In the last year we have seen two exceptional psychological thrillers top the bestsellers lists; Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. Having read and enjoyed both of these books, I was pretty keen to hear about a new offering in the subgenre being dubbed ‘domestic noir’. The tag line for debut author Renee Knight’s Disclaimer hooked me right in: Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental…
Catherine Ravenscroft, having just moved house with her husband Robert, comes across an intriguing book amongst their belongings – The Perfect Stranger. Thinking it might belong to Robert, or may have been a forgotten gift, she begins to read it. However, the more she reads, the more she begins to feel a sense of déjà vu.
Why?
Because she is the main character.
Having failed to initially notice the opening disclaimer of “any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental” with a big red line through it, Catherine soon begins to realise the implications of it having been crossed out. For this novel not only stars her as the main character, but it also brings to light her deepest, darkest secret.
The secret that she has never told her family.
The secret she thought no one knew.
As Catherine begins to investigate into the mysterious author and their motives, the guards she has put up against her haunting secret threaten to crumble. With the past catching up with her, Catherine begins to feel her whole world falling apart, as she is forced to revisit and confront her darkest hour.
I love the idea of books that have a seemingly simple premise, yet develop into much more complex emotional and psychological stories. The idea behind this one particularly grabbed me – what if you realised that the book you were reading was all about you? It is such a simple (and somewhat creepy) idea that does end up becoming about so much more. Brilliant. I am also a bit of a fan of the parallel, double point of view storyline techniques that are becoming more and more prevalent in crime fiction, and this book definitely delivers on that front.
Admittedly, the book took a little while to get going, and felt a little disjointed at the beginning. Most of the first few chapters left me thinking they were all a bit superfluous, and I wondered when the story would actually start. It took a while for me to actually warm to the story and feel that tug that makes me want to keep reading to know what happens next.
But for me the biggest thing I look for in a good crime novel is a twist I didn’t see coming. And this novel certainly does that. Just when you thought you had everything figured out, just when you thought you know what’s going to happen, what it’s all going to come down to, it suddenly takes a turn and you wonder how you didn’t see it all along. I honestly did think I had figured it all out about halfway through, but that was obviously the authors intention, because at the end everything I thought I knew was shifted to expose the authors true intentions.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoyed Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
Rating: 3/5
The Armchair Library 