Such Good Actors (A Novel)

From the bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant comes a captivating new novel of suspense and deception: When a tragic accident interrupts a buzzy film production in Paris, the movie’s stars—a golden couple who made their names in the cutthroat ballet world—fall under suspicion, not just with the police but with each other.

Nolan Adamovich knows life in the spotlight. The son of Dmytro Adamovich, a legendary dancer and Soviet defector, Nolan once ranked among the most promising ballet stars of his generation. After a catastrophic injury ended his career, Nolan was forced to remake himself as an actor—a transformation he took to with surprising ease. Now he’s accepted his most ambitious role yet: playing his own father, Dmytro, in a high-profile film about his dramatic, fraught escape to the West.

At Nolan’s side is Oona, his beautiful fiancée, who for years has provided his tempestuous life with stability and security. Oona’s performance in the movie has star-making potential, and since they arrived in Paris for several weeks of filming, the delicate balance in their relationship has subtly shifted. Nolan is pressing for commitment, but to Oona, it’s beginning to feel like they have very different ideas about their future. And Victor Costello, Nolan’s charismatic co-star, seems to want something else entirely from Oona. Before tensions can come to a head, an accident on set brings the filming to an abrupt halt.

By the time investigator Laura Étrillard begins asking questions—chief among them, how a real knife found its way into a staged scene—the production is rocked by a second tragedy, and Nolan and Oona are on a plane back to New York, out of French jurisdiction. In Laura’s eyes, neither is above suspicion. And in private, each begins to wonder what the other might be hiding, and how much of their shared life has been built on half-truths.

Such Good Actors is a taut, emotionally charged novel of shifting narratives, buried pasts, and volatile romance that blurs the line between performance and truth, from “one of the most daring, exciting new voices in psychological suspense.” (Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of It Could Have Been Her).