Happy Release Day!
The Other Girl
The Other Girl by Erica Spindler
Print and e-book, 256 pages
Published August 22nd 2017 by St. Martin's Press
From the New York Times bestselling author of Justice for Sara and The First Wife Erica Spindler comes The Other Girl, a chilling new thriller about a ritualistic murder of a college professor that sends a small town cop back into the trauma she thought she’d put behind her.
A horrific crime. One witness—a fifteen year old girl from the wrong side of the tracks, one known for lying and her own brushes with the law.
Is it any surprise no one believed her?
Officer Miranda Rader of the Harmony, Louisiana PD is known for her honesty, integrity, and steady hand in a crisis—but that wasn’t always so. Miranda comes from the town of Jasper, a place about the size of a good spit on a hot day, and her side of the tracks was the wrong one. She’s worked hard to earn the respect of her coworkers and the community.
When Miranda and her partner are called to investigate the murder of one of the town’s most beloved college professors, they’re unprepared for the brutality of the scene. This murder is unlike any they’ve ever investigated, and just when Miranda thinks she’s seen the worst of it, she finds a piece of evidence that chills her to the core: a faded newspaper clipping about that terrible night fifteen years ago. The night she’d buried, along with her past and the girl she’d been back then. Until now that grave had stayed sealed…except for those times, in the deepest part of the night, when the nightmares came: of a crime no one believed happened and the screams of the girl they believed didn’t exist.
Then another man turns up dead, this one a retired cop. Not just any cop—the one who took her statement that night. Two murders, two very different men, two killings that on the surface had nothing in common—except Miranda.
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First line—"Jasper, Louisiana, in July was as hot as hell and as close as a tick on a retriever. But school was out for the summer, and as far as Randi Rader was concerned, that made up for it—and pretty much everything else, too. As far as she was concerned, school was a total waste of time."
The Other Girl starts off with Randi, a fifteen year old girl from a dysfunctional family, taking off to have some fun. That fun time turns into a nightmare, one that she relives over and over. Fast forward a number of years, and she finally turns her life around and makes something of herself. This time she ends up on the right side of the law. But then things start to go bad and she finds herself reliving those days from her past that she just wants to forget. And no one believes her....again.
Randi, or Miranda, as she prefers to be called now, is a cop who, while investigating a murder, finds all sorts of connections to her past. As more and more connections are uncovered and weave themselves around her, she finds that she no longer knows who or what to trust.
The Other Girl is the first book of Erica's that I have read and I am not sure why I haven't discovered her stories before now. I like her writing style and the way she makes me want to like her characters. This thriller kept me guessing with all the twists and turns and it was a hard book to put down. I am excited to read more of her stories.
I received a copy of The Other Girl from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest opinion.
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About the author
Erica loves meeting and interacting with her fans, both in person and online. She has a wicked sense of humor, an optimistic spirit and loves coffee, chocolate and red wine, not necessarily in that order.
In 2002 her novel Bone Cold won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. A Romance Writers of America Honor Roll member, she received a Kiss of Death Award for her novels Forbidden Fruit and Dead Run and was a four-time RITA® Award finalist. In 1999 Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel Shocking Pink a Listen Up Award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998.
Erica lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and two sons.
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This sounds right up my alley! Have you read anything by Lisa Unger? She writes these types of books. You may like her if you liked this!
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole. I have not read any books by Unger although I have seen a lot of her books around. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to check her out.
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