2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller
“Urgent, haunting, and fearless.” —Megan Abbott, author of Beware the Woman
A Barnes & Noble Mystery & Thriller Pick | An Elle Best Book of the Summer | An Apple Best Book of May | A Most Anticipated Book from BookPage, SPY, Lit Hub, and Paste Magazine
Cormac McCarthy meets Killing Eve in this gritty, razor-sharp thriller following two indelible women on a path to certain destruction
Florence “Florida” Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women’s prison—or so her ex-cellmate Diosmary Sandoval keeps insinuating.
Dios knows the truth about Florida’s crimes, understands what Florence hides even from herself: that she was never a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world’s refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida’s eyes and unleash her true self.
When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios’s fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.
With blistering, incisive prose, the award-winning author Ivy Pochoda delivers a fast-paced L.A. crime novel for the ages. Gripping and immersive, Sing Her Down is a spellbinding thriller that, at its core, shows just what an angry woman is capable of.
Genre: Western
A Barnes & Noble Mystery & Thriller Pick | An Elle Best Book of the Summer | An Apple Best Book of May | A Most Anticipated Book from BookPage, SPY, Lit Hub, and Paste Magazine
Cormac McCarthy meets Killing Eve in this gritty, razor-sharp thriller following two indelible women on a path to certain destruction
Florence “Florida” Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women’s prison—or so her ex-cellmate Diosmary Sandoval keeps insinuating.
Dios knows the truth about Florida’s crimes, understands what Florence hides even from herself: that she was never a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world’s refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida’s eyes and unleash her true self.
When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios’s fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.
With blistering, incisive prose, the award-winning author Ivy Pochoda delivers a fast-paced L.A. crime novel for the ages. Gripping and immersive, Sing Her Down is a spellbinding thriller that, at its core, shows just what an angry woman is capable of.
Genre: Western
Praise for this book
"Urgent, haunting, and fearless, Ivy Pochoda's Sing Her Down has the grit and guile of Rachel Kushner, but with a ferocious empathy all Pochoda's own. Pochoda proves herself a singular portraitist of Los Angeles, and Sing Her Down is her most ambitious and accomplished novel yet." - Megan Abbott
"Ivy Pochoda once again writes with empathy about a world of unseen, unheard women-this time, two former cellmates whose lives remain entangled after their sudden release from prison. Sing Her Down is a stunning thriller, at once beautiful and gritty. Pochoda is a major talent." - Alafair Burke
"I read everything Ivy Pochoda writes. Her capture of the complexities, diversities, and insanities of today's life and culture is next to none. I loved Sing Her Down. The world will too." - Michael Connelly
"A thoroughly entertaining, mean-as-a-snake modern Western, Sing Her Down hits like a shotgun blast." - Dennis Lehane
"Sing Her Down is that rare novel that explodes your expectations from the very first page and goes on doing so until the end. Ivy Pochoda finds these characters at the root of their pain and desire. The prose is flayed and taut, the iconic episodes just keep stacking up, and the entirety has the epic intensity of a murder ballad." - Jonathan Lethem
"Sing Her Down is an incantation, a hallucination, a fiery odyssey of women taking back the power stolen and leached from body and mind, while their souls got harder and harder-like diamonds. Ivy Pochoda's women inhabit a world everyone should walk into with them, a universe everyone should know." - Susan Straight
"Ivy Pochoda once again writes with empathy about a world of unseen, unheard women-this time, two former cellmates whose lives remain entangled after their sudden release from prison. Sing Her Down is a stunning thriller, at once beautiful and gritty. Pochoda is a major talent." - Alafair Burke
"I read everything Ivy Pochoda writes. Her capture of the complexities, diversities, and insanities of today's life and culture is next to none. I loved Sing Her Down. The world will too." - Michael Connelly
"A thoroughly entertaining, mean-as-a-snake modern Western, Sing Her Down hits like a shotgun blast." - Dennis Lehane
"Sing Her Down is that rare novel that explodes your expectations from the very first page and goes on doing so until the end. Ivy Pochoda finds these characters at the root of their pain and desire. The prose is flayed and taut, the iconic episodes just keep stacking up, and the entirety has the epic intensity of a murder ballad." - Jonathan Lethem
"Sing Her Down is an incantation, a hallucination, a fiery odyssey of women taking back the power stolen and leached from body and mind, while their souls got harder and harder-like diamonds. Ivy Pochoda's women inhabit a world everyone should walk into with them, a universe everyone should know." - Susan Straight
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