Peter Lovesey
Spider Girl

Spider Girl

It’s the early 1980s and 23-year-old Sarah Jordan, a PhD student at an American university, is studying spiders…

Sarah finds her studies so absorbing, that much of campus life seems to pass her by. She barely registers her research assistant’s interest in her, even though Don is the college Lothario and pursued by many female students. Even Sarah’s relationships with family and friends are perfunctory and distant, but that, it seems, is how she prefers to live.

When Sarah is filmed for a TV documentary about spiders, she meets a psychologist involved in the show, and the pair strike up a friendship. As they spend more and more time together, Sarah realises that she wants more than friendship from Dr Cunningham and he gradually discovers just why Sarah is the way she is.

Meanwhile, dubbed ‘Spider Girl’ by the media for her involvement in a ground-breaking show about those arachnids, Sarah is drawn further and further into the world of show business. Yet as Spider Girl becomes more and more famous, she can’t help feeling that Sarah is slowly fading away.

For Sarah, Spider Girl is a refuge and a way to feel better about herself. But what are the implications of Spider Girl for the people around her? When a man is found dead in the college gymnasium, people begin to wonder… For Don, what begins as a mission to love and save Sarah turns into a living nightmare.

Will he be able to save Spider Girl from herself? And if he does not, where will she strike next?

Spider Girl is an intense thriller filled with dark mystery and suspense.

Author: Peter Lovesey
Published: 1980
Page Count:

This page may include affiliate links.

Recommend

Purchase on:

