cover image The Perfect Stranger

The Perfect Stranger

Megan Miranda. Simon & Schuster, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-1-5011-0799-3

Fans of Gillian Flynn, Chevy Stevens, and Jennifer McMahon will devour this relentlessly paced and deftly plotted thriller. A new beginning is exactly what Leah Stevens needs after a devastating incident shatters her journalism career in Boston. She is cajoled along by her former roommate, Emmy Grey, and both women find a second chance in a small Pennsylvania community. Things turn sour when a young woman with an unnerving resemblance to Leah is found, bludgeoned, near death, less than a mile from Leah’s home, and Emmy has suddenly disappeared. Leah contacts the police, but the resulting search comes up fruitless; everything she thought she knew about Emmy comes into question. With steeled certainty that Emmy is indeed real, finding her becomes imperative to maintaining Leah’s sanity, safety, and reputation. An irresistible and riveting page-turner, Miranda (All the Missing Girls) weaves several mysteries together, leading to the intricate climax. The story moves at a feverish, unfaltering pace, keeping readers just as perplexed as the characters. (May)