Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense
The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.
When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking…and what she’s hiding. As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone
An Anonymous Girl, by co-authors Greer Hendricks, and Sarah Pekkanen, is their follow up to 2018's The Wife Between Us which has apparently been picked up as a possible movie by Amblin Entertainers. 28-year old Jessica Farris is a Beauty Buzz Cosmetics specialist who struggles to pay her bills. Jess moved to NYC dreaming of a career in the theater. After a visit to a client, Jessica discovers that a professor named Dr. Shields is offering $500 for a ethics and morality study.
You're
Invited: Seeking women aged 18-32 to participate in a study on ethics
and morality conducted by a preeminent NYC psychiatrist. Generous
compensation. Anonymity guaranteed. Call for more details.
Finding extra money to send home to her parents and special needs sister, who she supports, sounds like a fantastic opportunity. The questions start out innocent enough but get darker and deeper as
she continues. They range from questions like can you tell a lie without feeling guilt? Have you ever kept a secret from someone you loved to avoid upsetting them? After the first part of the questions are over, Jessica meets the mysterious Dr. Shields.
As the study goes on, Jessica finds herself in a quagmire of her own doing, really. She opens up about secrets that she has never told anyone, but is the money really worth the emotional toll? Readers will ask ourselves just how far and how deep would we get involved
What motivates us in our own lives to make the moral choices that we do?
Is there ever a line drawn and set in concrete or is it a moveable
barrier depending on odd circumstances? Is bartering an option?
As the sessions continue, and the payoff increases, Jess can't help but wonder what the study really is all about. Dr.
Shields starts to tell Jess where to go, how to dress, and whom to
meet—and in some cases, that entails striking up a conversation with a
specific man. Dr. Shields watches from behind the scenes
and snares Jessica into a web of deceit and trickery to expose her own husbands infidelity. Jessica ends up so deeply trapped in the study, that she can't get
out of, even once she learns how dangerous it is and how far Dr. Shields will go.
This is a cleverly written psychological thriller full of deceit, obsession, twists and unreliable narrators. I haven't read the Wife Between Us yet, but I might just as well since I now have some understanding at how well these writers actually work together. It's also nice to have new authors churning out entertaining books, instead of the same repetitiveness that leaves us with Hollywood making the same movies over and over again.
Ooooo I love evil doctors. Love that cover too.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental