The best fabulous fakes—books about frauds and phonies

Lucy Foley always writes characters who are hiding their true nature, but with this one she really doubled down on the Fake It Until You Make It attitude of fabulous phonies everywhere. And this time, it had a Goop twist. The rustic luxury of the resort where the events occur is all glamour.

Many of the characters I wrote about in Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder try to hide who they really are. Whether it’s a desire to be seen as feminine, likable, sexy, or successful, they are calculating how they are seen. In the end, their true nature always shows itself. Sometimes it’s liberating for them, and sometimes it’s ugly.

Highsmith does not write likable characters, and the talented but unlikeable Ripley fakes his way through a luxury tour of Europe and has no plans to stop. She wrote multiple sequels to Ripley’s stories, allowing readers to see how he lies, cheats, steals, and kills his way into the most glamorous life.

I realize now that one of the characters in Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder was inspired by Dickie Greenwood because Dickie was a guy trying to escape privilege but not wanting to escape any of the perks of being privileged. He ignores how all the family money and connections make it possible to escape to an all-expense-paid villa on another continent. He was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.

When former undercover cop Cassie Maddox is asked by her old boss, Frank Mackey, to take on a case, she says absolutely not. Then she learns that a body turned up that looks just like her, and she has to go undercover as her doppelganger in order to solve the murder. It’s trippy.

I adore Tana French’s Emerald Noir, and Frank Mackey is the best at being kind of the worst. Detective Lindy in Pretty Girls Get Away with Murder was inspired by Cassie Maddox. This book is a great character study because the novel shows Cassie’s vulnerability.

It’s a young adult novel series that has a lasting appeal because these are privileged characters dealing with grief while also desperate to keep their secrets under wraps. The series still maintains an active Reddit forum for fans recently discovering the books and the television series as well as those deep in their rereads and rewatches.

The forum encouraged me to also read the books. I literally kept this TV series on in the background when I would type scenes or plot out ideas, and then found the book series at my local used book shop and read through the first one quickly. 

To be clear, Belle Gibson is not fabulous because lying about having cancer and pretending to have the cure is not just despicable but also dangerous. However, there is a glamour and allure to becoming Insta-famous or social media famous which many people still crave. We never ask the question if someone is “doing something for attention”: what’s going on that they feel like they need so much attention? Why are they addicted to that dopamine rush?

Gabbi in Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder is a character who wants to be Insta-famous because she longs so much for everyone to see her and for someone to choose her. She wanted to be picked above all others.