Now a Mass. Book Award "Must Read"!

"Provocative, moving, and suspenseful. Don't miss it."
―New York Times bestselling author of Last Girl Ghosted Lisa Unger

"In electric prose, Simon conjures the rock-and-roll world, its drink, drugs, and band-dynamics, and the twin seductresses of excess and success, as she makes a penetrating portrait of friendship."
– Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Globe

"Simon perceptively illustrates the sacrifices one makes for art. Simon’s tour of the Boston music scene will make readers wish “Hold Me Down” included a link to iTunes."
―Oline Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel

"A mystery that explores character motivations ... For fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Janet Evanovich."
―Library Journal

Boston Standard journalist Emily - Em - Kelton is desperate for a big story. As a new reporter Em covers the police beat, which has her responding to every crime that comes across the newsroom scanner. Despite the drudgery and the largely nocturnal hours, it's a beat that suits her - especially with her affinity for the low-level criminals she regularly interacts with and what she considers a healthy scepticism for the rules.

But she's sick of filing short news briefs about random street murders that barely merit a byline, and when she sets out to cover yet another shooting of a low-level dealer, she begins to wonder if these crimes are somehow connected.

With not much to go on but her instincts, Em sets out to uncover the truth behind these sordid crimes. But the more she investigates and uncovers a pattern, the more she digs herself into a hole from which she might not come out of alive . . .

Love, art, commerce, sex... who do you believe?

A psychological suspense novel that plays with gender roles and expectations, The Blue Butterfly is a dark “he said/she said” that changes point of view at a critical point in the middle and ends in a tragedy that may have been inevitable from the start. As much a novel about toxic relationships as it is about suspense, the story unspools like a Megan Abbott take on The Girl on the Train, with a very complicated heroine and some Patricia Highsmith (Ripley) creepiness thrown in.

"Darkly inventive, and full of grit and suspense, The Blue Trap is a deliciously sinister take on he said/she said, sexual politics, and what we do for what—or whom—we love. Truly, film noir on the page."
– Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and With or Without You

"A sense of foreboding builds from the first page until the shocking conclusion of The Butterfly Trap, Clea Simon’s mesmerizing, slow burn he said/she said tale of obsession and desperation. Block out time for this one—you won’t be able to put it down." – Karen E. Olson, award-winning author of An Inconvenient Wife

"Obsession and possession. Authenticity and intimacy. Clea Simon delivers a cautionary and dark tale about love and art, Decisions and consequences, and whether you can ever truly know another person. By the last page, you might think that the three most dangerous words in any language might be ‘I love you.’ The Butterfly Trap won’t be pinned down by easy labels, and you won’t be disappointed."
– Gabriel Valjan, Agatha, Anthony, and Shamus nominated author of the Shane Cleary series

The Boston club scene may be home to a cast of outsiders and misfits, but it’s where Tara Winton belongs. When an old friend is found dead, Tara senses there’s something not right about his supposedly accidental death.

"A haunting exploration of the dark side of nostalgia..." – Read more in Strand Magazine's "Five Reinventions of the Boston Crime Novel"

*World Enough has been named a "must read" by the Massachusetts Book Awards/Massachusetts Center for the Book!*