ARC REVIEW: The Other Girl – by Erica Spindler @StMartinsPress

Title: The Other Girl
Author: Erica Spindler
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: August 22nd 2017
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Finished reading: August 8th 2017
Pages: 352

“She’d left everyone from those days behind – everyone except that girl she had been. All these years,carrying her around like an invisible anchor.

The girl she had been.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

I was personally invited to read this title a while back and since I’ve read and enjoyed Erica Spindler‘s work in the past the answer was an easy one. I’ve been looking forward to pick up The Other Girl ever since and I can say now the actual story is just as good as the cover. This new stand-alone thriller starts out strong and stays that way until the very end. The storyline switches between flashbacks of what happened to the main character and now officer Miranda about fourteen years ago and you slowly learn how these events are or aren’t connected to the present. I personally wasn’t a fan of Miranda, but her character development is interesting and it was intriguing how she was trying to put the past behind her and change her life. The writing style draws you right in and had me hooked almost instantly. A little warning for the more sensitive readers, because some of the scenes can be called pretty disturbing and graphic. Because boy, they have one heck of a case on their hands! There are a lot of twists and intrigue included in The Other Girl, although I did start to suspect the who and why quite early on. This put only a tiny damper on my reading experience though, since this thriller is so well written and action-packed that the journey alone makes it a worthy read. If you like a good crime thriller with a twist, The Other Girl is a great choice!

Officer Miranda Rader has a dodgy past, but she has worked hard for years to leave the girl she used to be behind and earn respect as an officer of the Hammond PD in Louisiana. But when Miranda and her partner are made part of the investigation of the murder of one of the most beloved college professors of the town, her past might just be back to haunt her. Because the murder isn’t just gruesome, but seems to be connected to her personally when she finds a faded newspaper clipping at the scene. What is happening and who is behind the murder? Things are about to become very complicated…

I had high expectations for The Other Girl and there is no doubt this story has met these expectations. The strong start had me hooked right from the beginning and I liked the balance between the flashbacks to the past and the present. Miranda isn’t exactly likeable, but her character development is well done and there is no doubt she is an interesting one. I did see the ending coming quite early, but still had an excellent time reading The Other Girl.

---

You can also find me at Goodreads. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Bloglovin’.