“Blade-sharp, whip-smart, and genuinely original — a thriller to refresh your faith in the genre, your belief that a story can still outpace and outsmart you.”–AJ Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in The Window
“Clever and surprising…The superb character-driven plot delivers an astonishing, believable jolt.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A smart, witty, crackling novel of psychological suspense in which a girl from a hardscrabble small town meets a gorgeous Instagram influencer from the big city, with a murderous twist that will shock even the most savvy reader.
On a beautiful October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator from the state police pulls into the hard-luck town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, and the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead—with her husband, Dwayne, nowhere to be found. As scandal ripples through the community, Detective Ian Bird’s inquiries unexpectedly lead him away from small-town Maine to a swank city townhouse several hours south. Adrienne Richards, blonde and fabulous social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire, had been renting Lizzie’s tiny lake house as a country getaway…even though Copper Falls is anything but a resort town.
As Adrienne’s connection to the case becomes clear, so too does her connection to Lizzie, who narrates their story from beyond the grave. Each woman is desperately lonely in her own way, and they navigate a relationship that cuts across class boundaries: transactional, complicated, and, finally, deadly. A Gone Girl for the gig economy, this is a story of privilege, identity, and cunning, as two devious women from opposite worlds discover the dangers of coveting someone else’s life.
MY THOUGHTS
My first book by this author and it won’t be my last. This was a real page turner from start to finish. The twists and turns were perfect. You won’t see it coming!!!!
This is a fast paced thriller that will have you on the edge in quite a few places. Told from different povs it tells the story of a young woman, a wife, who was brutally murdered. The only way she is identified is priceless yet cruel too. Shame on them. I truly liked Lizzie. All the way through this book I rooted for her. Even though she was murdered I still rooted for her. She was the junkyard trash. The girl that was bullied for no other reason than they had no one else to pick on. No one else to hate. She grew up in a junkyard. Her dad, Earl, loved her dearly. Her mother died when she was quite young. She was in my opinion a lovely girl. A very resilient young woman who did nothing except be born and raised in a junkyard.
This story is told from Lizzie’s POV after she is shot in the face. She says straight up that she won’t lie and she doesn’t. She’s a very honest person. A caring person. One who loves animals and who loved her husband, Dwayne,..at least she tried too. He I didn’t like. He was the reason that the people in this town were so mean to Lizzie, most of the time anyway. They said she ruined his life. I say she would have been the best thing to ever happen to him. She was very smart and could get things done. She didn’t care what others thought of her. But she did want a life. A family. A home. I felt sorry for her. She deserved so much better than this town.
There is the rich woman, Adrienne, who comes to stay in Lizzie’s cabin along with her husband. This story is told from her pov also. She lives in The City. She visits the lake for a month and gets to know Lizzie. They become somewhat friends. But Adrienne is also a snob. A society woman who thinks she is so much better than everyone else. She has no worries.
This story is told in a way that you won’t see the twist coming until it hits you between the eyes. Then you get another one. I was stunned. Totally thrown for a loop. I didn’t even go there. I was shocked. I was happy that I didn’t figure out why or who or what. That kept me wanting more. This book is very well written. You feel the things that happen. From the blast of the gun to the spatter of blood. From the hostility of the town to the fear that Adrienne feels. You get to know each person well. You will like very few. I only actually liked two, Lizzie and her dad. The rest were not people I would want to associate with at all. It made this story better though. The meanness of the people in this town made this what it was.
Thank you #NetGalley, #KatRosenfielf, #WilliamMorrow for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book.
5/5 stars. It’s great. Edge of your seat thrills with twists that will leave you breathless until the very last page.
