Copycat

This psychological thriller has a slow but, scene setting start and a truly explosive final section where all the clues and red herrings come together making a sense of the whole. Wow! The pace suddenly ratchets up several knots and I was racing through the text, keen to know how it would end.

Basically, this is a story of marital trust. And lies. Along with deep seated jealousy and resentment and opportunity for revenge and retribution offered in a digital age. It's a chilling reminder that the Internet has such easy potential for deadly use. It can be threatening, negative, uncontrolled and a medium for the maladjusted to exploit, so, so easily.

What starts out as a simple family story, with a bit of dark undercurrent soon develops into real threat. Sarah and Ben are happily married with kids and a circle of friends. But there's more than one Sarah. Are they two different people? Does Sarah have a personality disorder? Who are the real friends, who have something to hide.

This is creepy and satisfying in every way. Strong, plausible characters, a plot the racks up tension with every page and a final section where my heart rate was truly palpable. Never expected the final few twists and as for the last pages...oh my.

Fabulous read, kept me gripped and I'm now a big Alex Lake fan.

I thoroughly enjoyed this psychological thriller that was full of twists and turns. It was certainly quite disturbing but very well written. I will d finitely read more by this author in the future. Would highly recommend this book

One of the many attractions of this book is that it is a warning that social media can be used with devastating effect. It is hard to put this book down as it keeps revealing something new. The reader has to guess who is the perpetrator and I have to admit I got it wrong. This is a very good psycho thriller.

Liked it but didn’t love it.
After the first couple of chapters I needed to find out what happened in the end, I was concerned that she had mental health issues and really needed to find out what happened. After that I did continue to read the book and was interested in the general concept of the story where it did continue to keep you guessing for about three quarters of the plot. The final part, which I will not disclose for those of you who're still reading or about to start, was not what I expected and was not, for me, consistent with the way I expected the psychological aspect to develop. I am no author so not really sure where I thought the plot was going but somehow wished it had continued with the mind games. Perhaps other readers will like this twist, may just be a personal wish.
Altogether a well written psycho which I did enjoy reading.

The premise of this thriller was pretty terrifying and kept me turning the pages, but it could have been better edited - the dialogue didn't seem convincing and it went on a bit! Also, I have no idea whether the author is male or female but the main character struck me as more of a man's idea of what a woman is like than a real woman. Lines like "she wished there was a secret sauce that could get her in shape" had me rolling my eyes.

Entertaining, fast paced and thrilling, Copycat is an engaging book from beginning to end.

It starts with Sarah, a married mum of three, who stumbles across a duplicate Facebook profile in her name. The pictures and status updates are about her, but she didn't write any of it. It soon becomes clear that this is not an innocent coincidence but something a lot more sinister...and no one will believe her.

This would be a great pick for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

What a fantastic read! I loved every bit of this book. The book flowed beautifully and was a real page turner. Finished it in one sitting. Highly recommended!

Stalking: every woman's fear, every woman's risk. It's not just celebrities who attract stalkers, they can choose the most unlikely subjects - which is why this novel rings so true for so long.

Digital stalking - now this presses the fear button for many of us living and using social media in this digital age, but who grew up in simpler, more private times. Like our lead, I am reasonably digitally-conscious and conscientious, but like our lead I am no expert and this familiarity with her situation serves to heighten the sense of anxiety and bewilderment as the story progresses.

All of the subject's reactions are perfectly logical and sane, but then every move made by her stalker serves to do no more than make her seem increasingly insane - and it's so well conceived and written we have to ask ourselves - is she?

You won't guess who it is until well into the story, which is great - and then when you do, wow, do things get crazy!

This is a story of crime in the digital age. The main character is "attacked" by a protagonist who is in control of her email, shopping and social media accounts. It seems scarily possible although I am not sure how easy it would be.
It is a good read, fairly fast paced with some depth to the story, a good holiday read which keeps you wanting to read more. The end though, was less believable and the reader seemed to suddenly to arrive at the finish line.

I absolutely enjoyed this book. Having read After Anna, I knew I was in for a treat. However, I was enthralled by this so much more. Scary stuff, social media, but the content here was on another level. A complex tale, which was well written. Couldn't see how Sarah was going to get out of it! Also, no clue on who was behind it all until you needed to know and the clues were then all there. Couldn't put this one down. Sequel please. Would highly recommend.

My review as posted on Goodreads:

Sarah and Ben and their 3 children live and work in Maine. Then Sarah discovers a second Facebook profile in her name.
Increasingly more weird things start to happen.
There are fishing analogies.
There are analogies to being trapped in a web.
At times, especially at the start of the novel, I kept thinking, is this a warning for the social media generation?

