The Last Housewife

Winstead’s latest suspense (after In My Dreams I Hold a Knife) is a story that needs to be told—about misogyny, sexual violence, and human trafficking, and how innocent trust can lead to abusive seduction. Shay Deroy leads a life of ease as a posh housewife in a Texas suburb. But her comfortable existence is jolted when she listens to a true-crime podcast hosted by her childhood friend Jamie. He’s investigating the death of Laurel, one of Shay’s college roommates, and Shay must help him. The police declare it a suicide, but Jamie and Shay have doubts. Laurel’s death is eerily similar to the hanging suicide of their other roommate, Clem, during senior year. Jamie doesn’t know about the friends’ dark history with the father of their fourth roommate, Rachel. He’d lured them with attention and adoration, and soon they blindly obeyed. Shay and Jamie follow Laurel’s trail into the dark world of sex clubs and abusive manipulation as Shay struggles against being brainwashed into submission again.