The Perfect Stranger by Wendy Corsi Staub
ISBN: 9780062222404 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780062222411 (ebook)
ASIN: B00GFZW3WM (Kindle edition)
Publication date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: Harper
During the darkest period of her life, Landry Wells found solace in a group of bloggers who had been in her shoes and lived to tell the tale. She’s shared things with her online friends that even her husband and children didn’t know. Things that now, looking back, make her uneasy.
One of the bloggers is dead, victim of a random crime—or was it? Did she trust too easily; reveal too much? At the funeral a thousand miles from home, Landry is about to come face to face at last with the others. These women are her closest confidantes in the world: they understand her; they know everything about her—and one of them might be a cold-blooded killer . . .
Five women from different parts of the country become online friends. All have had the same diagnosis — breast cancer. All five women choose the same path to deal with their diagnosis and treatment — blogging. Now one woman, Meredith, is found murdered in her home and her friends wonder if it’s possible this was random or if she was targeted because of her blog. The Perfect Stranger asks the questions: is it possible to really know people that you only interact with online and to reveal too much personal information online?
I read, okay I devoured, The Perfect Stranger in one afternoon. Ms. Staub carefully presents each woman as they mourn the loss of their friend: Landry is a forty-something wife and mother from Alabama, Kay is a middle-aged unemployed loner in Indiana, Elena is a thirty-something single school teacher in Massachusetts, and Jaycee is an unknown quantity possibly from New York. The search for the truth is interspersed with tidbits from each person’s blog, intimate details of their lives, and the thoughts of the killer. The swing between characters, blog posts, and the search for the murderer kept me just a little off-balance until the very end. The Perfect Stranger is a great mystery-suspense read because just when you think you know who it is the story twists and sends you off in a new direction. I found The Perfect Stranger to be a fast-paced and engrossing read. If you’re looking for a mystery-suspense story with compelling characters and action, then you’ll definitely want to add The Perfect Stranger to your TBR list. (Beware, after reading this story you may never want to go online again.) Make sure you add the prequel e-novella, Cold Hearted to your TBR list and read it first.
Watch the book trailer:
Read excerpts from Cold Hearted and The Perfect Stranger here.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free for review purposes from the publisher via Edelweiss. I was not paid, required or otherwise obligated to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Buy the Book
Available at: BookDepository | Alibris
The Book Diva's Reads 