The Vipers

By: Katy Hays MA PhD

Brought to you by Penguin.

On glittering Capri, anything can be a mirage. And one thing is true: no one holds a grudge like family.

The world was shocked by playwright Sarah Lingate’s death thirty years ago at an opulent, white-washed villa on the island of Capri. Absolved of the crime, the Lingate family maintains that what happened that night was a tragic accident. And every July they return to Capri to prove it’s true.

This time, Helen Lingate - sole heir to the family fortune - has a plan. Tightly controlled by her father, she enlists the help of the family assistant, Lorna Silva, to free herself from her family’s stranglehold on her life. And yet, behind closed doors, the legendary Lingate family unity is at breaking point. Upon arrival at the villa in Capri, a anonymous gift awaits them: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

In the aftermath, the paranoid, insular Lingates begin to unravel. As the investigation into her mother’s death is reopened, Helen begins to lose trust in everyone around her: her controlling father Richard, drug-addled aunt Naomi, aloof uncle Marcus, and even Lorna, whose past she realizes is frustratingly opaque. And as the family fractures, the long-hidden truth about that night and the secrets they’ve kept from one another boil to the surface - and they might not leave the island alive.

©2025 Katy Hays (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

'The Lingates have it all: prestige, power and the potential to be irrevocably destroyed if long-buried secrets get into the wrong hands . . . Katy Hays' The Vipers is sultry and sophisticated with a menacing undercurrent that keeps you thrillingly unsettled until its final spellbinding twist. Let the languid glamour of Capri gently take you by one hand, an ice cold Negroni in the other, but watch your step—the cliffs are treacherous and so, too, is a family with everything to lose.' (RACHEL KOLLER CROFT, author of Stone Cold Fox)

'Engrossing and sinister . . . has all the elements thriller readers love: dead bodies, deception, and betrayal. But at its core, this multi-layered story delves into the concepts of familial loyalty and generational trauma . . . a must-read for 2025!' (JULIE CLARK, author of The Last Flight)

'Brilliantly written in scintillating prose . . . an Italian Opera for the modern age, in which a daughter of fortune desperate to escape her monstrous family digs up the skeletons of the past, setting off a serpentine chain reaction that will leave you breathless. Superbly plotted and deftly executed, this searing takedown of the upper crust is one to savour!' (KATHERINE WOOD, author of Ladykiller)

'A twisty, seductive thriller.' (NINA SIMON, author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night)