Michelle Richmond

The Marriage Pact hits the Sunday Times bestseller list

Last week, The Marriage Pact slid onto the Sunday Times bestseller list in the UK at number 10! We celebrated at home with a Twelfth Night Cake. I made the cake from a box (Duncan Hines devil’s food cake), my husband made his exceptionally good frosting out of nothing but heavy whipping cream and a hint of sugar, and we didn’t have a nut to put in the cake so we used a blueberry instead. We never found the blueberry–it was absorbed by the cake–so no one gets a prize or everyone gets a prize, we haven’t decided yet.

This week, it moved up to number 9! So we will celebrate with another cake, or maybe my husband’s famous chocolate chip cookies. (If we are super duper extra lucky and get a third week, I’m going to have to shift to celebrating with something that doesn’t involve brown sugar and butter).

Here’s a photo of The Marriage Pact along with the other fabulous Richard and Judy Book Club selections at Gatwick Airport in London. How long is your flight? Grab more than one!

The Marriage Pact is the new Richard & Judy Book Club Thriller

I’m over the moon that The Marriage Pact is one of 8 books selected for spring 2018 Richard and Judy Book Club. The biggest book club in the UK, Richard & Judy Book Club editions are sold at WH Smith stores and feature additional content for book clubs.

Richard says, “The Marriage Pact is at once a genuine love story and grim contemplation of the real nature of marriage: possession, jealousy, and control. It’s extreme but grippingly though-provoking.”

Judy says, “You know the kind of thing: make sure your spouse knows you love him by giving him a thoughtful gift from time to time; always answer the phone when he calls; make sure you go away together on frequent small romantic breaks. Sounds sensible – but be afraid. Be very afraid.”

If you’re in the UK, you can pick up the Richard and Judy Book Club edition at WH Smith or the airport. If you’re not in the UK, you can still read Richard & Judy feature content online:

Richard & Judy’s review of The Marriage Pact

WHSmith Book Club Questions

5 Companion Books (and one great film) to go with The Marriage Pact

I’m working my way through all of the selections, and I’ve yet to be disappointed! Here’s the complete Richard and Judy Book Club list for spring 2018:

Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell

The Thirst, by Jo Nesbo

How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig

The Child, by Fiona Barton

The Marriage Pact, by Michelle Richmond

The Heart’s Invisible Furies, by John Boyne

The Witch Finder’s Sister, by Beth Underdown

Close to Home, by Cara Hunter

The Manual

In The Marriage Pact, members of The Pact must follow a strict set of rules for marriage, outlined in The Manual. Here’s what that book might look like.

The Marriage Pact paperback cover reveal

I’m so happy to share the paperback cover of THE MARRIAGE PACT. The paperback will be released on April 10, 2018.

The Marriage Pact was reviewed earlier this month by Marisha Pessl for the New York Times. Pessl unpacks the changing nature of the modern literary thriller in Our Villains, Ourselves: A Modern Thriller Roundup.

In Michelle Richmond’s THE MARRIAGE PACT (Bantam, $27), a different kind of evil is in play, this one just as intangible and pernicious. Giddy and in love, two Bay Area newlyweds, Alice and Jake, receive a Molotov cocktail of a wedding present: an invitation to join “The Pact,” a hush-hush society-cum-cult, the details of which are pitched to them “Glengarry Glen Ross”-style by Vivian, a beautiful woman in a yellow dress with a politician’s pivot and spin.
The Pact is a “fellowship of like-minded individuals” dedicated to ensuring the survival of that exotic, captive animal known as your marriage. It was founded by an Irish woman named Orla who, sequestered on a remote island, wrote a step-by-step system for matrimony, one that is “highly effective, scientifically based.” Pact members will act unilaterally to keep you and your spouse together and happy, no matter what…It’s a fun, can’t-stop-eating-the-potato-chips kind of premise…”

I’d love to hear what you think of the new cover! You can hit the “contact” tab to send me a message, or leave a comment on my Facebook page.