Psychological thriller with a first person stream of consciousness point of view.
Gaby Mortimer, a well-known daytime television program co-host, finds a dead body on a morning run. Soon she's hauled in for questioning by the police who consider her a suspect in the murder. The dead woman, Ania Dudek, has been strangled and it seems that she has ties to the Mortimer household.
Is Gaby being framed for this crime? And, if so, who really killed Ania? Was it Philip Mortimer, Gaby's husband, who seems to have an airtight alibi but who has to go to Singapore on business just as the police haul Gaby in for interrogation and then keep her until she makes bail. Their marriage seems to be floundering. Is it Marta, nanny to Gaby's daughter, Millie? She's a bit brusque and secretive. Or perhaps it is Gaby's stalker who's been leaving odd gifts for awhile now. There are many possible other suspects, but DI Perivale and his partner PC Morrow seem convinced that they have Gaby pegged.
After Gaby is let go from her job due to all the negative publicity, and her life starts to fall apart, she meets a sympathetic journalist, Jack Hayward, who wants to help her clear her name and get a great exclusive story. The two begin their own investigation and start to uncover the secrets and the motive.
I enjoyed this novel though I found Gaby to be a somewhat unsympathetic character -- she seems so passive and unreliable that I wanted to shake her into opening her eyes. The pacing was well done, the reveal slow enough to keep me turning the pages so quickly that I read this novel in a single sitting. The conclusion hits just the right note.
Comparisons aside, it stands alone on its own merits, and anyone who likes a good psychological suspense thriller will enjoy it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-book ARC to review.
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