Paper Cut : The gripping thriller about cults and true crime

Author: Rachel Taff

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 5 February 2026 by Atlantic Books (Corvus) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 304 pages
240 x 162 x 29 | 504g

A STYLE MUST-READ BOOK FOR 2026 – the intoxicating thriller about cults, true crime and toxic mothers’Darkly addictive’ Katy Hays’Fiction with a true-crime edge’ Janice Hallett’Will capture capture your attention until the very end’ Monika Kim’A twisty, coming-of-age thriller’ Charmaine Wilkerson’Stands shoulder to shoulder with the best cult thrillers’ Ashley WinsteadEVERYBODY KNOWS THE STORY. NOBODY KNOWS THE TRUTH…

Lucy Golden is a true-crime icon, infamous for killing someone as a teenager while escaping a California cult.

Twenty years later, still coasting on the success of the memoir she wrote after her acquittal, Lucy knows that her story is always just one news cycle away from obscurity, even as online trolls ask questions that threaten to tear her life apart.

So when a hot-shot documentary filmmaker decides to make her case his next subject, Lucy sees a chance to silence her doubters once and for all.

But just how far will Lucy go to protect the story she’s been telling – and selling – all along?Readers are loving Paper Cut’WOW! What a stunning debut!”I’d watch the hell out of the Netflix adaptation”Psychological suspense, cult horror, and celebrity noir”Twisted, fast-paced and totally engrossing”I read this in one sitting’