The Perfect Stranger

Five women from different parts of the country become online friends. All have had the same diagnosis -- breast cancer. All five women choose the same path to deal with their diagnosis and treatment -- blogging. Now one woman, Meredith, is found murdered in her home and her friends wonder if it's possible this was random or if she was targeted because of her blog. The Perfect Stranger asks the questions: is it possible to really know people that you only interact with online and to reveal too much personal information online?

I read, okay I devoured, The Perfect Stranger in one afternoon. Ms. Staub carefully presents each woman as they mourn the loss of their friend: Landry is a forty-something wife and mother from Alabama, Kay is a show more middle-aged unemployed loner in Indiana, Elena is a thirty-something single schoolteacher in Massachusetts, and Jaycee is an unknown quantity possibly from New York. The search for the truth is interspersed with tidbits from each person's blog, intimate details of their lives, and the thoughts of the killer. The swing between characters, blog posts, and the search for the murderer kept me just a little off-balance until the very end. The Perfect Stranger is a great mystery-suspense read because just when you think you know who it is the story twists and sends you off in a new direction. I found The Perfect Stranger to be a fast-paced and engrossing read. If you're looking for a mystery-suspense story with compelling characters and action, then you'll definitely want to add The Perfect Stranger to your TBR list. (Beware, after reading this story you may never want to go online again.) Make sure you add the prequel e-novella Cold Hearted to your list and read it first. show less

I never would have thought that I would ever see the day when there was a "Breast Cancer Killer"; however, Wendy Corsi Staub has done it with her latest, The Perfect Stranger. And it works. It was a very interesting premise and very scary at the same time. How do we really know the people we talk to on social media? What if they weren't really who they say they were and were instead a killer? How much information do we really share on the internet? Enjoyed this one!

[The Perfect Stranger] by Wendy Corsi Staub
Social Media Series Book #2
3 stars

From The Book:
During the darkest period of her life, Landry Wells found solace in a group of bloggers who had been in her shoes and lived to tell the tale. She's shared things with her online friends that even her husband and children didn't know. Things that now, looking back, make her uneasy. One of the bloggers is dead, victim of a random crime—or was it? Did she trust too easily; reveal too much? At the funeral a thousand miles from home, Landry is about to come face to face at last with the others. These women are her closest confidantes in the world: they understand her; they know everything about her—and one of them might be a cold-blooded killer . show more

My Thoughts:
There was way too much detail about the characters. The book was mired down in character description from the very beginning. Eventually you just don't care about any of them any longer. The seemingly random killings were interesting as well as intriguing...thus resulting in the 3 star rating instead of 2. The reader will understand...if they don't already... the dangers of sharing too much information on social media sites and trusting total strangers. show less

I’ve always wanted to read Wendy Corsi Staub’s books and when the opportunity came to review her upcoming release, THE PERFECT STRANGER, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity! After reading THE PERFECT STRANGER, you look at the internet a little differently.

As for characterization, we have a several characters that play a vital role. Just a quick note: if you’re the type that needs to focus on two or three characters in order to fully follow a story, you might want to proceed with caution since the amount of characters Staub introduces might overwhelm you. Take your time reading the first couple of chapters in order to get acquainted with everyone. Now, I’d say Landry is the most important character since she’s the one who show more initiates contact regarding attending Meredith’s funeral. I really liked her and although she loves being a wife and a mother, you can tell she longs for more than that. Then we have Elena, a first grade teacher who is struggling with the unwanted attention of a fellow co-worker. We also have Kay, who used to work as a federal prison guard and Jaycee who travels on business. Now all four women have something in common: their bloggers who came together online via a cancer support forum. You’ll get to know more about them as you read as well as that of Meredith, another blogger in their tight circle.

Narrative is third person and my only real annoyance is the way diction is used. For example, instead of “he smiled with watery eyes,” you get present tense with “he smiles with watery eyes.” At times, this was difficult to read and kept pulling me out of the story. Although, I’ll admit that halfway through STRANGER, I didn’t notice it as much. I feel that this would have been better suited for a flashback / memory scene told in the present rather than the way she utilizes it. Despite that, it’s an engaging story.

As for the overall mystery of the killer’s identity…wow, I wasn’t expecting it to be that person. Of course, I won’t go into details about their identity because it ruins the book. I’d like to say I picked up on clues but sadly, I missed a few. My initial suspect obviously turned out to be wrong and I liked the way Staub set things up. What I would have liked would have been a little more exploration as to why they did it. Again we get a few clues here and there, but overall I feel as if it’s like real life, where sometimes you don’t get the answers you want. If that’s the way it was for the characters in the aftermath, then I can accept it as a reader.

What I really liked about THE PERFECT STRANGER are all the emotions Staub makes you feel. As a blogger, you try to keep some of your real life private and yet other bloggers are quite open with theirs. I liked how Landry and company were worried about meeting in real life to questioning if their safety and that of their families. In this day in age, it’s easy to make friends online and of course not know who is behind that screen. It would have really easy for Staub to have turned THE PERFECT STRANGER into some “stranger danger” cheesy novel, but instead reminds us to be cautious and it’s a stark reminder that we don’t even know the people closest to us.

If you’re a fan of thrillers, I definitely recommend Wendy Corsi Staub’s THE PERFECT STRANGER. Just a bit of a warning: you’ll never want to come online again. show less

A group of breast cancer survivors have become friends through their blogs. They live all over the country and the world but they feel so close because no one can understand like another person who has been stricken by the disease. When one the most beloved bloggers is murdered, some of the bloggers decide to attend the funeral and meet each other for the first time. It is a time of sadness but also fear. Could one of the bloggers be the killer?

This book really held my interest. The mystery was not what hooked me. It was the women in the story. They were so interesting and the stories of their struggles with cancer made them seem so real. I took off 1/2 star because the end seemed rushed and some things seemed left unfinished. But as I show more said, I really liked the characters and found the book hard to put down. show less

When Meredith, a popular breast cancer blogger, is murdered in her own home, the other bloggers in her circle of friends become worried that someone may have been stalking her through her writing. A major concern of the bloggers is how much information revealed is too much. They are planning to meet in person for the first time to attend Meredith’s funeral, but thoughts of a stalker following their moves heightens their fears, and at times borders on paranoid.

With multiple characters and perspectives, and a lot of personal detail, the murder mystery became secondary to the dangers of an online stalker. While I enjoyed the book, I never felt the tension or suspense a murder mystery should evoke. It felt more like a warning about the show more dangers lurking on the internet and social media.

Audio production:
The book was narrated by Allyson Ryan who nicely captured the feelings of emotion and fear in each of the women while at the same time providing distinct voices for each of them. Because of the multiple perspectives and changing scenes, the audio requires a little extra focus and attention to detail. show less

I got to about half way with this book and then stopped for a moment. There have been several times since that I had the opportunity to pick this book up again to read it. Yet, I could not bring myself to pick the book up again to read it. This is because I realized that even though I got about half way, I could barely remember what happened tin that first half. To say that this book was unmemorable would be correct. This is not the author's strong showing of her work.