Catherine Ravenscroft is living a fairly perfect life. She is an award winning documentary film maker and her husband, Robert, is a lawyer.  Their son, Nick, is finally out of the home, living on his own after a few shaky starts, and seems to be doing fine now. Catherine feels like she can finally take a deep breath and savor the quiet contentment she feels in the new downsized home she and Robert have just moved into. But then she began reading the book. It was just a book that appeared on her bedside table after the move. The title, The Perfect Stranger, was intriguing and the story engrossing.  Until she got several chapters in and she realized it was describing an event that she had tried so hard to forget. The details are incredibly accurate – even down to what she was wearing that afternoon. She turns to the front of the book to confirm that the author is not someone she knows and sees that the disclaimer -“Any resemblance to persons living or dead…” is neatly crossed out in red ink. Now she is frightened! Who knew about this? She has never told anyone what happened.  Nick, who nearly died that day, was so young, she hoped that he would not remember it and if he did that it would just merge with his many other memories- a blip on the screen of his childhood. How did this book get into her house?  She knows she didn’t buy it so she asks Robert casually if he knows anything about it, but he claims to know nothing about it either. All she can think of is that someone came into their home and put it by her bed and that makes her nauseous.  Who would do such a thing?

Knight, in this debut novel, keeps you on the edge of your seat as she slowly reveals the terrible secret that Catherine is hiding and the person carrying out this devastating revenge. Catherine and her protagonist are fully realized people and Knight does a good job in describing their motivations and intentions. The other characters like Catherine’s son and husband are not as full formed but balance Catherine’s inner conflict and ground her in a life and relationships. What is fascinating in this book is to watch Catherine’s strength emerge as she begins to deal with not only the secret itself but also the consequences as it is revealed to those around her. This is a thinking/feeling person’s suspense novel and I hope that we see more of Renee Knight in the future!

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Lauren and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.