Finding a mysterious novel at her bedside plunges documentary filmmaker Catherine Ravenscroft into a living nightmare. Though ostensibly fiction, The Perfect Stranger recreates in vivid, unmistakable detail the terrible day Catherine became hostage to a dark secret, a secret that only one other person knew–and that person is dead.

Now that the past is catching up with her, Catherine’s world is falling apart. Her only hope is to confront what really happened on that awful day even if the shocking truth might destroy her.

I had been wanting to read Disclaimer ever since reading some really good reviews last year.  Plus, I loved the concept – it sounded different (well somewhat – there was still a deep, dark, secret to be discovered as in the majority of books I read!).

I am pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed. This is a debut novel and well written and plotted.   The idea of a novel about a novel is  clever and shows how easily fact and fiction can be distorted. I was gripped from the beginning, with Renee Knight getting straight into the action and speeding along to a conclusion I didn’t see coming (well not till it was almost too late to feel any level of smugness for having figured out the secret).

Catherine isn’t he most likeable person and her husband made me mad pretty much from the moment he found out what was happening but that didn’t put me off because my sympathy for the person who is, technically, the bad guy.  I understood his motives, even if I didn’t agree with his actions.  It meant I wanted to know what happened to everyone involved in the end and that – as a result – I loved this book.  Highly recommended!

Emma