Beautiful Criminals

For fans of the acclaimed TV shows Weeds, The Riches, and The Mysteries of Laura comes this atmospheric drama of love, crime, and the ties that bind as three generations of women attempt to go straight…or not.

When Amanda Cooper steps foot out of jail, she’s determined never to go back. Two years behind bars means she’s missed her daughter, Taylor, turning into a teenager, and she doesn’t want to lose another moment with her. But as a convicted con artist, Amanda has few options for getting out of Los Angeles and securing her dream life: predictable, boring, and bordered by a white picket fence. The trouble is Amanda’s not the only one with a con. At every step of the way, someone is trying to pull her back into the game.

In her first attempt to go straight, Amanda takes a dead end retail job. But she soon discovers that her boss, Russ, is stealing from his employers by the truckload—and wants Amanda in on his crooked plan. Then Amanda gets roped in by FBI Agent Stevens, who reveals another startling truth: Amanda’s mom, Joyce, and her lover, Bruce, are involved in a scheme that smuggles military arms to a cartel. If Amanda can get the FBI agent the information he needs, Joyce will get off scot-free…but if she doesn’t, they’ll all go to the cooler.

As Amanda maneuvers and manipulates her way towards some semblance of freedom, she realizes that the only way to win the game is to make up her own rules. But along the way she takes her eyes off the prize: Taylor. Given her family history, Taylor can’t help but get into her own brand of trouble. Just as Amanda’s new life is within reach, she realizes it may be too late to get back everything she’s already lost.

Wendy Wunder is the author of The Probability of Miracles and The Museum of Intangible Things. She graduated from Rutgers, and after a stint in bookselling, moved to the Bay Area to “find herself.” Realizing that herself was probably still on the east coast where she left it, she then moved to Boston, where she got her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. She met her magnificent husband, worked as a librarian, had an amazing daughter, and continued to write. She loves yoga, reading, skiing, seasons, mothering, reading trashy magazines on airplanes, food trucks, the Museum of Fine Arts, nutrients, public pools (and public schools!), the beach, road trips, outdoor concerts and anyplace that you can walk barefoot. She has recently become a very slow runner of 10Ks and is happy to finish before they turn off the clock.