Killer Potential

By: Hannah Deitch

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Decisions were made: I made them. Violence was done: I did it. Crime scenes were fled: I fled them. People were hurt: I hurt them. Someone was loved: I loved them. Not everything I did was bad. Just most of it.

A scholarship kid with straight As and big dreams, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she'd 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 a weekly lesson at the Victors' Beverly Hills mansion to discover pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr. and Mrs. Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the family's estate.

Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives. Anointed the new Charles Manson by the press, a bloodthirsty ninety-nine percenter hoping to spark a class war, Evie is finally someone.

At the heart of a nationwide manhunt, Evie is desperate to clear her name. But first she'll have to break down the barriers of her new companion—who is inscrutable, surprisingly skilled at being on the run, and quickly becoming the most important person in Evie's upside-down life.

©2025 Hannah Deitch (P)2025 Orion Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

'Compelling, creepy and cool, Hannah Deitch has written a Thelma & Louise for our times' (Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN)

'Like encountering a strong electrical current: Killer Potential is bright, bracing, and surging with power. Deitch's writing style is fast-paced and undeniably bold. This is the kind of book that imprints itself on your brain; it's that wild of a ride. Killer Potential is one hell of a page turner and an honest to goddamn ton of twisted fun' (Kristen Arnett, author of MOSTLY DEAD THINGS)

'Thrilling, audacious, and laden with more booby traps than a survivalist's lair, Killer Potential heralds the arrival of a stunning new literary voice. A riotous, wholly singular debut' (Kirstin Chen, author of COUNTERFEIT)

'A hot, twisty fever dream you'll never want to wake up from . . . Killer Potential throbs with deliciously cunning characters and a fierce intensity that will keep you turning every page quicker than the last' (Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of THE OTHER BLACK GIRL)