Failed journalist, Leah Stevens, leaves Boston under a cloud and sets up home with an old friend, Emmy Grey, in rural Pennsylvania. Taking a job as a teacher in a high school, Leah is optimistic her fresh start will help her to forget the mistakes she has left behind.
However, when a woman who looks eerily like Leah is attacked by the lake and Emmy suddenly goes missing, Leah's new start begins to look quite a but less rosy.
Leah is desperate to find Emmy, the only person she really trusts, and looks to Detective Kyle Donovan for help. But it soon becomes clear that Emmy has no left no evidence that she was ever actually there and the police begin to suspect that she may be a figment of Leah's imagination.
Forced to question what she really knows about her friend, Leah realises that she has been lined up by someone to take the fall for their crimes. Leah must find out the truth, before it is too late, if she is to save herself.
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I have had this book sitting on the shelf for some time. Having read the first couple of chapters and not being immediately grabbed by the story, I had put it down and not been tempted to pick it up again. But after enjoying Megan Miranda's twisty thriller The Last House Guest last year, I decided to pick this one up again on a whim, and proceeded to read the rest of the book in one sitting, after being unable to put it down!
The Perfect Stranger is even more twisty that The Last House Guest and went places I really did not see coming from the first couple of chapters. This is a little gem of a thriller - pacy, full of false leads and downright scary too. I don't want to say too much about this, as it would involve spoilers, but this is a first class mind-blower of a book that will absolutely chill you to the core.
How much do we really know about the people we call our friends, when it really comes down to it? Can we be absolutely sure we are interpreting their intentions correctly? I guarantee that this book will have you asking some questions about the people you surround yourself with!
It's 5 stars from me!
However, when a woman who looks eerily like Leah is attacked by the lake and Emmy suddenly goes missing, Leah's new start begins to look quite a but less rosy.
Leah is desperate to find Emmy, the only person she really trusts, and looks to Detective Kyle Donovan for help. But it soon becomes clear that Emmy has no left no evidence that she was ever actually there and the police begin to suspect that she may be a figment of Leah's imagination.
Forced to question what she really knows about her friend, Leah realises that she has been lined up by someone to take the fall for their crimes. Leah must find out the truth, before it is too late, if she is to save herself.
****************************************************************************
I have had this book sitting on the shelf for some time. Having read the first couple of chapters and not being immediately grabbed by the story, I had put it down and not been tempted to pick it up again. But after enjoying Megan Miranda's twisty thriller The Last House Guest last year, I decided to pick this one up again on a whim, and proceeded to read the rest of the book in one sitting, after being unable to put it down!
The Perfect Stranger is even more twisty that The Last House Guest and went places I really did not see coming from the first couple of chapters. This is a little gem of a thriller - pacy, full of false leads and downright scary too. I don't want to say too much about this, as it would involve spoilers, but this is a first class mind-blower of a book that will absolutely chill you to the core.
How much do we really know about the people we call our friends, when it really comes down to it? Can we be absolutely sure we are interpreting their intentions correctly? I guarantee that this book will have you asking some questions about the people you surround yourself with!
It's 5 stars from me!