How Can I Help You

From the author of Looker comes this “compulsive & unforgettable novel” (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined. No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues & patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, & charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, & the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate & failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, & watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming. Taut & compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature & the dangerous pull of artistic obsession as these “transfixing dual female narrators” (Kimberly McCreight) hurtle toward a stunning climax.°°° Laura Sims is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Looker, now in development for television with eOne & Emily Mortimer’s King Bee Productions. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays & poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Conjunctions, Electric Lit, Gulf Coast, & more. She & her family live in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a reference librarian & hosts the library’s lecture series. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEARThe New York Times Book Review • Publishers Weekly • CrimeReads • Book RiotA LibraryReads PickThe lives of two librarians become dangerously intertwined in this razor-sharp exploration of human nature and the lure of artistic obsession.No one knows Margo's real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo's subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo's mysterious past, Patricia can't resist digging deeper—even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.Chilling, incisive, and darkly humorous, How Can I Help You is a propulsive work of psychological suspense that asks how far we might go to justify our most monstrous desires. A razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined. No one knows Margos real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margos subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patrons death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margos mysterious past, Patricia cant resist digging deepereven as this new fixation becomes all-consuming. Taut and compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature and the dangerous pull of artistic obsession. From the author of Looker comes this “compulsive and unforgettable novel” (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined. No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming. Taut and...M.F "No one knows Margo's real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo's subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron's death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo's mysterious past, Patricia can't resist digging deeper--even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming"-- Provided by publisher