Amazon

Highly Recommended Books by Peter Lovesey Book Club Friends

Safe Before Dawn
Murder in Vegas: New Crime Tales of Gambling and Desperation
A Pattern of Lies
Death of a Prankster
Open Season
When the Bough Breaks
The Traitor Among Us
The Son: A Novel
A Christmas Grace: A Novel
Livid
Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Deadly Election
Sacred Clowns: A Leaphorn and Chee Novel
Any Other Name: A Longmire Mystery
An Extravagant Death
Agatha Raisin and Tthe Haunted House
Sick of Shadows
The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse: A Flavia de Luce Story
Blindsighted
Denial
Our Lady of Pain: An Edwardian Murder Mystery
Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer
Bloody Kin
The Burnt House
Unfinished Business
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Hasty Death
Savage Run
An Impartial Witness
Growth Marks
Death in Daylesford
The Last Remains
The Heist
Death by Water
1989: An Allie Burns Novel
Wicked Charms
Empress of the Seven Hills
A Birthday Lunch
The Dark Wives
Resistance
M is for Malice
The Charming Quirks of Others
The Hidden City
A Song of Comfortable Chairs
Bad Love
Above the Bay of Angels
A River in the Sky
Overkill
Insidious Intent
Bruno's Challenge and Other Stories of the French Countryside
The Outcast Dead
Salem Falls
Playing for the Ashes
The Lake House: A Novel
A Question of Honor
Death Du Jour
Gravity
Let it Bleed
Death of a Gossip
I Know a Secret: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
The Night House
A Christmas Gathering
Outlaw Mountain
Murder on a Midsummer Night
Fox Creek
This Is Why We Lied: A Will Trent Thriller
See Delphi and Die
The Snake
A Share in Death
At Risk
Pros and Cons: A Short Story
Seven Up
Evidence: An Alex Delaware Novel
The Dark Hours
Guilt: An Alex Delaware Novel
A Fatal Thaw
The Wire in the Blood
Death and Judgment
Ashworth Hall
A Good Hanging
Troubled Blood
The Man with No Face
Something Borrowed
Indelible: A Grant County Thriller
The Children Return
The Defector
Dressed for Death
A Banquet of Consequences
Big Sky
Wild Crimes
Indemnity Only
The Deeds of the Disturber
The Walkers of Dembley
The Lost Art of Gratitude
Endangered
The Web: An Alex Delaware Novel
Private Eyes
Borrower of the Night: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense
The Order
Killing the Shadows
A Game Called Malice: A Rebus Play
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Plum Spooky
Storm Front
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
Plain Truth
The Investigator
Vermilion Drift
Payment in Blood
The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023
In Like Flynn
Midnight Escape
Surfacing
Bitter Medicine: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
Here I Stay
Web of Evil
Full Scoop
Stand Down
Play with Fire
Judgment Prey
In Plain Sight
The Lighthouse
Murphy's Law
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales
A Fearsome Doubt
Smoke and Mirrors
Windy City Blues: V. I. Warshawski Stories
Oystercatcher
A Christmas Message: A Novel
A Bitter Feast
The Murderer's Daughter
The Narrows
Pushing Up Daisies
Book of the Dead
The Secret of Spandau
The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
Acceptable Loss: A William Monk Novel
A Chateau Under Siege
Midnight at Marble Arch
1999: An Allie Burns Novel
Night Moves: An Alex Delaware Novel
Fatal Pursuit
Whistleblower
Death of an Expert Witness
Acqua Alta
The Summons
Tombland
A Silent Death
The Black Echo
Stolen Prey
Left for Dead
Winterkill
The Gods of Guilt
Devil's Delight: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
Mary Higgins Clark and Elizabeth Peters Present More Malice Domestic
The Memory Game
Pentecost Alley
The Thirteenth Rose
Less Than a Treason
Southampton Row
The Perfect Murder
Cruel Intent
The Lost Bird
L is for Lawless
Original Sin
End of the Pier
Kopp Sisters on the March
Too Good to Be True
Double Homicide
A Hidden Secret: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
The Silent Cry: A William Monk Novel
Death in a Darkening Mist
A Christmas Vanishing: A Novel
Criminal: A Novel
An Accidental Death: A DC Smith Investigation
Lamentation
Mary's Christmas
An East End Murder: A Charles Lennox Short Story
Necessary as Blood
The Grove of the Caesars
The Maharani's Pearls: A Bess Crawford Story
Hallowed Ground: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
Deja Dead
Moriarty
A Place of Execution
Another Kind of Eden
A Superior Death
In Dark Company: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
Nemesis: A Harry Hole Novel
Devil's Claw
Death with a Double Edge
Alexandria
To Die but Once
The Secrets of the Bastide Blanche
Precious and Grace
This Tender Land
The Collected Short Stories and Essays
Final Account: An Inspector Banks Novel
One Virgin Too Many
Tooth and Nail
Kiss of the Bees
Winter in Madrid: A Novel
Storm Prey
To Dwell in Darkness
A Bird in the Hand
In the Moon of Red Ponies
The Silent Girl
The Conditions of Unconditional Love
In This Bright Future: A DC Smith Investigation
No Shred of Evidence
A Christmas Odyssey
The Ides of April
Though Not Dead
Rough Cider
Boundary Waters
Queen of the Flowers
In League with Sherlock Holmes
Heaven's Prisoners
One Fatal Flaw
The Grey Beginning
The Jealous Kind
Send Bygraves
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
Tamarack County
Phantom: A Harry Hole Novel
Meet and Greet
Death of a Cad
The Recovery Agent
Last Act in Palmyra
A Cool Head
The King Arthur Case: A Brittany Mystery
The Granite Coast Murders: A Brittany Mystery
Traitors Gate
The Geometry of Holding Hands
Love
The Dark Wind
Close to Death
The Levee
The Leopard
One Of Us Is Dead
Heartstone
An Unmarked Grave
The Legacy
The Pretty Little Box
The Lincoln Lawyer
Moonflower Murders
Well-Schooled in Murder
Murder on the Ballarat Train
Gone Missing
Another Girl: A Kings Lake Investigation
Rather be the Devil
The Executor: A Thriller
The Thursday Murder Club
A Darker Place
A Letter of Mary
Tell Me
What Child Is This
Biting the Moon
Bittersweet Oblivion
Earthly Delights
Flesh and Blood
Rutland Place
Watchman: A Novel
An Irish Hostage
The Torment of Others
The Last Good Day
Raisins and Almonds
H is for Homicide
The Long Call
The Fly on the Wall
Christmas at Patchin Place: Two Molly Murphy Mysteries
Not Dark Yet
Willful Behavior
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood
After That Night: A Will Trent Thriller
The Ghost Fields
Hot Six
Thin Air
Mrs. Pollifax Pursued
The Girl of His Dreams
Half Moon Bay: A Novel
Execution Dock: A William Monk Novel
A Dangerous Place
The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery
B is for Burglar
Set in Darkness
Shadows in Bronze
The Hanging Valley
Shoulder the Sky: A Novel
Miss Pym Disposes
Manitou Canyon
A Christmas Revelation: A Novel
Girl Waits with Gun
All the Colors of Darkness
Three-Day Town
O Jerusalem
The Sinister Pig
Taking the Fifth
Not Dead Enough
Triple Jeopardy