After learning that her ex-boyfriend, Max, has abandoned her for a woman he got pregnant, Kate moves away from London to Bridgewell to recuperate in the countryside, in a quaint cottage buried deep in the misty English moors and the looming shadow of St Catherine’s Chapel. But rather than trying to forget the past, Kate has escaped to the exact spot where her ‘replacement’, Vee, now lives as a single mother. Kate refuses to leave her side, calculating how to ruin Vee’s life in every way as an act of revenge, including dating Tom, the new man that Vee is falling for. However, Vee has no clue about Kate’s true identity or her agenda. As she struggles with single motherhood, work, and relationships, while still secretly sleeping with Max, Vee seeks in Kate a desperately needed friend. As Kate and Vee’s lives become more intertwined, they must question the loyalties and intentions of those around them, not anticipating the devastating costs of the many hidden motives.

Liz Evans’ exploration of the intense complexity of female friendships, the potential for jealousies and obsessions between women, and the possible complications when men connect or come between them is enthralling. Kate ruminates again and again about what made Max leave her for Vee. But, as I imagine many women have struggled to understand and perhaps still do, Kate struggles to come to terms with the root cause of her conflicts, jealousies, and even hatred of other women: internalised misogyny embedded by patriarchal cultural norms, which aim to make women compete for, cater to and fight over the affections of men. As highlighted by the title, the women in this novel are metaphorically stuck in a perpetual Catherine Wheel, a medieval torture device used on St Catherine by the Roman emperor. Catherine Wheel examines how some women continue to torture themselves and each other using tools created by men, for men, even as they struggle (but not without hope) to end the vicious cycle.