The Devil She Knows, Bill Loehfelm
The Devil She Knows, Bill Loehfelm
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

The Devil She Knows

Author: Bill Loehfelm

Narrator: Renée Raudman

Unabridged: 12 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/24/2011

Synopsis

An audacious thriller from a major new talentLife isn’t panning out for Maureen Coughlin. At twenty-nine, the tough-skinned Staten Island native’s only excitement comes from—well, not much. A fresh pack of American Spirits, maybe, or a discreet dash of coke before work. If something doesn’t change soon, she’ll end up a “lifer” at the Narrows, the faux-swank bar where she works one long night after another. But just like the island, the Narrows has its seamy side.After work one night, Maureen walks in on a tryst between her co-worker Dennis and Frank Sebastian, a silver-haired politico. When Sebastian demands her silence, Maureen is more than happy to forget what she’s seen—until Dennis turns up dead on the train tracks the next morning. The murder sends Maureen careening out of her stultifying routine and into fast-deepening trouble. Soon she’s on the run through the seedy underbelly of the borough, desperate to stop Sebastian before Dennis’ fate becomes her own.With The Devil She Knows, Bill Loehfelm has written a pitch-black thriller in a fresh, compulsively readable voice, with pages that turn themselves. This is the real deal: a breakout novel by a writer whom Publishers Weekly has praised for his “superb prose and psychological insights.”

About Bill Loehfelm

Bill Loehfelm was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Staten Island. In 1997 he moved to New Orleans. He is the author of the novels Fresh Kills, which won an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and Bloodroot. He lives in New Orleans’ Garden District with his wife, writer A. C. Lambeth.

About Renée Raudman

Renée Raudman is an actor and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator. She has performed on film, television, radio, and on stage and can also be heard in several video games and hundreds of television and radio voice-overs.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on December 09, 2012

Maureen Coughlin has essentially spent her first twenty-nine years on the planet going nowhere. Now she's waitressing at the Narrows, a Staten Island bar, and her only long-term objective is to have a night good enough to pay some pressing bills. Maureen drinks too much, smokes way too much and does......more

Goodreads review by George on December 15, 2012

The Devil could be the darkness inside the characters in this book. Maureen, a late twenties waitress. Amber, her mother, never moved on from being abandoned by her husband eighteen years earlier. Nat Waters, a broken down New York City Detective, who buried his regrets in his job and never looked b......more

Goodreads review by Emily on July 05, 2011

On June 14, 2011, Bill Loehfelm, most recently the author of The Devil She Knows, came to Literati bookstore in Memphis, Tennessee. Loehfelm, despite his tattoos and earrings, had a deep, calm voice and relaxed presence. Because the audience consisted solely of myself and three other women, Loehfelm......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on February 28, 2012

Physically, 29 year-old Maureen Coughlin is a wisp of a woman, 5' 4" tall and 100 pounds. Emotionally, she's a powerhouse, a person with acumen, tenacity, and a wild streak just this side of the Serengeti. She works as a waitress, the same job for the last 10 years and she's just sick of it. It's a......more

Goodreads review by Chrissie on September 06, 2020

I'm going to say 3.5 rounded up to 4. I think my biggest problem was that I read it in so many starts and stops I forgot what was happening. And I kept mixing up Jimmy and Johnny. I will try to find Maureen Coughlin #2 to see how it holds up.......more

Quotes

“The Devil She Knows is nothing short of terrific. An absolutely original voice…and a story that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t ever, ever, ever even think of letting go.” John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author

“Bill Loehfelm, a rising star in crime fiction, just keeps rising higher: The Devil She Knows is a taut, knowing story, and Maureen Coughlin is a hero for the ages, a character who jumps off the page and demands the reader’s full attention and empathy from the very start.” Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author

“Loehfelm, who’s written two other thrillers about Staten Island’s underbelly, elevates this rousing tale with riveting characters—especially Maureen, who brandishes a knife as convincingly as she worries about becoming a cat lady.” People

“Loehfelm delivers on the promise of his first two crime novels, Fresh Kills and Bloodroot, with this terrific drama about a barmaid who tangles with a sadistic and well-connected killer…Loehfelm expertly ramps up the suspense, taking the reader on a dark ride.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“At a bar, a tough city girl sees something she really shouldn’t see, and immediately there’s trouble—well-dressed, connected, and brazenly confident trouble. A tough city girl can get out of trouble, right? Not if she’s caught in a dark corner of Staten Island, New York City’s most tribal and secretive borough. So begins Bill Loehfelm’s page-ripping thriller, The Devil She Knows. It’s a fast, rough ride you can’t put down.” Colin Harrison, author of The Finder

“Character drives this follow-up to Loehfelm’s fine Bloodroot; the deeply conflicted Maureen, in particular, is brilliantly developed. She’s tough and street-smart but vulnerable…Even Staten Island, which Loehfelm brilliantly sketched in Bloodroot, becomes a character in this one: seedy, brooding, and sometimes deadly. But, finally, it’s still Maureen, as compelling a character as this reviewer expects to see this year, who makes The Devil She Knows a must for crime-fiction lovers.” Booklist (starred review)

“Loehfelm, who grew up on Staten Island, portrays the street life of New York City’s most tribal borough so vividly that the place emerges not so much as a setting but as a main character in its own right. And he tells his story in an original voice that is by turns gritty and lyrical. The Devil She Knows is a worthy successor to the author’s previous Staten Island novels, Fresh Kills and Bloodroot. Rarely has a crime novelist launched a career with a trio of books that display such superior craftsmanship.” Journal

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List