Who is Maud Dixon?

Florence Darrow is going nowhere fast in publishing — until she lands a job as assistant to Maud Dixon, the pseudonymous author of a scandalous bestseller whose real identity is known only to her agent. Dixon turns out to be Helen Wilcox, a woman living in near-total isolation in upstate New York, brilliant, controlling, and impossible to read.

When Helen invites Florence on a research trip to Morocco for her long-awaited second novel, Florence finally feels like she's arrived. Then a car accident leaves Florence in a hospital bed with no memory of the previous night — and no sign of Helen.

Faced with the chance to step out of Helen's shadow and into her life, and her name, Florence takes it. What follows is a spiral of stolen identities, disappearances, and violence that forces Florence to reckon with how far she's willing to go to become somebody else.