2019 Edgar Award for Best First Novel (nominee)
A Recommended Summer Read from
Vanity Fair * New York Post * BBC
The riveting story of a woman convicted of a brutal crime, the prison psychologist who recognizes her as his high-school crush—and the charged reunion that sets off an astonishing chain of events with dangerous consequences for both
As an inmate psychologist at a state prison, Frank Lundquist has had his fair share of surprises. But nothing could possibly prepare him for the day in which his high school object of desire, Miranda Greene, walks into his office for an appointment. Still reeling from the scandal that cost him his Manhattan private practice and landed him in his unglamorous job at Milford Basin Correctional Facility in the first place, Frank knows he has an ethical duty to reassign Miranda’s case. But Miranda is just as beguiling as ever, and he’s insatiably curious: how did a beautiful high school sprinter and the promising daughter of a congressman end up incarcerated for a shocking crime? Even more compelling: though Frank remembers every word Miranda ever spoke to him, she gives no indication of having any idea who he is.
Inside the prison walls, Miranda is desperate and despairing, haunted by memories of a childhood tragedy, grappling with a family legacy of dodgy moral and political choices, and still trying to unwind the disastrous love that led to her downfall. And yet she is also grittily determined to retain some control over her fate. Frank quickly becomes a potent hope for her absolution—and maybe even her escape.
Propulsive and psychologically astute, The Captives is an intimate and gripping meditation on freedom and risk, male and female power, and the urges toward both corruption and redemption that dwell in us all.
Genre: Mystery
Vanity Fair * New York Post * BBC
The riveting story of a woman convicted of a brutal crime, the prison psychologist who recognizes her as his high-school crush—and the charged reunion that sets off an astonishing chain of events with dangerous consequences for both
As an inmate psychologist at a state prison, Frank Lundquist has had his fair share of surprises. But nothing could possibly prepare him for the day in which his high school object of desire, Miranda Greene, walks into his office for an appointment. Still reeling from the scandal that cost him his Manhattan private practice and landed him in his unglamorous job at Milford Basin Correctional Facility in the first place, Frank knows he has an ethical duty to reassign Miranda’s case. But Miranda is just as beguiling as ever, and he’s insatiably curious: how did a beautiful high school sprinter and the promising daughter of a congressman end up incarcerated for a shocking crime? Even more compelling: though Frank remembers every word Miranda ever spoke to him, she gives no indication of having any idea who he is.
Inside the prison walls, Miranda is desperate and despairing, haunted by memories of a childhood tragedy, grappling with a family legacy of dodgy moral and political choices, and still trying to unwind the disastrous love that led to her downfall. And yet she is also grittily determined to retain some control over her fate. Frank quickly becomes a potent hope for her absolution—and maybe even her escape.
Propulsive and psychologically astute, The Captives is an intimate and gripping meditation on freedom and risk, male and female power, and the urges toward both corruption and redemption that dwell in us all.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"The Captives is a powerful novel, complex, dark, and enthralling. The story is riveting, all the way to the thrillingly twisted ending. Immergut's brand of literary noir masterfully interweaves points of view, voices, and temporal shifts, with dialogue as sharp and clean as cut glass. Bravo!" - Kate Christensen
"Debra Jo Immergut's psychological thriller had me captivated from the first page. Its two lost souls come together like the meeting of nitrogen and glycerine, a desperate female prisoner and a prison psychologist about to cross the line. A mesmerizing debut." - Janet Fitch
"This novel had me completely in its grip...A smart, artful, engrossing read that thrums with a kind of twisted elegance that hearkens back to old school classic noir films and draws you into its 'thrall of dangerous love.'" - Sharon Guskin
"The Captives knows obsession. Pair a female McEwan with du Maurier and you know some of the pleasures of Immergut. The book will lure you to read quickly, sure, yet deeper metaphysical questions will linger...Smart, humanistic...The Captives' characters are pure hunger." - Edie Meidav
"The weight of deception on an otherwise honorable being, and the strain of fearful events and discoveries is Debra Jo Immergut's subject... The Captives is a compelling story of two disparate individuals, only one of whom believes that consolation is more important than truth." - Susanna Moore
"The Captives is psychologically astute and wise with equal doses of power and pain. Immergut mines the depths of the human psyche to reveal how weakness can turn into obsession and how a single misstep can send a life careening off course." - Ivy Pochoda
"Debra Jo Immergut's psychological thriller had me captivated from the first page. Its two lost souls come together like the meeting of nitrogen and glycerine, a desperate female prisoner and a prison psychologist about to cross the line. A mesmerizing debut." - Janet Fitch
"This novel had me completely in its grip...A smart, artful, engrossing read that thrums with a kind of twisted elegance that hearkens back to old school classic noir films and draws you into its 'thrall of dangerous love.'" - Sharon Guskin
"The Captives knows obsession. Pair a female McEwan with du Maurier and you know some of the pleasures of Immergut. The book will lure you to read quickly, sure, yet deeper metaphysical questions will linger...Smart, humanistic...The Captives' characters are pure hunger." - Edie Meidav
"The weight of deception on an otherwise honorable being, and the strain of fearful events and discoveries is Debra Jo Immergut's subject... The Captives is a compelling story of two disparate individuals, only one of whom believes that consolation is more important than truth." - Susanna Moore
"The Captives is psychologically astute and wise with equal doses of power and pain. Immergut mines the depths of the human psyche to reveal how weakness can turn into obsession and how a single misstep can send a life careening off course." - Ivy Pochoda
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Used availability for Debra Jo Immergut's The Captives