Jessica Knoll’s ‘Helpless’ may be summer’s steamiest thriller.

On this episode of Fully Booked, New York Times bestselling author Jessica Knoll joins us to discuss Helpless (Scribner, July 7), a novel that “puts the ‘erotic’ back in ‘erotic thriller,’” Kirkus writes in an admiring review.

Helpless is the follow-up to 2023’s Bright Young Women, a thriller inspired by the women whose lives were altered or ended by serial killer Ted Bundy, now in active development for a series by Made Up Stories, Picturestart, and Fifth Season. Knoll is also the author of The Favorite Sister(2018) and Luckiest Girl Alive(2015), now a Netflix starring Mila Kunis. Her books have been published in more than 40 languages. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

In Helpless, successful screenwriter Faye Heron returns to a remote college town in upstate New York to attend the funeral of the professor who helped her get to Hollywood. She knows she’ll run into some old friends, as well as an ex-boyfriend, with whom she has unfinished business. She has no idea who she’ll end up running from.

Here’s a bit more from our review of Helpless: “[Faye is] anxious to see PT’s nephews, Campbell and Henry, the former a good friend and the latter an ex-boyfriend who inspired one of her first writing credits for television. In sharing some of the intimate details of their relationship, she feels both vindicated in having spoken her truth and afraid that Henry might be angry. Because their relationship, in which Henry dominated a submissive Faye, was also an obsessive one: sexual, raw, and often violent. As she struggles to control and to understand her reawakened feelings for Henry, Faye discovers that PT’s death may not have been natural...”

Knoll and I take a deep dive into the essential elements of erotic thrillers. We talk about the shifting power dynamics between her characters, narrative twists and turns, and what Faye has in common with Ani from Luckiest Girl Alive. We discuss Dorothy Parker, poetry recitation, the magic of the Adirondacks, Knoll’s writing process, and much more.

At the end of our interview, Knoll recommends a classic novel she loves. Follow @kirkus_reviews on Instagram, DM us the title of that novel, along with your email and location, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to receive a $100 Visa gift card, courtesy of Kirkus. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the U.S. who have reached 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.

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Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.