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Book Summary and Reviews of The Outlier by Elisabeth Eaves

The Outlier by Elisabeth Eaves

The Outlier

by Elisabeth Eaves

  • Published:
  • Aug 2024, 344 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

An audaciously twisty psychological thriller in which finding the killer is only one of two mysteries its anti-heroine, Cate Winter, tries to unravel. The other: when pushed to extremes, what is she herself capable of?

Cate Winter, at 34, is a wildly successful neuroscientist and entrepreneur who has invented a cure for Alzheimer's that will improve the lives of millions. On the verge of selling her biotech company for an obscene sum, she is also about to become very rich.

But Cate has a secret that keeps her deeply uneasy about everything she is and does: she grew up at the Cleckley Institute, a treatment facility for the rehabilitation of psychopathic children. And, as far as she knows, she is the institute's only success: all of her peers have become thwarted, maladjusted or even criminal adults.

Then Cate discovers the existence of another ex-patient and outlier who might prove that her success isn't a fluke. He has not only stayed out of jail, but he's made a mark in business and science. Though his identity is confidential, she breaks the rules and drops everything to track him down. And when she finds him, living under an assumed name in Baja California, she is immediately obsessed. Like her, he is driven and brilliant, an innovator willing to do what it takes to perfect a new energy technology that will stop global warming. Here, at last, is her mirror, her ultimate collaborator, the possible answer to the enigma of her nature.

But in the wake of a mysterious death, Cate can't avoid suspecting him. If he is involved, do his ends justify his means? Ruthless herself, she's about to find out whether there are any moral lines she won't cross.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Eaves skillfully infuses complex ecological and moral issues into a plot that never forgets to thrill. Readers will be eager to see what Eaves does next." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An of-the-moment, character-rich psychological thriller with a Bond-worthy villain that builds to a stunning conclusion." —Linwood Barclay, #1 internationally bestselling author

"A propulsive thriller with a wonderfully complicated heroine. I devoured it." —Kelley Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of the Rockton series

This information about The Outlier was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Elisabeth Eaves

Elisabeth Eaves is a debut novelist and an award-winning travel writer and journalist who has cov­ered nuclear weapons, biological threats, and climate change for numerous publications including The New Yorker, Forbes,and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She is the author of two critically acclaimed nonfiction books: Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents, which the New York Times Book Review called "a heady, head­long chronicle of a decade and a half spent adrift" and de­clared a Notable Book; and Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping, which The Washington Post called "a first-rate, first-person work of social anthropology." Born and raised in Vancouver, Elisabeth lives with her husband in Seattle.

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