As CEO of the Herd, an elite women-only coworking space, Eleanor Walsh seems to have it all: close friends, a sweet husband, and the most glamorous and successful female-empowerment-based company in New York City. Then she vanishes on the night of a glitzy press conference—and the police suspect foul play.
For Hana, the head of PR for the Herd and Eleanor’s best friend, this is a nightmare. For Hana’s sister, Katie, a journalist, this is the story that will make her career. But when the sisters launch their own investigation and begin to learn what Eleanor was hiding, they must also face the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other—and confront just how dangerous it can be when women’s perfect veneers start to crack.
Book Info: Print length: 337 pages. Publisher: Ballantine Books. Publication Date: 24 March 2020
Andrea Bartz is a Brooklyn-based journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick WE WERE NEVER HERE. Her second thriller, THE HERD, was named a best book of 2020 by Real Simple, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, CrimeReads, and other outlets. Her LA-Times bestselling debut, THE LOST NIGHT, was optioned for TV development by Mila Kunis. It was named a best book of the year by Real Simple, Glamour, Marie Claire, Library Journal, Crime Reads, Popsugar, She Reads, and other publications. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Elle, and many other outlets, and she’s held editorial positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, and Self, among other titles. Her forthcoming thriller, THE SPARE ROOM, will be published in June 2023.
My Review:
I chose THE HERD by Andrea Bartz as a “buddy read” book with 9 other readers as I loved the blurb and thought it would be a great book for discussion. We all agreed to read up to a certain point and then discuss online, which is great as the book is split into parts. So far so good, except one person was reading The Herd by Emily Edwards and couldn’t understand what we were talking about!!.
Back to THE HERD by Andrea Bartz. Set in the corporate world in New York City, HERD is a fictional women only working space (think WeWork but no men). Run by the beautiful, successful and powerful Eleanor Walsh, who on the eve of a huge Press announcement disappears without a trace.
Her best friends and co-workers Hana and Katie can’t understand why Eleanor would just disappear, abandoning her lifes work, husband and friends without a word and start their own investigation.
The story is narrated by several of the main characters and slowly the reader finds out more about Eleanor, Katie and Hana’s past history and complicated relationships.
I did enjoy this story, it kept me guessing throughout, however many of my buddy readers didn’t feel connected to the characters which I could totally appreciate. It’s an easy read with a few twists and overall I would recommend it for thriller lovers.
