#25 in Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers!
Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by LIT HUB and PLAYBOY, and featured in the NEW YORK POST'S ‘31 Page-Turning New Thrillers to Read.’
Co-Writer of the films CAUSEWAY and EILEEN
Recipient of the prestigious Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and Joan Scott Memorial Fiction Award
"Marked by deliberate instability, the ambitious satirical novel Kill Dick skewers contemporary literary seriousness even as it participates in it."—Foreword
"A wild plan to disrupt a big Hollywood awards show, a scheme to assassinate a medical business mogul who has made money off pain and addiction, and the ever-widening gap between the ultra wealthy and the destitute."—Molly Lambert, Los Angeles TimesReviews
A fever dream, Kill Dick is a literary thriller that plunges into the chaos of Los Angeles, where addiction, privilege, and corruption combust.
At nineteen, Susie Vogelman should be coasting: she’s an NYU dropout with no responsibilities, endless prescription pills, and a Brentwood estate to waste away in. But Los Angeles has other plans. A string of brutal murders targeting addicts spreads through the city, and Susie’s ivory tower begins to crumble. The headlines point too close to home: her father’s ties to an opioid empire, a sinister secret society, and her own complicity in the systems holding it all together.
Then there’s Peter Holiday, a disgraced professor running a rehab scam so audacious it’s almost admirable. When their lives collide, Susie and Peter are dragged into a web of privilege, corruption, and violence, where every escape leads deeper into the rot.
Dark, satirical, and razor-sharp, Kill Dick is a modern literary thriller that unflinchingly dissects wealth, exploitation, and the perilous line between survival and self-destruction.
Genre: Mystery
Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by LIT HUB and PLAYBOY, and featured in the NEW YORK POST'S ‘31 Page-Turning New Thrillers to Read.’
Co-Writer of the films CAUSEWAY and EILEEN
Recipient of the prestigious Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and Joan Scott Memorial Fiction Award
"Marked by deliberate instability, the ambitious satirical novel Kill Dick skewers contemporary literary seriousness even as it participates in it."—Foreword
"A wild plan to disrupt a big Hollywood awards show, a scheme to assassinate a medical business mogul who has made money off pain and addiction, and the ever-widening gap between the ultra wealthy and the destitute."—Molly Lambert, Los Angeles TimesReviews
A fever dream, Kill Dick is a literary thriller that plunges into the chaos of Los Angeles, where addiction, privilege, and corruption combust.
At nineteen, Susie Vogelman should be coasting: she’s an NYU dropout with no responsibilities, endless prescription pills, and a Brentwood estate to waste away in. But Los Angeles has other plans. A string of brutal murders targeting addicts spreads through the city, and Susie’s ivory tower begins to crumble. The headlines point too close to home: her father’s ties to an opioid empire, a sinister secret society, and her own complicity in the systems holding it all together.
Then there’s Peter Holiday, a disgraced professor running a rehab scam so audacious it’s almost admirable. When their lives collide, Susie and Peter are dragged into a web of privilege, corruption, and violence, where every escape leads deeper into the rot.
Dark, satirical, and razor-sharp, Kill Dick is a modern literary thriller that unflinchingly dissects wealth, exploitation, and the perilous line between survival and self-destruction.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Kill Dick is a fever dream. Luke Goebel perfectly captures the consciousness of a certain kind of woman--raw, lonely, desperate, and cinematic. Full of grief and longing, it's got some of the most unforgettable sentences I've ever read. This book makes me want to write a crime novel, move to LA, or maybe just become a killer. Goebel is something else." - Harriet Armstrong
"For lovers of Bret Easton Ellis, Luke Goebel's KILL DICK renders a pop-infused and murderous portrait of an iconic Los Angeles on fire complete with pools, pills, ennui, murders, and a cacophony of brands. But this novel has a timely pulse, and Goebel--with his gorgeous sentences and imagistic prowess--pulls off one of the hardest tricks of all: making morality fun." - Melissa Broder
"Luke Goebel's delirious debut novel festers in the sun-sick, dissociative Southern California of Joan Didion and Bret Easton Ellis. In Kill Dick, Los Angeles is hell, and Susie Vogelman is its most reluctant angel: vacant, brilliant, heartbreaking." - Anna Dorn
"If this book were any better I'd cut my own head off." - Ottessa Moshfegh
"Stunning . . . Part noir thriller, part searing social commentary, Kill Dick follows a young artist-turned-addict through the dark, unforgiving, and stratified streets of Los Angeles, as she confronts her father's complicity in the opioid epidemic. In bleak, beautiful prose, Luke Goebel weaves together a narrative that exposes the savage heart of privilege and power, raising questions about truth, memory, and the nature of storytelling itself. With haunting descriptions of a city literally and metaphorically aflame, Kill Dick captures the burning zeitgeist of our time." - Kimberly King Parsons
"For lovers of Bret Easton Ellis, Luke Goebel's KILL DICK renders a pop-infused and murderous portrait of an iconic Los Angeles on fire complete with pools, pills, ennui, murders, and a cacophony of brands. But this novel has a timely pulse, and Goebel--with his gorgeous sentences and imagistic prowess--pulls off one of the hardest tricks of all: making morality fun." - Melissa Broder
"Luke Goebel's delirious debut novel festers in the sun-sick, dissociative Southern California of Joan Didion and Bret Easton Ellis. In Kill Dick, Los Angeles is hell, and Susie Vogelman is its most reluctant angel: vacant, brilliant, heartbreaking." - Anna Dorn
"If this book were any better I'd cut my own head off." - Ottessa Moshfegh
"Stunning . . . Part noir thriller, part searing social commentary, Kill Dick follows a young artist-turned-addict through the dark, unforgiving, and stratified streets of Los Angeles, as she confronts her father's complicity in the opioid epidemic. In bleak, beautiful prose, Luke Goebel weaves together a narrative that exposes the savage heart of privilege and power, raising questions about truth, memory, and the nature of storytelling itself. With haunting descriptions of a city literally and metaphorically aflame, Kill Dick captures the burning zeitgeist of our time." - Kimberly King Parsons
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