Learn more
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
You Can Go Home Now: A Novel Kindle Edition
In this smart, relevant, unputdownable psychological thriller, a woman cop is on the hunt for a killer while battling violent secrets of her own.
“My name is Nina Karim. I am a single thirty-one-year-old woman who likes cats, Ryan Reynolds movies, beautiful sunsets, walking on a wintry beach holding hands with a tall, caring, lightly bearded third-wave feminist. Yeah, right.”
Nina is a tough Queens detective with a series of cold case homicides on her desk – men whose widows had the same alibi: they were living in Artemis, a battered women’s shelter, when their husbands were killed.
Nina goes undercover into Artemis. Though she is playing the victim, she’s anything but. Nina knows about violence and the bullies who rely on it because she’s experienced it in her own life.
In this heart-pounding thriller Nina confronts the violence of her own past in Artemis where she finds solidarity with a community of women who deal with abusive and lethal men in their own way.
For the women living in Artemis there is no absolute moral compass, there is the law and there is survival. And, for Nina, who became a cop so she could find the man who murdered her father, there is only revenge.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateJune 23, 2020
- File size1.9 MB
Customers who bought this item also bought
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is a compelling thriller that has the rarest of qualities."
-- "Steve Martin"About the Author
Michael Elias was born in upstate New York. He was an actor in The Living Theatre and The Judson Poets Theatre. Moving to Hollywood, Elias wrote screenplays and television; The Jerk, The Frisco Kid, Young Doctors in Love, and Lush Life starring Forrest Whitaker and Jeff Goldblum. With Rich Eustis, he created the sit-com Head of the Class. His play The Catskill Sonata was named number one by The Los Angeles Weekly on its list of Ten Best Plays of 2007. Elias divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris with his wife Bianca Roberts. He has one son, Frederick Elias from his marriage to Laraine Mestman.
Sophie Amoss is a voice talent and Earphones Award-winning narrator.
Product details
- ASIN : B07Y8FCDWH
- Publisher : Harper (June 23, 2020)
- Publication date : June 23, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 1.9 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 266 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,226,719 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #11,728 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #16,178 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #23,800 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Michael Elias is an award-winning writer, actor and director who has written film, television, theatre and fiction.
His upcoming novel, You Can Go Home Now, is a timely and addictive psychological thriller featuring a female cop on the hunt for a killer while battling violent secrets of her own. The book will be published by HarperCollins in the U.S. and by Editions du Masque in France in June 2020. He is also the author of The Last Conquistador, published by Open Road Media.
Michael Elias was born and raised in upstate New York, moving to New York City after graduating from St. John’s College in Annapolis to pursue a career in acting. He was a member of the Living Theatre (The Brig) and acted at The Judson Poets Theatre, La MaMa, and Caffé Chino. Elias transitioned to Hollywood and with Frank Shaw wrote the screenplay for The Frisco Kid starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, then Envoyez les Violons with Eve Babitz and began a long partnership with Rich Eustis. Together, they wrote the screenplays for Serial, Young Doctors in Love and created Head of the Class a television series for ABC, partially based on Elias’ experience as a high school teacher in New York City. Elias also worked with Steve Martin, a collaboration that included material for Martin’s comedy albums, network TV specials, and the screenplay for The Jerk.
Elias wrote and directed Showtime’s Lush Life with Forrest Whitaker and Jeff Goldblum. He was nominated for best Director at The Cable Ace Awards that year, and the TV movie has become a jazz film classic. His semi-autobiographical play about a small hotel in upstate New York was directed by Paul Mazursky, ran for four months in Los Angeles, with the LA Weekly naming The Catskill Sonata one of the best ten plays of the year.
Michael Elias lives in Los Angeles and Paris.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book a fun and satisfying read with a suspenseful story and taut storytelling. They praise the writing style as crisp, conversational, and intelligent. The characters are interesting and complex, and the pacing is good. The book shows how women can take control of their lives and become formidable forces.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it enjoyable, fun, and engaging with unexpected twists that keep them hooked. The murder mysteries are intriguing and surprising, keeping readers hooked until the end. Overall, customers describe the book as a satisfying and provocative experience.
