The Girl on the Train meets We Need to Talk About Kevin in this sophis­ti­cated psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller about a middle-school sci­ence teacher accused of mur­der­ing one of his students

War­ren Botts is a dis­il­lu­sioned Ph.D., tak­ing a break from his lab to teach middle-school sci­ence. Gen­tle, soft-spoken, and intro­verted, War­ren befriends thirteen-year-old Amanda, a lonely stu­dent look­ing for a friend.

One morn­ing, War­ren returns from a jog to find Amanda dead, hang­ing from a tree in his back­yard. A police inves­ti­ga­tion fol­lows, but War­ren is unable — or unwill­ing — to answer the ques­tions that swirl around him. Sus­pi­cions mount, and Warren’s peace­ful neigh­bours quickly become hostile.

Mean­while, an anony­mous nar­ra­tor who pos­sesses the dan­ger­ous com­bi­na­tion of extreme intel­li­gence and emo­tional detach­ment offers insight into events past and present. As the ten­sion builds, we gain an inti­mate under­stand­ing of the power of mem­ory, secrets, and lies.

A deli­ciously creepy thriller that will keep you guess­ing to the very last page, The Sub­sti­tute is a finely crafted page-turner and a chill­ing look inside the mind of a psychopath.

Praise for The Substitute

“Lundrigan’s skill­fully bal­anced blend of psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller and haunt­ing coming-of-age story is infused with creepy, small-town atmos­pheric sus­pense.… [Her] writ­ing is both ele­gant and darkly humor­ous, deliv­er­ing bareknuckle social com­men­tary that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn, Karin Fos­sum, and Laura Lipp­man.”
Book­list, Starred Review

“A feast for fans who miss Patri­cia Highsmith’s and Mar­garet Millar’s haunt­ing anatomies of peo­ple as nice as pie except for their mur­ders.“
Kirkus Reviews

“[A] sly and clever thriller… this book will keep read­ers guessing… they’ll be sur­prised by how it all plays out.“
Pub­lish­ers Weekly
 
“[A] chill­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller”
CBC Books

“The Sub­sti­tute… is a cap­ti­vat­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller that bal­ances secrets and lies with iden­tity and fam­ily.“
Ben­jamin Boulden
Mys­tery Scene Magazine

“[A] creepy thriller.”
Toronto Star

"…enjoy­ably dark, creepy and unset­tling."
Car­lyn Schel­len­berg
The Win­nipeg Review

“The Sub­sti­tute [is] hard to put down. Lundrigan’s abil­ity to write from the point of view from a psy­chopath was fas­ci­nat­ing.“
Kirsten Lowe, Red Deer Advocate

“The clues are there, but they are sneaky and decep­tive, and that is the true genius of the novel’s final reveal… [The Sub­sti­tute] is a spine-chiller for read­ers who appre­ci­ate lan­guage and refined, well-crafted plots — and who aren’t afraid to delve, for a time, into the mind of a psy­chopath.“
Stacey Mad­den, Quill & Quire

“… this psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller will res­onate with read­ers long after the last page is read… A cau­tion­ary tale, ‘The Sub­sti­tute’ art­fully cre­ates an unset­tling com­mu­nity made more malig­nant by an “undi­ag­nosed”… per­son, capa­ble of remain­ing hid­den for years to come.“
Janet Nicol, Maple Tree Lit­er­ary Sup­ple­ment, Issue 22

“… this book will keep you guess­ing to the very end.“
Ash­ley Kowleski-Pizzi, Reader’s Digest, Best Health

“Equal parts dis­turb­ing, sus­pense­ful, and raw, The Sub­sti­tute will have you hold­ing your breath until the very last page.”
Ian Hamil­ton, Award-winning author of the Ava Lee series

“Irre­sistibly clever! This creepy tale had me hooked right from the start.”
Melanie Raabe, Author of The Trap