Pretty Evil

by Zoe Rosi

You’ve done a bad thing. She has you in her sights. Now you’re going to pay.

Meet Camilla Black: an affluent, respected, influential fashion magazine editor, who lives it up in her beautiful Mayfair apartment. But Camilla’s glamorous life is a lie. Behind her poised exterior beats the cold dark heart of a vigilante killer, a murderer hell-bent on wreaking vengeance upon bad men.

Camilla expects to get away with murder. She’s careful. And anyway, it’s worth the risk. She’s making the world a better place with each predator she kills. But when one of her victims’ bodies is unexpectedly found, his gruesome death is splashed all over the papers.

To make matters worse, she’s now being pursued by Detective Wheelan, a new addition to the Met with laser-sharp focus and a worrying habit of solving impossible crimes…

She knows she should stop, but she can’t. Some men just deserve to die. Will Camilla’s insatiable appetite for justice be her downfall, or can she outsmart the police?

Pretty Evil is a timely, shocking and incendiary thriller that will appeal to fans of Killing Eve, Promising Young Woman, and I May Destroy You.

Revised edition: Previously published as Predator, this edition of Pretty Evil includes editorial revisions.

• ISBN10: 1542037166
• ISBN13: 9781542037167
• Publish Date: 17 January 2023
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 January 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thomas & Mercer
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 249
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Pretty Evil is a revenge thriller by Zoe Rosi. Due out 17th Jan 2023 from Amazon UK on their Thomas & Mercer imprint, it's 248 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. 

I've seen this touted as The Devil Wears Prada meets Dexter, and honestly, that's a pretty apt description. It's well written and the scenes are clearly (and explicitly) described and often unflinching. Content warnings include body horror, explicit non-consensual sexual assault, murder (obviously), predatory and explicit sex, etc. It is well written and the author has a good grasp of the craft of writing with regard to plotting, tension arc, characterisation, and the nuts-and-bolts of narrative. 

I enjoyed the high fashion descriptions of luxury brands and life in the fashion world more than main character Camilla's night-time predatory vigilante exploits. For readers who enjoy graphic anti-hero revenge vigilante thrillers, this will fill the bill. For readers who are sensitive to blood, gore, and violence, this will almost certainly be too much. Spelling and vernacular are British English, but probably won't pose problems in context for readers from the USA.

Four stars. As an aside, the book came out of trauma in the author's own past and might well be triggering and upsetting to readers who have experienced similar trauma or might be a therapeutic read, but something of which to be aware. The violence starts from page one. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.