âFierce, fun, wild, and enraging.â âChris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark
âA real joy to read . . . Killer Potential earns Deitch a spot on the ânew novelists to watchâ list.â â Associated Press
An electric debut novel following two young women after they flee a bloody murder scene in the Hollywood Hills and quickly become a runaway media sensation
Destined for greatness, wanted for murder. . .
A scholarship kid with straight As and big dreams, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that sheâd be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as an SAT tutor for the super-rich of Los Angeles.
Everything changes one Sunday, when she arrives for her weekly lesson at the Victorsâ Beverly Hills estate and, in lieu of a bored teenager, finds the bloody remains of the parents strewn through their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help within a closet. As Evie works to free her, the two are spottedâand within moments, they go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives.
Suddenly at the heart of a manhunt and accompanied by a mysterious woman who refuses to speak, Evie knows the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. But first sheâll have to break down the barriers of her companion, who is quickly becoming the most important person in Evieâs upside-down life. Their breathless spree takes them across the U.S. as developments in the case shock the nation and the press runs wild with Evieâs story: a gifted kid turned killer. She's now on the cover of every magazine and newspaperâanointed the new Charles Manson, a bloodthirsty ninety-nine percenter looking to start a class war. Evie is finally someone.
By turns cuttingly hilarious and deeply insightful, Killer Potential is a strikingly original debut. A literary novel with the page-turning intensity of a thriller that asks timely questions about our belief in the romance of social mobility, and how the stories weâre sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives.