6 Thrillers Set in Glamorous and Wealthy Neighborhoods
Catherine Steadman recommends Tom Wolfe, Ellery Lloyd, Liane Moriarty, and more
Who hasn’t scrolled luxury real estate (way out of one’s budget) whilst double screening the latest Netflix true crime series? We all love to imagine how we’d knock-through and really make the most of the places we see online—whilst on screen, beyond our phones, awful stuff plays on the bigger of our two devices.
What if we could combine both? Our love of aspirational million-dollar properties and something illicitly thrilling? Behold Frankenstein’s monster–property-porn meets psych-thriller.
Sure, you want the lifestyle but do you want to put in the leg work to get it, to keep it if it means having to do half of the awful things these characters had to do to get it and keep it?
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Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities
Set in 1980s New York, a Wall Street Bond Trader, Sherman McCoy has it all, he’s “a master of the universe,” with the penthouse, the glamorous wife, the hot side piece, the cute kid and a glittering future ahead of him, until…one night he makes a fatal error, his car hit something, someone—a split second decision makes him flee the scene and with that his life tumbles into the void. McCoy’s loses it all: his elite circle of friends, his family, the job—all of it.
A satirical, cautionary, tale of immense power, shocking privilege and “untouchable” hubris.
Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies
An elite community, a tight knit group of female friends all hiding a deadly secret that may threaten and implicate them all. Beautiful people, trauma bonded for life set in an equally stunning location on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Emma Kline, The Guest
A professional escort will stop at nothing in order to stay in the Hamptons over the course of one summer. Cashing in on her youth and social capital and banking on the upper-class’s blind acceptance of certain codifiers she’s well aware of, Alex refuses to leave the “rich people” table after losing her dealt hand.
Ellery Lloyd, The Club
Inspired by a certain well-known exclusive members club chain, this story has tinges of the Zoe Kravitz-directed movie Blink. An island just for A-list members, dark secrets, vendettas, a melting plot of egos and press embargos…what could go wrong when they open the resort?
Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho
Patrick Bateman has looks-maxxed, and full self-actualized up into the upper echelons of society–but at what cost? Oh, and spoiler alert…he’s a serial killer. But who can tell the difference between him and all the others in the banking world…just don’t show him your cool new business card, it might send him over the edge!!!
Ross Armstrong, The Getaway
When a young male social climber takes a job as an in-house nanny for the son of an aging billionaire over one hot summer on a beautiful, private Greek island, family tensions boil over with murderous consequences. Sun, sex, a smidge of succession. And all of it written by an incredibly handsome author (my husband, wink, wink).
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Catherine Steadman
Catherine Steadman is an author and screenwriter based in London. She grew up in the New Forest, Hampshire, and now lives in East London with her husband and two daughters. Steadman’s first novel, Something in the Water, was a Reese’s Book Club pick and a New York Times bestseller with rights sold in over 30 territories. She is also the author of Look in the Mirror, Mr. Nobody, The Disappearing Act, and The Family Game (a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice), and her novels have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and ELLE.com, among other outlets.
