AN INDIE NEXT PICK • A Goodreads Most Anticipated Mystery & Thriller Pick of the Summer • A Crime Reads Pick for Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer 2026
"Prepare to meet your next summer binge read." —May Cobb, bestselling author of The Hunting Wives
From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.
What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?
Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.
But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build—including the justice she wants for Georgia—will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.
Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood—an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.
Genre: Mystery
"Prepare to meet your next summer binge read." —May Cobb, bestselling author of The Hunting Wives
From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.
What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?
Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.
But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build—including the justice she wants for Georgia—will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.
Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood—an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Damn, this book is good." - Julie Clark
"Prepare to meet your next summer binge read: Ashley Winstead's Hot Girl Murder Club is literally one of the most addictive, juiciest thrillers I've ever read! I couldn't get enough of Winstead's evocative backdrop of glittering yet menacing Hollywood and her sharply-drawn, unforgettable protagonist Scout with her collection of stiletto-clad hot girls consumed with ambition. NOBODY does explosive female relationships and power dynamics quite like Winstead and I'm calling it now: Hot Girl Murder Club will be the book of summer!" - May Cobb
"Hot Girl Murder Club features Ashley Winstead at her absolute finest, firing on all her signature thriller cylinders and wielding the pen like a proper Raymond Chandler in the time of the Kardashians. With her foot firmly on the gas from beginning to end, top down in Tinseltown, readers will be left gasping at the seemingly endless twists and turns, like a night ride down Mulholland after the afterparty. As glamorous as it is gritty, Winstead's latest is a white-hot barnburner of a novel so ferociously feminist, you'll finish the last page ready to light the match yourself!" - Rachel Koller Croft
"Edgy and tense, Hot Girl Murder Club takes on the dark side of fame and fortune. A twisty tale of sisterhood and murder where everyone has a motive and no one is safe. This is Ashley Winstead at her best!" - Ashley Elston
"Hot Girl Murder Club is the must-read thriller of the year. Ashley Winstead delivers a glittery, pulse-pounding, and at times, heartbreaking, story about sisterhood and justice and the price of revenge. Vengeance never looked so hot." - Alex Finlay
"Wild, brutal and incendiary, this book is a Molotov cocktail big enough to catch readers' hearts in its flames." - John Fram
"A dark exploration of girl power in glittering Hollywood from seeking justice at any cost to how violence can bring us to our knees. Equal parts page-turning thriller and fascinating character study with incredible investigative threads Ashley Winstead pulls so expertly that readers will not be able to put this book down or guess what happens next." - Vanessa Lillie
"This is the Ashley Winstead thriller you've been waiting for - dark, atmospheric, timely, and tense...An ode to the families we're born into - and the ones we build from the ashes, Hot Girl Murder Club is a pulse-pounding investigation into stardom, sisterhood, and the wildfire of female rage." - Lauren Nossett
"Ashley Winstead delivers another razor-smart, wildly entertaining thriller with Hot Girl Murder Club - a book that's as bold and biting as its title and as unputdownable as her best work. Winstead is a master of smart, compulsive suspense." - Jeneva Rose
"If scrolling through the news makes you want to throw your phone across the room, this book is the cathartic fantasy you've been waiting for. Hot Girl Murder Club looks, at first glance, like a straight-up revenge story - women finally getting delicious payback from the men who hurt them. But Ashley Winstead is doing something sharper here, using rage, wit, and jaw-dropping twists to capture the exhaustion of living in this moment. Blisteringly fun and bracingly astute, Hot Girl Murder Club is escapism with a bite." - Stephanie Wrobel
"Prepare to meet your next summer binge read: Ashley Winstead's Hot Girl Murder Club is literally one of the most addictive, juiciest thrillers I've ever read! I couldn't get enough of Winstead's evocative backdrop of glittering yet menacing Hollywood and her sharply-drawn, unforgettable protagonist Scout with her collection of stiletto-clad hot girls consumed with ambition. NOBODY does explosive female relationships and power dynamics quite like Winstead and I'm calling it now: Hot Girl Murder Club will be the book of summer!" - May Cobb
"Hot Girl Murder Club features Ashley Winstead at her absolute finest, firing on all her signature thriller cylinders and wielding the pen like a proper Raymond Chandler in the time of the Kardashians. With her foot firmly on the gas from beginning to end, top down in Tinseltown, readers will be left gasping at the seemingly endless twists and turns, like a night ride down Mulholland after the afterparty. As glamorous as it is gritty, Winstead's latest is a white-hot barnburner of a novel so ferociously feminist, you'll finish the last page ready to light the match yourself!" - Rachel Koller Croft
"Edgy and tense, Hot Girl Murder Club takes on the dark side of fame and fortune. A twisty tale of sisterhood and murder where everyone has a motive and no one is safe. This is Ashley Winstead at her best!" - Ashley Elston
"Hot Girl Murder Club is the must-read thriller of the year. Ashley Winstead delivers a glittery, pulse-pounding, and at times, heartbreaking, story about sisterhood and justice and the price of revenge. Vengeance never looked so hot." - Alex Finlay
"Wild, brutal and incendiary, this book is a Molotov cocktail big enough to catch readers' hearts in its flames." - John Fram
"A dark exploration of girl power in glittering Hollywood from seeking justice at any cost to how violence can bring us to our knees. Equal parts page-turning thriller and fascinating character study with incredible investigative threads Ashley Winstead pulls so expertly that readers will not be able to put this book down or guess what happens next." - Vanessa Lillie
"This is the Ashley Winstead thriller you've been waiting for - dark, atmospheric, timely, and tense...An ode to the families we're born into - and the ones we build from the ashes, Hot Girl Murder Club is a pulse-pounding investigation into stardom, sisterhood, and the wildfire of female rage." - Lauren Nossett
"Ashley Winstead delivers another razor-smart, wildly entertaining thriller with Hot Girl Murder Club - a book that's as bold and biting as its title and as unputdownable as her best work. Winstead is a master of smart, compulsive suspense." - Jeneva Rose
"If scrolling through the news makes you want to throw your phone across the room, this book is the cathartic fantasy you've been waiting for. Hot Girl Murder Club looks, at first glance, like a straight-up revenge story - women finally getting delicious payback from the men who hurt them. But Ashley Winstead is doing something sharper here, using rage, wit, and jaw-dropping twists to capture the exhaustion of living in this moment. Blisteringly fun and bracingly astute, Hot Girl Murder Club is escapism with a bite." - Stephanie Wrobel
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