"...This is an excellent read." Read more
"...The solution to these murders astonishes and takes the reader by complete surprise which keeps us on reading...." Read more
"...this is what makes YOU CAN GO HOME NOW such a provocative and satisfying experience." Read more
"...I stayed up until three in the morning — I was riveted. Enthralled. There was always a surprise waiting around the corner...." Read more
Customers find the story engaging with its compelling storytelling and multi-layered plot. They appreciate the crisp writing style and satisfying twists at the end. The book explores two types of violence and their impact on control. It's described as a provocative, believable detective story with interesting characters and unexpected turns.
"...character, and the action builds towards a resolution that is extemely suspenseful as well as provocative. This is an excellent read." Read more
"...This fascinating book delves into two types of violence that have at their core the imperative to control women and explores their rippling impact..." Read more
"...The story telling is taut and compelling, though it is lightened surprisingly with wry humorous comments...." Read more
"This novel has a clever plot, interesting characters, and many unexpected turns and twists...." Read more
Customers find the writing style crisp and conversational. They describe the book as intelligent and engaging, despite its underlying tone being negative.
"...Home Now is written in such a conversational style that it was a breeze to read, even though its underlying tone is dark and the protagonist Nina is..." Read more
"You should buy You Can Go Home Now because it's written with both intelligence and energy...." Read more
"...It is written by a man and interprets women’s experiences, rather he addresses women’s experiences, through female cops and women’s attempts to..." Read more
"This is effective, believable and a good detective story. The writing is crisp as is the the depiction of the characters...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's character development. They find the plot clever and the characters interesting, especially the main character Nina Karim.
"...Karim is a fascinating character, and the action builds towards a resolution that is extemely suspenseful as well as provocative...." Read more
"This novel has a clever plot, interesting characters, and many unexpected turns and twists...." Read more
"...The writing is crisp as is the the depiction of the characters. I found it very interesting." Read more
Customers find the book engaging. It shows how women can take control of their lives and become powerful. The author interprets women's experiences with knowledge and sensitivity.
"...Elias handles the delicate issues of women's safety and women's recovery with real knowledge and sensitivity...." Read more
"...It shows how women can take control of their own lives and become a formidable force...." Read more
"...It is written by a man and interprets women’s experiences, rather he addresses women’s experiences, through female cops and women’s attempts to..." Read more
Reviews with images

Beautifully suspensful story
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2021I love the complexity of the main character Nina Karim. She is a police detective (who says she likes Ryan Reynolds movies), who has infiltrated a battered women's shelter in order to find a murderer. But she is really driven by a need to avenge the death of her father, a doctor shot to death in front of his family by an right-to-life extremist. Elias handles the delicate issues of women's safety and women's recovery with real knowledge and sensitivity. His ability to write women puts me in mind of Tana French's male protagonists. Karim is a fascinating character, and the action builds towards a resolution that is extemely suspenseful as well as provocative. This is an excellent read.
5.0 out of 5 starsI love the complexity of the main character Nina Karim. She is a police detective (who says she likes Ryan Reynolds movies), who has infiltrated a battered women's shelter in order to find a murderer. But she is really driven by a need to avenge the death of her father, a doctor shot to death in front of his family by an right-to-life extremist. Elias handles the delicate issues of women's safety and women's recovery with real knowledge and sensitivity. His ability to write women puts me in mind of Tana French's male protagonists. Karim is a fascinating character, and the action builds towards a resolution that is extemely suspenseful as well as provocative. This is an excellent read.Beautifully suspensful story
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2021
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2020Michael Elias, author of the novel, You Can Go Home Now, has Done a fine job of delving into the personal despair of domestic violence, abortion, racism, revenge and anger. The novel takes us into a police woman’s intent struggle to solve a series of gruesome murders in the hope that it will also reveal the perpetrator of her own personal tragedy and, hopefully, satisfy her need for revenge that has offended her life.
The solution to these murders astonishes and takes the reader by complete surprise which keeps us on reading.
