Fete sclipitoare

In 1978, a killer attacks a Florida sorority house. Pamela Schumacher leads the sorority. She lives through the attack and becomes a key witness. Across the country, Tina Cannon fears he killed her missing friend too. She thinks the Florida deaths mean he has struck again. Tina and Pamela team up to seek justice. Their search leads to a final clash.

Jessica Knoll’s crime thriller looks at how women survive and form bonds. It suits readers who like crime tales that focus on victims. Knoll asks why the public craves serial killers and true crime. She disputes the view that killers have rare gifts. She puts the women’s minds and lives at the story’s heart instead.

This is Knoll’s third novel. Work is under way to turn it into a TV show. Dana Ionescu translated this Romanian edition from English. The publisher lists the original title as Bright young women. The book forms part of the Fiction Connection series.

Knoll worked at Cosmopolitan and Self as a senior editor. She grew up near Philadelphia. She went to Shipley School in Pennsylvania. She later earned her degree at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their bulldog, Franklin. Her books have reached readers in more than 40 languages.