Transatlantic is excited to announce the upcoming release of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW (HarperCollins Canada; Touchstone US; Titan Books UK), the powerful debut thriller by Giller Prize-nominated author Elisabeth de Mariaffi. For rookie reporter Evie Jones, a murderer’s arrest rings too close to home, bringing haunting memories of her childhood best friend’s unsolved murder – and a stalker – right to her doorstep.
Elisabeth de Mariaffi’s debut short story collection, HOW TO GET ALONG WITH WOMEN, was longlisted for the 2013 Giller Prize. Elisabeth is currently based in St. John’s, where she lives with the poet George Murray and their combined brood of four children — making them Can Lit’s answer to the Brady Brunch.
Advance praise for THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
“Evie is a tough, wisecracking narrator worthy of the greatest private-eye pulp novels. With so many thrillers cheaply exploiting violence against girls and women, de Mariaffi’s treatment of the topic, through Evie’s vulnerable yet empowered voice, is refreshingly reverent.”
–Starred Kirkus Review
“Set in and around Toronto in 1993, Canadian author de Mariaffi’s artful first novel chronicles the efforts of journalist Evie Jones to track down the man who murdered a friend of hers, 11-year-old Lianne Gagnon, in 1982. Robert Nelson Cameron was identified as a suspect but never caught. Jones researches the killer through old newspaper articles using the nascent Internet, aided by her cautiously flirtatious friend, David Patton. Since Lianne’s death, Evie has suffered from some form of post-traumatic stress; the man she often sees at her apartment window could be real or the product of an overheated imagination. When Evie points out to her mother, Annie, that women read more true crime than men, Annie replies the reason is not entertainment but survival: “It’s so we learn how to get away.” Hooked readers will silently implore Evie to refrain from entering a basement or a cabin in the woods in pursuit of a story—and a killer.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
“The Devil You Know explores the tangled emotional and ideological roots of violence against women with subtlety and humour. More impressively, it does so while delivering the suspense and narrative pace of a good thriller.”
–Quill & Quire
“The chiseled prose that characterized de Mariaffi’s Giller-longlisted short story collection How To Get Along With Women is on full display… Mariaffi also nails the callous dehumanization and gallows humor that is a constant of media workplaces.”
–The National Post
“The Devil You Know proves there can be enthralling literature about rape and murder that doesn’t exploit or disrespect real-life anguish. The author has been incredibly thoughtful not only about what sexualized violence does to victims, families and communities, but the kind of broader climate it breeds for all women, how it makes their interactions rife with suspicion, their day-to-day near intolerable.”
–The Globe & Mail