When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.

But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control” emotions and “unsafe” behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.

Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo...

This book contains scenes that depict sexual assault and mentions of child abuse.

People lie. It is as immutable an element of the universe as death and taxes. But things can get interesting when the lies get big, unsettling our sense of people and places. Like Mother, Like Daughter knows this in its bones. This is a twist-and lies-filled thriller with a forceful pulse.

One night NYU student Cleo heads to her childhood home in Brooklyn for dinner with her mother. But when she arrives, her mother is nowhere to be found, and there is a chicken burning in the oven. She quickly surmises that something is amiss and that perhaps her mother, Kat, has been keeping some major secrets from her. Thus begins a hectic search for answers and her mother. It soon turn out that the seemingly perfect and staid Kat was not just a lawyer but actually a fixer. But it is now on her daughter to fix a complicated mess of her making.

Kimberly McCreight, who also wrote A Good Marriage, is a careful student of human mendacity. The way our lies can form perilous Jenga towers with fraught fallout. I could not tear through the pages of this novel fast enough. Each brought with it surprising new revelations and propulsive action. You won’t want to miss out! Read on.