Cate Holahan

This was a different tale about greed, betrayal, and love with surprising plot twists and suspense. Usually, I am not fond of stories where the writer goes back and forth between time periods. In this case, it is only a few months and it seemed to work well. The Mystery builds piece by piece and the characters and locations have the reader feeling like they are there. Overall, a very good mystery.

So I liked the first one well enough to go with the second and I will continue to the third. Just a few things though, one of the narrators (I think it's for Justine) has issues pronouncing a lot of commonly used words. Like butchering burlesque into something like burl-E-que. OMG really? That does NOT rhyme with barbecue. There was a lot of that and it took me out of the story and made me laugh. Also hilarious were some of the gaffes regarding slang and sayings that, as a teenager in the show more 80s, I never heard anyone say, like "you got this" and "it really impacted the situation" (I turned 20 in 1988 as did one of the authors who should know better). Not sure how old the writers are, but probably they were unborn or babies in the 80s, either that or they just have no ear for writing in period. Too much reliance on current mores as well, like with Meredith being that out in 1985. I'm sorry, but it was still pretty shameful (not to mention dangerous) to be gay back then and insulting girls with "lezzie" was common. I didn't meet my first out person until the early 90s and even then it was rare. Let's not don the rose colored history revision glasses on this issue, it just makes light of how far we've come, first with decriminalization and then societal acceptance, moving on to just not really caring since it doesn't affect people generally (see, proper usage, not "impact" oy vey). That's where we are now for the most part and it didn't come easy.

I did like the camaraderie that built between the women and how they came together after some initial misunderstandings and tension. It wasn't overly "girl power" (another thing that wouldn't exist for quite some time), but it was encouraging and brought a great vibe to the story. Also had some nice villains for us to choose from, although it wasn't really necessary. show less

Wow! I really enjoyed this intense, psychological thriller. The author swaps chapters with her protagonist, Liza, who is a romance/suspense writer, and Liza's protagonist, Beth, who is a character in the book Liza is writing. As the storyline between the two women unfolds, you have to pay attention, or the crossover will quickly lose you.

While Liza is taking fertility drugs and trying to get pregnant, Beth is already a new mother. While Liza deals with experimental fertility hormones show more implanted in her arm, migraines, and mood swings, Beth's infant, Vicky, descriptively drains her of milk throughout the book. I found these differences/similarities significantly tie the two characters together while they both disintegrate into murderesses.

Liza's husband, David, is distracted by the disappearance of his law partner, while Beth's husband, Jake, is distracted by another woman. While Liza contemplates having an affair with her agent, Trevor, who is a well-built, handsome man with a British accent, Beth has an affair with her psychologist, Tyler, who could be Trevor's twin.

At first, it appears Liza is only transferring bits of her life into her book, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear it much more than that. Beth is the one telling Liza's secrets. The twists and turns will leave you guessing until the very end...and even after the last page, you still have to think about it. Both women survive and get away with murder. Oh, wait. I mean, Liza does. Beth doesn't exist. Or does she? show less

Liza has thirty days to write a thriller that could put her back on the bestseller list. Her real life isn't going so well - she desperately wants a baby and her and her husband are struggling with that and he's distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. Liza focuses on her latest heroine, Beth. Beth is a new mother. She suspects her husband has been cheating on her while she's been taking care of their newborn. She sets out one night to catch them together and the next thing show more she knows she's throwing the body of his lover into the river. When Nick's body has been found in the Hudson River and Liza's husband is arrested for his murder, she realizes that the lines between reality and fiction are blurred.

I read Holahan's last book, The Widower's Wife, and loved it! So when I saw this on Netgalley I had to request it. I didn't even care what it was about; I knew it'd be good. This was one of those books I had to stay up late to finish even though I was extremely tired. This is a book within a book and it's so well-written and so clever. The characters, the places, everything has depth. Both stories were equally as good and the switch back and forth between the two was seamless. It felt as though it was happening in my own life and not just on the pages I was reading. Soo good!

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC. show less