Sara-Jayne Townsend is a published crime and horror writer and likes books in which someone dies horribly. She is founder and Chair Person of the T Party Writers’ Group. http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com/
Evie Porter has everything: a doting boyfriend, a house with a picket fence, a fancy group of friends. The only catch is that Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
And this is our introduction to Evie Porter: a woman of changing identities. A woman trying to escape her past. A woman who has been given the persona of Evie, and a target – Ryan Sumner. Her boss, Mr Smith, is a man she’s never met. His motives remain a mystery, and the jobs she is given – which always involve taking on a new identity – never seem to be on the right side of legal.
As Evie Porter, she has been instructed to ingratiate herself into Ryan’s life in order to take from him something he has that Mr Smith wants. She’s been successful with the first part of the job – she’s just moved in with Ryan and he is introducing her to everyone as his girlfriend. But then at a social event she meets an old friend of Ryan’s, who has a new girlfriend of his own: a woman who looks remarkably like Evie, and who introduces herself with a name Evie never expected to hear again – her own.
Suddenly Evie is questioning everything she knows. Who is her boss, and what is he up to? Is Ryan really the target, or is she the one that’s being played? And to further complicate things, she has also started to develop genuine feelings for Ryan.
Once you get this far into the book, you won’t be able to put it down. This is an outstanding psychological thriller with twists coming at you from all directions, and you’ll want to keep reading to get to the truth.
It also takes you on something of an emotional roller coaster ride. At the beginning of the book, when all we know about Evie is that she’s not who she says she is, it’s difficult to have much empathy for her. But the more we learn about her, and her background – and the more we learn about Ryan, who it seems might be up to some dodgy dealings himself – the more we find ourselves empathising with her.
I thoroughly recommend this excellent book to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers – it might only be January, but this could well be your best read of 2024.