You can also hear loud and clear the social and political viewpoints that Elias elucidates which are so timely now.
Elias’ sardonic, comedic genius is interlaced swelled this novel and culminates in bringing a smile to my face.
You Can Go Hone Now is well worth the read
- Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020You Can Go Home Now is written in such a conversational style that it was a breeze to read, even though its underlying tone is dark and the protagonist Nina is so flawed by tragedy and hellbent on revenge that it makes her tough around the edges. This fascinating book delves into two types of violence that have at their core the imperative to control women and explores their rippling impact on a victim's family. It shows how women can take control of their own lives and become a formidable force. But this isn’t a diatribe against men — some of the most important men in Nina’s life are shown as tender and caring. And her love relationship is as offbeat as she is. Throughout, You Can Go Home Now tells a compelling, multi-layered story, and it concludes with satisfying surprise twists.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020I have to say I was on edge reading a story --of women, for women!-- written by a man....a man old enough to have written The Jerk screenplay (that must be why the Steve Martin rec was on the cover). But nothing was too, too upsetting. Yes, you could have changed Detective Nina into Detective Nino without rewrite because a trap a lot of dudes fall into when writing powerful women is to assume powerful women are basically guys. At one point Nina picks a word fight with another woman cop and they're duking it out within seconds and then all is forgiven immediately afterward, which is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Elaine Benes was closer to the truth with that problematic joke about eating disorders.
We can get behind Nina's rage and causes without any convincing because it's a book -- even one of the characters says this. But Elias can't seem to stop trying to persuade us. I believe he read a thick file of stories from a women's shelter and couldn't choose, so he dumped them all in like an Abused Woman Variety Pack. Everybody had a long backstory. It's sad and it drags. Most of these people were such minor characters they could have been a sentence or two or at least been better woven in the narrative. Because instead of making his readers know how bad it gets, which hopefully was his intent, hopefully he didn't use all those victim stories just for the grittiness because grrr..., readers will instead be flipping pages without missing any story.
Nina herself never heard that old adage about when you're telling a lie, to keep it simple. Her lies had headers and footers and characters you had to turn back pages to remember. They had edits and rewrites and alternating chapters on whaling practices. Anyone on guard would have spotted her in a second, but she was super proud of all that.
As for plot, it went off the rails for me. Overall, I wish we could take what was great about this book (Nina's anger! -- how lovely we can finally have books on women's anger that aren't about, you know, man stealing), and pare it down, keeping it as the sole focus without getting distracted by silly stuff like obligatory plot twists and filler characters and secret organizations. Because that could have been something really great. As it is, I'm going to disagree for the first time ever with adorable uke-playing, Mark Twain Prize-winning Steve Martin and say that this book didn't make me wonder what would happen next. It was more like, "come on, let me go home already."
- Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2020The book is fiction, but so authentically researched it is hard to believe it is not a true story or, at least, based on actual cases. The novel deals with two of today's hottest issues: spousal abuse and anti-abortion zealots. The story telling is taut and compelling, though it is lightened surprisingly with wry humorous comments. Elias does not leave us with the conventional resolution one night assume. In a narrative full of the unexpected, this is what makes YOU CAN GO HOME NOW such a provocative and satisfying experience.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2020The juxtaposition of the parallel plots works well. As it ended I found myself wanting more. I think the book lends itself to a sequel or short series.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2020You should buy You Can Go Home Now because it's written with both intelligence and energy. You will be satisfied by the importance of the theme also.
Interestingly, Michael Elias, also a noted screenplay writer, is a male American who writes from inside a woman, his detective Nina Karim. We live in a time of cultural restitution long overdue, I agree. But how great it is to read a writer whose enthusiasm for his characters makes him look beyond strict minority or gender. One of the best traits of You Can Go Home Now is Nina's mind on the inside, totally genuine female . Following glorious examples -- Tolstoy wrote as Natasha in War and Peace, Shakespeare as the Black Venetian warrior in Othello -- a good writer can be many characters, including Nina Karim. So I give the book five stars.