The Herd

January 20, 2020
Bartz (The Lost Night) crafts a smart, twisty thriller about a women’s co-working space and the mysterious disappearance of its charismatic founder. Freelance journalist Katie returns to New York after a year of unsuccessful book research in Michigan. Back in the city, she accepts an invitation from her adopted older sister, Hana, a publicist, into a high-powered social network of Harvard alums including waspy, elegant Eleanor, founder of the Herd, an exclusive workspace and club for women. While Katie waits for her Herd membership application to be processed, she pitches a biography/oral history of Eleanor and the Herd to her nagging agent, who needs something to show Katie’s editor. Just as Katie begins probing into the life and psyche of the notoriously private Eleanor, her subject disappears. As the search for Eleanor escalates, the tension of the narrative, which bounces back and forth between Katie and Hana, ratchets up with the threat of long-buried secrets being revealed. Though too many last-minute twists muddle an otherwise satisfying ending, Bartz is especially astute at highlighting the hypocrisy of glamorous careerist feminism. Readers won’t want to put this down.

January 15, 2020
The enigmatic founder of an exclusive female-only co-working space suddenly disappears, stirring up a maelstrom of secrets in Bartz's (The Lost Night, 2019, etc.) new thriller. The Herd, emphasis on "her," is the hottest, most sought-after co-working space in New York City--there's even a waiting list. Founder Eleanor Walsh prides herself on her exclusive yet inclusive safe space for "women and marginalized genders" and seems genuinely dedicated to nurturing and inspiring creativity and joy. She's hired her most trusted friends to keep the wheels turning, including publicist Hana Bradley, whom Eleanor has known since their Harvard days. Now Hana's sister, Katie, a journalist, has come to New York after a failed book deal and a yearlong stint caring for their sick mother. Katie would love to score a spot at the Herd with Hana's help, but Eleanor won't hear of Katie jumping the waitlist, and meanwhile someone has been defacing the Herd offices with misogynistic (to say the least) graffiti. While Eleanor and Hana juggle that crisis, Katie sells her agent on a book about Eleanor, but everything blows up when Eleanor disappears. It turns out that Eleanor is hiding a closetful of skeletons which soon come tumbling out. But, of course, Eleanor isn't the only one with secrets. Katie, who is white, and Hana, who is adopted and is described as having dark skin, have a fraught history, which is revealed via alternating narratives. This tension fractures them at a time when they need each other the most, adding a heavy dose of angst to the central mystery. Bartz whips up a fast pace and adequate suspense, though character development suffers a bit in the process. However, once the dominoes begin to fall in the twisty finale, readers will likely be turning pages too quickly to mind. A soapy and fun woman-centric thriller.

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March 1, 2020

Bartz's second novel (after The Lost Night) focuses on four friends: a pair of sister protagonists, Hanna and Katie; and Hanna's two best friends from their Harvard days, Eleanor and Mikki. Eleanor is the star of the group, having first started a cosmetics company and then the Herd, an all-female coworking space in New York City. Mikki is an artist who does graphic design for Eleanor as a freelancer, and Hanna is a part-time publicist for the firm. Katie, Hanna's little sister, is a journalist who has just moved back to the city. When Eleanor goes missing on the day of a mysterious big announcement, the friends grieve and support one another. Each character has secrets she is keeping from everyone else until the whole thing unravels and the truth comes out. Bartz packs in plenty of twists, with a deliberate pace that picks up speed at the end. VERDICT Surprises and suspense married with themes on the nature of womanhood and sisterhood make this ideal for fans of Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train or Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects. [See Prepub Alert, 8/25/19.]--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020
After nursing her mother through chemotherapy, Katie returns to her life in New York, hopeful that she can rebuild her journalism career without anyone discovering she's tanked the celebrated book deal she managed to snag during her Michigan exile. Despite building panic at the thought of facing her agent, she's thrilled to finally visit the Herd, the female-centered working community her friend Eleanor has built with the help of Katie's publicist sister, Hana, and their friend, Mikki, a talented artist. When Katie arrives, however, their reunion is dampened by crisis management: recent anti-Herd graffiti attacks threaten to distract the media from an upcoming Herd announcement. Sensing a juicy story, Katie pitches a secret insider expos� on Eleanor and the Herd to appease her agent. But when Eleanor's body is found on the Herd's roof, investigating the murder becomes Katie's only hope to make amends for her selfish deception. This fast-paced, irony-strewn blend of ruthless ambition, jealousy, and buried secrets is guaranteed armchair escapism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)