The Dangers of Female Provocation: Zoe Coyle in conversation with Geordie Williamson

Vengeance is coming.

Odessa Odin has it all – a successful career, an adoring husband and a close circle of friends to whom she is fiercely loyal. On the surface they’re living a glittering London life of wealth and cosseted privilege, but underneath this veneer lies painful truths of betrayal, neglect and unfulfilled ambitions. It’s a tightrope of holding themselves and their marriages together as their men transgress the promises they made at the altar with the blithe entitlement they’ve enjoyed all their lives. For the women, there’s just too much to lose.

When Odessa discovers her husband is having an affair, her carefully constructed life falls away, and the mask slips to reveal a vast reservoir of rage, fed up with the ways the patriarchy stack the odds against her sisterhood. Training her sights on her friends’ husbands, Odessa becomes an avenging warrior – aiming to chasten them into being better partners, picking them off one compromising situation at a time…

But as Odessa’s mission becomes all-consuming, it blinds her to the reality that the score is about to be evened in a way she could never anticipate.

The Dangers of Female Provocation is a razor-sharp, delicious testament to the force of women stepping into their own power.

Zoë Coyle has spent over 15 years in corporate and communication training, building on her 20 years’ experience as a film and theatre actor in the UK, US and Australia. She is the communication coach of choice for the CEOs of some of Australia’s largest companies, small businesses and not-for-profit organisations. Her first novel, Where the Light Gets In, was released in 2021. This is her second novel.

Geordie Williamson has been chief literary critic of the Australian since 2008 and is Publisher-at-large at Pan Macmillan Australia. His book about neglected Australian authors, The Burning Library, was published in 2012, and we’re very excited to know he’s got another in the pipeline.

Join Zoë and Geordie at the Afterword Cafe.

You can purchase tickets below.