A Girl Scout's Diary To Psychotic Murder

Be prepared. Be polite. Be helpful. And whatever you do, don't make a scene.

Evelyn Mercer has spent forty-two years being good.

She built the sensible career. Remembered the birthdays. Volunteered. Led her Girl Scout troop. Helped everyone who needed helping. Apologized when she wasn't sorry. And became exceptionally skilled at making other people comfortable.

Then her fiancé leaves her for a younger woman.

Suddenly, Evie begins questioning every rule she has spent her life following-and discovers that saying no can be surprisingly addictive.

But when Evie becomes involved in protecting a friend from a controlling former husband and a confrontation ends in death, something unexpected happens. Instead of seeing Evie as an ordinary woman caught in a terrible accident, strangers begin turning her into something else.

A symbol.

Soon anonymous messages arrive. Other women have stories. Other men have names. And somewhere online, a disturbing philosophy inspired by Evie is spreading: The Mercer Rule.

As anger becomes influence and influence becomes power, Evie must decide where protection ends and revenge begins-and whether finally refusing to be the woman everyone expects could turn her into someone she never intended to become.

Darkly funny, psychologically sharp and increasingly unsettling, A Girl Scout's Diary To Psychotic Murder: And Other Useful Skills is a thriller about the impossible standards placed on women, the seductive certainty of righteous anger, and the difference between being a good woman and being a good person.

Because sometimes the most important survival skill isn't learning how to fight back.

It's learning when to say no.