

'A thoroughly captivating and unsettling page-turner' – iNews

Critic reviews

The tension grows throughout the book until it's almost unbearable. This is a book that will stay with you. (Ann Cleeves)

This beautifully written, pitch-perfect historical mystery is based on a real case – here, a murder that took place in 1924 . . . a moving study of loneliness, desperation, shame and public prurience. (Laura Wilson)

Exquisite and my book of the year. Utterly brilliant. (Will Dean, author of Dark Pines)

Flint maintains suspense in what is a thoroughly captivating and unsettling page-turner that deserves to land her on awards lists again. (Robert Epstein)

Emma Flint reworks the details of a notorious historical murder and unspools the fate of her three entirely convincing main characters.

Based on a shocking real-life murder in the 1920s Other Women focuses on Beatrice, almost invisible until she falls in love with a colleague, and Kate, seen as a devoted wife and mother, until their lives converge. I expect to see it on all the awards shortlists.

Other Women is compelling and twisty, and wonderfully suspenseful, and yet still full of empathy for the female characters. (Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground)

Moving, gripping . . . Other Women takes another tale of a true crime and reimagines it into a novel – this time, the murder of Emily Beilby Kaye by her married lover, Herbert Patrick Mahon. (Alison Flood)

Bloody brilliant (Dinah Jeffries)

Set in the early 1920s, this clever mix of romance, thriller and courtroom drama proves love and heartbreak never ages, whatever the era.

Utterly, utterly brilliant. Other Women is compelling, thought-provoking, harrowing and incredibly urgent. (Caroline Lea)

Staggeringly brilliant, harrowing, haunting and entirely beautiful. Other Women takes a thrilling yet compassionate look at the making of a murder, at loneliness and love, at fixation and the sting of shame. A wonderful novel. (Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End)

The tension is superb and I honestly couldn't put it down.

Poignant and elegant, brutal and beautiful, Other Women, is a masterclass in modern storytelling. (Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually)

A glittering black diamond of a book. Beautiful and devastating literary true crime. Emma Flint takes a real murder from the 1920s and gives voice to the women involved. Bubbling anger beneath exquisite prose. (Anna Mazolla, author of The Clockwork Girl)

It is brilliant. I was swept up in a turmoil of emotion as I read. This is a book that starts as a love story and turns into something much darker indeed. (Harriet Tyce, author of The Lies You Told)