The Perfect Friend – a #BookReview

Title:  The Perfect Friend by Barbara Copperthwaite

Genre: Currently #185 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Suspense, Psychological

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: July 5, 2018, Happy Release Day!

Source:  Publisher and NetGalley

Title and Cover: The Perfect Friend – Not a real fan of the (yellow) cover

“…Still, I’m trying to decide how much truth to tell. This started as little white lies…”

Barbara Copperthwaite is a master of the psychological thriller model. The problem is, if you are like most people, you take on face value what you are told, and the narration is so simple, so natural, you don’t suspect anything is awry. But you’ve been set up immediately with a narrator who tells you up front she is a liar.

Alex certainly looks like an anorexic and has the recent serious history to prove it. She’s attending a support group where all have shared their deepest secrets. She’s met Carrie there. Poor Carrie, a woman half her age, is terminally ill with cancer. Alex feels an affinity for her immediately, the mother in her kicking in, wanting to make Carrie’s bucket list come true. They are both suffering, Alex having had her husband take their kids and leave. She’s bereft. Her own children aren’t speaking to her anymore, though of the twins, it would be her son Edward who might help pave the way for discussion of the circumstances with her daughter.

The author weaves some of Alex’s backstory in an out of the progression of Alex’s therapy sessions. The formative years. And pieces of Carrie’s story–how does a young, healthy woman confront the time she perceives is left to her. (If you’ve heard of inflammatory breast cancer, you know it’s unforgiving, unrelenting, and a deadly battle.)

Inevitably the reader is drawn into the story of these two women as they each deal with the cards they’ve been dealt, until you begin to question some details. Why does Carrie still have some hair? But suspicions don’t stop with Carrie. Your trust is beginning to erode with both of them. Two and two aren’t adding correctly. First person switches from the original narrator to Carrie. If you didn’t like Alex before, now you don’t like Carrie. They only have each other, but that unconditional support is beginning to look as if it’s built on shaky ground. There are twists and switchbacks, little twice-told tales that confirm what you thought you knew. The plot is fraught with tension and it’s difficult not to sit on the edge of your chair, leaning forward to speed the conclusion. And then the legs are swept out from under you.

Yes, it’s possible that you suspected a few real truths along the way. I discovered I was wrong about fifty percent of the time. This one will keep you guessing until the end, where the violent waters settle into a calm little pond with a conclusion you probably hadn’t guessed either. I’m betting you can’t predict all of it and in the meantime, it’s a nail-biting, entertaining read.

I was granted an ebook download by the publisher and NetGalley and greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review. Recommended for mystery, suspense, and psychological thriller fans.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five of Five Stars 

The Author: (From Amazon Author page) Barbara [Coppperthwaite] is the Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, THE DARKEST LIES, and HER LAST SECRET. Her latest book is THE PERFECT FRIEND.

More importantly, she loves cakes, wildlife photography and, last but definitely not least, her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy (who force her to throw tennis balls for them for hours).
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Having spent over twenty years as a national newspaper and magazine journalist, Barbara has interviewed the real victims of crime – and also those who have carried those crimes out. She is fascinated by creating realistic, complex characters, and taking them apart before the readers’ eyes in order to discover just how much it takes to push a person over a line.

When not writing feverishly, she is often found hiding behind a camera, taking wildlife photographs.

To find out more about Barbara’s novels, go to http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBarbaraCopperthwaite or follow @BCopperthwait on Twitter. To find out more about Barbara go to http://www.barbaracopperthwaite.com See Barbara’s photos go to https://www.instagram.com/author_barbara_copperthwaite/

©2018 V Williams