Features

Meet the heroine of Krysten Ritter’s new thriller novel

In Bonfire, the gripping new suspense novel from Jessica Jones actress Krysten Ritter, a woman is forced to confront her past in the wake of small-town corruption...

Krysten Ritter

When we first meet Abby Williams, the fierce heroine of Krysten Ritter’s highly anticipated novel Bonfire, she is driving along a deserted Midwestern highway, returning to her rural hometown of Barrens, Indiana, regretting her homecoming with every passing mile.

Eager to escape the legacy of her troubled childhood, Abby has spent the past ten years distancing herself from her small-town upbringing as she worked her way through law school and as an associate at a Chicago environmental law firm. But soon she will find everything she has built at risk of collapse as she unearths new twists in a dark mystery from her childhood that has long plagued her - a scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends, which ended in Kaycee's disappearance.

As she grapples with both confronting the family and community she has ignored for so long, Abby begins to find strange connections between the town's most high-profile company, Optimal Plastics, and the events surrounding Kaycee's disappearance.

In her attempt to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories resurface and Abby begins to doubt her own observations. And then she unearths an even more disturbing secret that has been buried by Barrens —  a ritual called “The Game”, which will threaten the reputations and lives of the community.

With tantalizing twists and slow-burning suspense, Abby's story is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide in a remote, rural town spanning five claustrophobic miles.

Can't wait for Bonfire? Tweet us and tell us why using #BonfireBook

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more