Breakaway Books

Authored by Megan Abbott; Published June 2025; Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

I was not at all sold on El Dorado Drive for the first third of the novel—pyramid schemes have never been all that interesting to me, and they are at the heart of this novel. But the suspense and endless twists won me over in the end.

El Dorado Drive follows three sisters, Harper, Pam and Debra, in the aftermath of the collapse of the auto industry in Detroit. All three are struggling financially when they come across the Wheel, a “women’s club” and fairly transparent pyramid scheme that helps Pam, at least, begin to thrive. But when Pam is found murdered, the women in the Wheel scramble to keep it a secret even as suspicion is cast on Pam’s ex-husband, her daughter, and even the sisters themselves. With an entire community desperate for money, who knows who could have resorted to murder?

Reading this novel, the most baffling element to me was easily how many women were drawn into the Wheel. For all its talk of sisterhood and empowerment—and these are powerful concepts that seem like excellent draws—I just couldn’t see it manifested in the actual meetings of the club. But about halfway through the book, as the sisters began to reminisce more and more about their past in booming Detroit, it started to make more sense. The hope that the club presents is worth everything to these women who have little else to clutch on to to lift them out of their dire financial circumstances. I still think the discussion of the “sisterhood” in the novel is overblown, but the setting of post-collapse Detroit makes the story far more plausible.

And once I bought into the concept, the story is a wild ride. I had lots of guesses of who was behind Pam’s death and no idea which one was correct. The complicated dynamics among the three sisters made for a richer and more complicated backdrop as well, while seeming at times painfully true to life. Who hasn’t experienced the alternating joy and jealousy of closeness and exclusion in a group of three, especially three siblings? Even Pam’s cold treatment of her sister’s and her daughter’s lesbianism feels real—and sad—adding to the thorny family relationships that undergird the novel. As Harper sums up late in the book, Pam was both a sparkling, loving and generous person, and she was… not. Just like all of us.

El Dorado Drive is a good one to pick up for a suspenseful thriller—but maybe avoid it if you’re having a tense moment with your sisters.