“By night I was kind of a nocturnal animal, like the human equivalent of the fox. My superpower was invisibility... I was the Invisible Girl.”

This exclamation is made in Lisa Jewell’s latest novel, INVISIBLE GIRL, which is one of her most intense reads. Once readers have become familiar with the characters here, it all will make perfect sense.

Seventeen-year-old Saffyre Maddox is obsessed with her former psychologist, Roan Fours. In her view, Roan did not heal her. So she has taken to obsessing about him, hanging around his house and occasionally sleeping in the lot across the street. Roan and his family are dealing with their own issues. His wife, Cate, has long been in denial over her husband's affairs, and now her teenaged daughter, Georgia, says that she was followed home from the tube one night by a creepy guy. Shortly thereafter, Georgia's good friend, Tilly, claims that she was molested by someone in their neighborhood.

"Lisa Jewell leaves red herrings everywhere, and INVISIBLE GIRL reads like an old-fashioned mystery at times. Of course, there will be several surprises in the breakneck finish and revelations that will shock."

Eyes instantly move to the flat that houses Owen Pick, the same “creepy guy” Georgia alleges was following her a bit too closely that night. Could he be the one who assaulted Tilly and some of the other women in the area?

Owen’s life is falling apart. An IT lecturer at a nearby college, he is a member of the incel community, an invisible group of mostly heterosexual white males who are openly rejected by the opposite sex and have no recourse in bettering their situation. He is called into the Dean's office where he has to sit through accusations of inappropriate behavior toward some of his young female students during a Christmas party, which leads to additional claims of demeaning language used in his classes. Owen is suspended pending further investigation and does not understand why this is happening to him.

During his hiatus, Owen spends even more time on incel websites and eventually meets up with Bryn, the founder of one of these sites. The fact that Owen is a virgin really alarms Bryn, and he lets Owen know that this is the problem with the world, a full-blown conspiracy against incels. Owen leaves their encounter feeling good and is glad to know that there are others who live in the same overly sensitive, politically correct world that has conspired against him. However, this is all short-lived when the police knock on his door and ask to bring him down to the station to ask him some questions about a young woman who went missing in his neighborhood: Saffyre Maddox.

What transpires is some of the best and most squeamish cross-examinations I have ever read in a novel. Despite all the evidence that is mounting against Owen, you cannot help but feel for him throughout this ordeal. Those who read a lot of psychological thrillers will recognize that it is the “invisible” white males like Owen who typically become the serial killers we end up reading about. What makes it worse is that he was picked up by the police the day after he had his first actual date with a woman in years --- and it went well! There is also much more to the Fours family story than what we see on the surface.

Lisa Jewell leaves red herrings everywhere, and INVISIBLE GIRL reads like an old-fashioned mystery at times. Of course, there will be several surprises in the breakneck finish and revelations that will shock. Be sure you say hi to my friend, the little red fox.