El Dorado Drive

By: Megan Abbott

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Named A Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025 by Elle and Crime Reads • An NPR 2025 Book We Love • A Best Book of 2025 by Library Journal

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout comes a simmering, atmospheric novel of friendship and betrayal, following a women-led pyramid scheme in suburban Detroit.

"Abbott is a superstar of the suspense genre." —NPR

All I want is to be innocent again. But that's not how it works. Especially not after the Wheel.

The three Bishop sisters grew up in privilege in the moneyed suburbs of Detroit. But as the auto industry declined, so did their fortunes. Harper, the youngest, is barely making ends meet when her beloved, charismatic sister Pam—currently in the middle of a contentious battle with her ex-husband—and her eldest sister, Debra, approach her about joining an exciting new club.

The Wheel offers women like themselves—middle-aged and of declining means—a way to make their own money, independent of husbands or families. Quickly, however, the Wheel’s success, and their own addiction to it, leads to greater and greater risks—and a crime so shocking it threatens to bring everything down with it.

Megan Abbott turns her keen eye toward women and money in El Dorado Drive, a riveting story about power, vulnerability, and how desperation draws out our most destructive impulses.

Beach Read Material

I thought this was a fine re-working of the real-life murder of a Connecticut woman in 2010. Although this is wrapped up a bit more easily than the still-unsolved CT case, it does have a twist at the end, and features a lot of sister drama!

An Uneven Dead End

It started out ok, not great, but I thought it would pick up. Sadly, it did not. Therefore, I stopped torturing myself after muddling through about 2/3rds of the book.

The curse words double thumbs down

The story was interesting and it gave me a window to the life of women in the boomer generation but the f words were not needed.

Repetitive buildup

Plot pings among a series of predictable situations that don’t really go anywhere. If I was listening I would have skipped forward.

Compelling mystery, irritating reading

This mystery was interesting enough but a lot of the character and thematic development was repetitious. The reader’s voice really irritated me.