The Perfect Stranger/ Megan Miranda / 336 pgs

The Perfect Stranger is a mystery/suspense set in western Pennsylvania. Leah is a former journalist for a newspaper in Boston who has moved to rural Pennsylvania to "start over." She's now teaching high school and living in a cabin on a lake with a roommate, Emmy. Leah and Emmy also roomed together briefly after college. Leah was forced to quit her job at the newspaper because of an accusation she made in an article she wrote. The details of that are dribbled out slowly. Meanwhile, a young woman named Bethany was found coshed in the head with a rock near Leah's house and is in a coma in the hospital. Also, Leah's roommate Emmy appears to be missing, though she's not really sure since Emmy works odd shifts and is a bit flighty. The story essentially revolves around these three young women, Leah, Emmy, and Bethany, and how their lives are related, or not, as the case may be.

I thought this was a solid read, although maybe not quite as good as Miranda's first book, All the Missing Girls. The mystery unravels bit by bit and there is a creepy element with someone stalking Leah. Some of the details of earlier circumstances remain murky even at the end, so that was a little disappointing. I also thought the "romance" subplot fell flat because the characters didn't really know each other but aside from those flaws, I would recommend this one.

I See You/Clare Mackintosh/384 pgs

If  you regularly commute to work via public transportation, you may not want to read this book:-) Zoe Walker takes the London Underground to work and back every day. One day she notices her picture in a classified ad in the paper. This rightly creeps her out, but she becomes even more worried and paranoid when she discovers that another woman whose picture appeared in the same ad has been murdered. As with Mackintosh's first book, I Let You Go, this one alternates between the victim's (Zoe's) point of view and that of the investigating officer. Here that's Kelly Swift. Kelly has been demoted, for reasons the reader will discover, and at first is the only member of the police who will listen to Zoe. This is a truly creepy tale, especially when we get a few short chapters from the "stalker/mastermind." I was engrossed by this book up until the reveal of the mastermind, whose motivation I found wholly unbelievable. The book was only saved, by a narrow margin, by the very, very end. I seem to always find flaws with Mackintosh's books, but I enjoy her writing style and intend to keep reading her books.

The Hypnotist's Love Story/Liane Moriarty/414 pages

Ellen O'Farrell has fallen in love with a man who has a stalker. Patrick's stalker is his ex-girlfriend Saskia. Even though they broke up three years ago, Saskia just can't let him go. To make matters worse, Saskia has invented a new identity and is a client of Ellen's hypnotherapy practice. As Ellen and Patrick's relationship strengthens, Saskia becomes more bold in her harassment of them.


This is a much darker story than Moriarty's other novels. This one had me guessing as to what was really going on for much of the novel. The ending may be a little too neat, but it is still an above average story.