Best for:
Those who enjoy very psychologically-focused thrillers.
In a nutshell:
CN: Sexual Assault, Murder
Emma is a psychologist who is sexually assaulted at a conference, but manages to survive, unlike the serial killer’s other victims.
Or did she make it all up?
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I found Fitzek’s previous work to be interesting and wanted to read more.
Review:
Three stars is probably a bit harsh for this book – more like 3.5 if that were allowed. The book isn’t bad, I just didn’t find it nearly as compelling or interesting as the other one. That said – the book is good, and it kept me guessing.
Emma is a psychologist, married to a police detective. As a child, she had an imaginary ‘friend,’ Arthur, who she was once scared of but eventually came to rely on. After working through her childhood trauma and recognizing Arthur as a art of her imagination, she has moved on. But while at a conference, she is attacked by ‘the Hairdresser’ – a man who assaults his victims, shaves their heads, and then kills them. But she is not killed.
But no one believes her. Yes, her hair has been shaved, but the hotel room she claimed to be in doesn’t exist, and the hotel has no record of her checking in. The room as she described it had art that the hotel doesn’t have, and no hiding places for the perpetrator. Emma is fragile and distraught, and for months can’t leave her home, as the trauma of it all led to he having a miscarriage. Her husband tries to be supportive, but she’s clearly on the edge.
One day, a package is delivered, which sets her down a bizarre road. The book skips backward and and forward, to a time when it appears she is perhaps confessing to her dear friend, an older psychologist. Or is she?
We don’t know until the very end if any of Emma’s experiences are real. But we do learn that at one point she has lied about something important. Is that proof she is lying now? If she is – does she even know she’s lying? Or is she just being expertly gaslit?