DON'T BELIEVE HER

Sanders’ thriller centers around the return of a long-lost woman in England.

Ellie is a hairdresser in the small English town of Lindleton; she grew up there, and she knows the place well. Some 12 years prior, her childhood friend Carla Goodwin ran away from home at the age of 16. Although Carla reportedly made it to Liverpool, Ellie has always suspected something was off about the whole situation. In the present day, Ellie has plans to marry Carla’s brother Nick, and the couple lives with Carla’s mother Marjorie in the very home in which Carla was raised. The family has not heard much of anything from Carla over the years—naturally, they are surprised when a woman claiming to be Carla shows up at their home. Ellie is immediately suspicious, convinced the woman is a con artist. This “Fake Carla” (as Ellie refers to her) is vague about what she has been doing for the past 12 years, but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone but Ellie. As Ellie refuses to back down, people in town start to think that she is crazy—but perhaps there is more to the story than the average Lindleton resident realizes. The narrative maintains a compelling mystery: Could this person really be Carla? Just as it seems Ellie is completely wrong and has perhaps gone too far, something will occur to make readers wonder if maybe she was right all along. It’s difficult to know who to trust; perhaps Ellie, who narrates most of the story, is not so reliable after all. This tension leaves readers little choice but to keep turning the pages. Some of the dialogue along the way is not altogether imaginative—characters deliver typical thriller lines like “You won’t get away with this” without a hint of irony. Still, there are always more discoveries to be made as the intrigue deepens; the arrival of Carla (or Fake Carla?) in town is just the beginning of the drama.

A twisty tale flush with suspicious characters who keep the reader guessing.