A Small Affair

Collins follows up her white-knuckle debut Nanny Dearest with a modern-day cautionary tale of online dating. Vera MacDonald is an ambitious and independent entrepreneur in New York City who owns her beauty and sexuality confidently. But when a brief affair with a man she meets on an exclusive dating app ends in his suicide and the murder of his pregnant wife, Vera’s carefully constructed world collapses around her. A year later, she attends a memorial service for the man’s wife, which introduces her to the woman’s family and friends. In a redemptive quest to clear her name, Vera unlocks the shocking truths behind her “small affair” and the powerful clique of tech millionaires who need to keep some very dirty secrets. Collins gets under the skin of her characters like no other psychological thriller writer today, seamlessly inhabiting several different viewpoints at once. The result is an addictive reading experience that frays at readers’ nerves while delivering an ironic take on the world of social media influence and its one-dimensional, shallow depictions of image, power, and seduction.