Concrete Angel, Patti Abbott

I received an email yesterday announcing that Patti Abbott's debut novel is to be published by Exhibit A (an imprint of Angry Robot Books), the blurb for which is below.  Wonderful, I thought, Patti's a brilliant writer - as anyone who reads her short stories knows.  Then I read the last line of the blurb - 'will be with you in Winter 2015'.  Oh man, that sounds like a hell of a long wait.  Talk about a teaser email.  Can't it be winter 2014?  That seems reasonable.  Doesn't it, you good folk at Exhibit A?  Anyway, if you've not read any of Patti's work and can't wait that long, you could try her novella through interlinked stories that I reviewed just before Christmas, Home Invasion.
   
Concrete Angel

Eve Moran has always wanted “things” and has proven both inventive and tenacious in both getting and keeping them – she lies, steals, cheats and swindles, paying little heed to the cost of her actions on those who love her.

When Eve kills a man she picks up in a shoe repair shop, she persuades her twelve year-old daughter, Christine, to confess to the crime. The girl, compelled by love, dependency and circumstance, is caught up in her mother’s deceptions and find herself drawn to her new role. It’s only when Christine’s three year-old brother, Ryan, is drawn into her mother’s deceptions, that she finds the courage and means to bring an end to Eve’s tyranny.

Set in 1970s Philadelphia and packaged to match, Concrete Angel pits a vindictive and manipulative mother against a daughter with just enough of her mother’s immorality to fight back.

With extraordinary vivid central characters, Concrete Angel is a powerful psychological mystery about a woman who always gets what she wants...this remarkable debut novel will be with you in Winter 2015.