THE MARRIAGE PACT

“A high-concept, fast-moving thriller…a gripping and intriguing read.” The Sunday Mirror

“The Marriage Pact is a smart, searing, frightening look at modern love.” Today.com

Read about the inspiration for The Marriage Pact.

Newlyweds Alice and Jake are a picture-perfect couple. Alice, once a singer in a well-known rock band, is now a successful lawyer. Jake is a partner in an up-and-coming psychology practice. After receiving an enticing wedding gift from one of Alice’s prominent clients, they decide to join an exclusive and mysterious group known only as The Pact.

The goal of The Pact seems simple: to keep marriages happy and intact. And most of its rules make sense. Always answer the phone when your spouse calls. Exchange thoughtful gifts monthly. Plan a trip together once per quarter. . . .

Never mention The Pact to anyone.

Alice and Jake are initially seduced by the glamorous parties, the sense of community, their widening social circle of like-minded couples. And then one of them breaks the rules.

The young lovers are about to discover that for adherents to The Pact, membership, like marriage, is for life. And The Pact will go to any lengths to enforce that rule. For Jake and Alice, the marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

Listen to the audiobook, winner of the Audiofile Earphones Award

“Riveting psychological suspense.” Lisa Gardner

“A tense, twisting, quirky novel of growing dread…” Dean Koontz

“First class suspense! You won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.” Paula Daly, author of The Mistake I Made

“A pace page-turner of a novel…grippingly thought provoking.” Richard & Judy Book Club, UK

“A standout summer read..Think Stephen King’s story ‘Quitters Inc.,’ but for marriage. Richmond expertly keeps the suspense at a can’t-stop-reading pace…” The Charlotte Observer

“This fast-paced nail-biter goes in unpredictable directions…It also raises thoughtful questions about individual agency and marital commitment. With strong writing, intriguing characters, and a compelling conceit, this psychological thriller seems destined for the top of summer reading lists. Recommended as a fresh voice for readers of Gillian Flynn or Ruth Ware.” Library Journal, starred review

“A high-concept, fast-moving thriller…a gripping and intriguing read.” The Sunday Mirror

“An original premise…gripping to the end.” The Sun

“Creepy and engrossing.” Booklist

“Thought-provoking, trippy, and tense.” The Parkersburg News & Sentinel

“Pacey, well-written, and refreshingly unique, this is a very smart thriller.” Isabelle Broom for Heat Magazine, UK

“The Marriage Pact is a quintessential page turner; there’s an incipient sense of dread from word one. Readers will surely succumb to temptation and plunge in.” Janet Webb for Criminal Element

“Michelle Richmond’s previous novels slip and slide across genre lines while providing a feast for those who are looking for something engrossing, challenging and thought-provoking in their reading material. THE MARRIAGE PACT doubles down on the promise of Richmond’s previous works in a tale that is by turns cautionary, parabolic and metaphoric.” Joe Hartlaub for Bookreporter

“A fast-paced, intelligent book…a genuine thriller.” Don Noble for Alabama Public Radio

“Michelle Richmond is, simply put, a great storyteller. And The Marriage Pact, without gimmick or tricks, is a twisting, suspenseful, keep-you-up-all-night thriller. But it’s more than, too. It’s a deep, insightful, nearly voyeuristic view into the modern marriage… A smart, engrossing, scary read!” Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The Red Hunter

“Known for her atmospheric, character-driven novels, Richmond tries her hand at the thriller genre. ‘Till death do us part takes on an entirely scary new meaning when newlyweds Jake and Alice join a cultish group whose shared mission is to uphold—at any cost—the sanctity of marriage.” Darcy Jacobs for Family Circle

“Truly chilling…It ranks with The Stepford Wives and Gone Girl as a terrifying look at what it really means to say ‘I do.'” Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Guilty Minds

“An absolutely riveting, spine-tingling and frightening read. A roller-coaster of a novel, an audacious mix of a high-concept thriller with gorgeous writing” – Karen Perry, bestselling author of Girl Unknown

“Every page of The Marriage Pact hummed with suspense. A daringly original novel about the best and worst of love.” Carla Buckley, author of The Deepest Secret

“Clever and original…as smart as it is scary.” Gin Phillips, bestselling author of Fierce Kingdom

“This sometimes disturbing, always thought-provoking, stunner of a novel will keep you reading far too late into the night.” Karen Dionne, author of The Marsh King’s Daughter

“A terrifying thriller that distills modern marriage down to its confusing core.” Nina Sadowsky, author of Just Fall

Purchase The Marriage Pact

A Sunday Times bestseller Winner of the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for the best crime novel published in Denmark. An INDIE NEXT pick, an Entertainment Weekly “Must List” pick, one of O! Magazine Book Editor’s Best Books of Summer, a Library Reads selection, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, BBC’s Best Beach Reads of 2017, Today.com’s Top Beach Reads, a Target featured pick, winner of the Audiofile Earhpones Award, sold in 30 languages. Film rights optioned to 20th Century Fox

“This summer, The Marriage Pact is set to become the book you won’t be able to put down…Set in Silicon Valley, in a world of privilege driven by exclusivity, The Marriage Pact is a break-neck thriller to match Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. In this insulated and therapy-obsessed community, Richmond pushes her characters, newlyweds at the peak of their careers, to the absolute extreme. You won’t believe the jaw-dropping conclusion.” Kepler’s, Menlo Park

“The world has gone wacko lately, and in the fictional world of The Marriage Pact a secret group forms that ostensibly seeks to protect the integrity of marriage. With guidelines to follow to keep the worst from happening, it isn’t long before newlyweds Alice and Jake find themselves in trouble. One of them breaks a rule and the consequences are, well, scary. A thriller like no other, this book may make you take a second look at your neighbors and ask yourself: how far you would go to keep your marriage intact?” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA

“The Marriage Pact is a tense, twisting, quirky novel of growing dread—and a love story with a richly imagined relationship between a wife and husband. Michelle Richmond looks with a gimlet eye at our therapy-obsessed culture and wonders if the experts who claim to have all the cures might themselves need therapy. Gripping, thought-provoking, and irresistible.”
–Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Corner

“Michelle Richmond is, simply put, a great storyteller. And The Marriage Pact, without gimmick or tricks, is a twisting, suspenseful, keep-you-up-all-night thriller. But it’s more than, too. It’s a deep, insightful, nearly voyeuristic view into the modern marriage—what brings us together, what keeps us together, what tears us apart. A smart, engrossing, scary read!”
—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The Red Hunter

“A brilliant premise for a novel of psychological suspense, tautly plotted and deftly written. The Marriage Pact shows in gripping detail just what could go wrong when we try too hard to protect the love we cherish most.”
–JP Delaney, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before

“Riveting psychological suspense! First you meet the lovely couple, then you agree a little marital support couldn’t hurt and then… Beware. This book will keep you all night, while making you second guess everything you know, and everyone you’ve ever loved.”

–Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of Find Her

“Michelle Richmond artistically constructs a shocking model of modern marriage.. a delicate, revealing work that provokes the problems of a modern society.” ~Moteris (Lithuania)