It's the early 1980s and 23-year-old Sarah Jordan, a PhD student at an American university, is studying spiders…
Sarah finds her studies so absorbing, that much of campus life seems to pass her by.
She barely registers her research assistant’s interest in her, even though Don is the college Lothario and pursued by many female students.
Even Sarah’s relationships with family and friends are perfunctory and distant, but that, it seems, is how she prefers to live.
When Sarah is filmed for a TV documentary about spiders, she meets a psychologist involved in the show, and the pair strike up a friendship.
As they spend more and more time together, Sarah realises that she wants more than friendship from Dr Cunningham and he gradually discovers just why Sarah is the way she is.
Meanwhile, dubbed ‘Spider Girl’ by the media for her involvement in a ground-breaking show about those arachnids, Sarah is drawn further and further into the world of show business.
Yet as Spider Girl becomes more and more famous, she can’t help feeling that Sarah is slowly fading away.
For Sarah, Spider Girl is a refuge and a way to feel better about herself. But what are the implications of Spider Girl for the people around her?
When a man is found dead in the college gymnasium, people begin to wonder…
For Don, what begins as a mission to love and save Sarah turns into a living nightmare.
Will he be able to save Spider Girl from herself?
And if he does not, where will she strike next?
Spider Girl is an intense thriller filled with dark mystery and suspense.
Praise for Peter Lovesey
‘Everything a fan of classic detection could want’ - Booklist
‘Surpassing ingenuity’ - Kirkus reviews
‘Superb ‘ – Publishers Weekly
Peter Lovesey was born in 1936, in Middlesex. Author of numerous crime novels, began his career in crime writing rather early, with the writing of an essay. Educated at a Grammar school, followed by Reading University, Lovesey joined the National Service. Author of novels and short stories, he has won numerous awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger award. Other novels include Wobble to Death (1970; part of the Sergeant Cribb series), The Last Detective (1991; part of the Peter Diamond series), and Spidergirl (1980; written under the pen name, Peter Lear).