Gaslight

Life inside a cult, and the uncertainty after escape, are chillingly chronicled in Shepard’s latest psychological suspense. At first, high schooler Danny is scornful of Infinite Spiritual Being, or ISB, the self-help group that her friends are so enamored of. But its narcissistic leader, Ben, knows just the right ways to manipulate a lonely teen into joining his band of acolytes. The young women, and some men, who are gaslit by Ben into eating very little—so as to gain more control over themselves—are over time convinced to leave their families and join Ben in a rural Oregon compound. Accounts of that life alternate with looks at the current day, nine years later, when Danny shows up at her ISB friend Rebecca’s house unannounced. Rebecca’s now living with her husband, Tom, and children in much more pleasant circumstances and is stricken to see Danny, as Tom knows nothing of her old life. Danny’s appearance puts Rebecca and her family in terrible danger, and as readers move back and forth in time, and secrets and terrible abuse, including of pregnant women, are revealed, the story ramps up to a tense-as-can-be ending. The legions of fans of Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars will read anything by her and will be well rewarded here; those new to the author will also race through this riveting tale.