Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark
Bread for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone and The Crocodile by Maurizio de Giovanni,
translated by Antony Shugaar

As Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers poured out the unpleasant details of her poor-little-rich-girl upbringing in hopes of getting a lighter sentence for abetting Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, it’s interesting to consider, for perspective, the women in Jennifer Hillier’s Things We Do in the Dark and Julie Clark’s The Lies I Tell. Their childhoods were far worse: Joelle Reyes suffered horrific physical abuse by her mother, and Meg Williams ended up living out of her car.

They’ve broken the law, too, but only to survive; a judge would have to be made of stone not to take pity on them. At least Maxwell grew up in mansions and had a yacht named after her, which certainly doesn’t excuse her bad daddy but must have helped ease the pain just a bit.