Interspersed within the narrative are short chapters which are written from the viewpoint of the person who is controlling the 'other Sarah profile. These add something chilling to storyline.

What has she done?
Who can you trust?

Alex Lake has created some likeable and less likeable characters in this story. It is certainly a real psychological thriller.

In the later parts this is not a story for the faint hearted. I found myself reminded of some of the more gruesome parts of Mo Hayder's books as this psychological thriller developed. The tension builds steadily right to the conclusion. I this the end?

On the strength of this novel I will certainly look out for other books by Alex Lake.

My thanks go to Netgalley and HarperCollins for a copy in exchange for this review.

This is a really good scary thriller. Sarah discovers that someone has copied her Facebook page. That is just the start of a lot of events that have her wondering who is out to get her. Very well written and definitely edge of the seat suspense in places. I read this book in one go. I had to find out who was out to get Sarah and why.

This book is without a doubt the best psychological mind twisting psychocotic storyline I've read in a while. I seriously thought it was Ben. But then the second part I was swayed to jean. Her reasons where purely psychocotic, no sane person would hold Sarah to blame for what happend when they where younger. An absolutely brilliant book, I will definitely recommend to everyone. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Loved this book! The premise was chillingly possible and the gradual unravelling of Sarah's sanity all too feasible in today's online world. Betrayal and tension made for an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable read. Will definitely add this author to my list of unmissables.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending an arc of Copycat to me, in exchange for an honest review.
Tension, intrigue, cliff hangers and betrayal. Copycat has all of these elements twisted between its pages and held together by mystery.
Copycat follows the story of Sarah Havenant, a doctor, mother and wife. Her happy life takes a chilling turn when she discovers a facebook account in her name, with photos of her and her family with personal status updates. Sounds normal right? The only problem is, the account isn’t hers. She already has one. From this point on Sarah begins on a journey to try and uncover who this ‘Copycat’ is.
On the whole I found this to be a really enjoyable thriller. It had everything to make it a page turning read. With cliff hangers at the end of every chapter and a story that seemed to get more twisted at every turn you can’t help but become consumed by this story. In our modern world where social media has become a fundamental part of people’s lives, this story hit hard to home. Facebook, twitter, instagram, we share so much of ourselves and our families online that we forget how vulnerable that can make us. By putting so much of yourself into this social realm, you are allowing other people a very personal and detailed view into your life. Being able to relate to Sarah through this made the story feel very real and current with some of today’s issues.
In accompaniment to Sarah’s point of view, we also get chapters that interlace her own from the copycat of the story, while still keep their identity hidden. I really appreciated these chapters because it was so interesting to read from the opposing view point. To be inside the head of the enemy was a really interesting experience. It definitely added a lot of suspense and intrigue to the story.
The reason I didn’t give this book a rating higher than three stars is because I felt that the ending let the whole story down. I was so caught up in this mystery and was really interested to find out who was the ‘copycat’ and why, but when it was revealed I found it almost comical. After all the intricately woven suspenseful moments, it felt like the author just thought, ‘Okay, I need to end this now and pick the most shocking person I can so it ended up being the most illogical and ridiculous culmination to an otherwise well written story. I can’t explain too much without spoiling the ending, but the person who was revealed and the culprit and their reasoning behind everything was so outlandish and just daft it made the ending feel like it was done for nothing but shock value. I also would have liked the story to have been finished off more thoroughly. We never really get a proper ending. I would have liked to have known how Sarah reacted to everything and if she managed to get back to her normal life.
Overall, this was a solid foundation for what could have been a great book. With an attention grabbing plot line that is very relatable in today’s world this was a really enjoyable book to read and will definitely cater to those readers that like a bit of suspense. However, with a rushed ending that gave the impression the author gave up, I really felt disappointed with this book. I loved the first half and was so excited for the ending, but unfortunately this is only a 3 star read for me.

Not for me I'm afraid. I really wanted to like this book as the synopsis sounded perfect but I just couldn't get in to it.

I didn't get very far in this book. The voice was gossip-y (maybe it was supposed to be), but I couldn't connect with the characters.

I've read Alex Lake's previous two books, but this one is my favourite so far. What starts off as a creepy annoyance quickly becomes far more sinister. An exciting read with plausible characters (both American and British) and a plot which builds gradually then speeds up. This would make a great film!

This is a psychological thriller about Sarah who is a doctor. She finds out through an old school friend that there is a fake Facebook account set up in her name with up to date photos and statuses which are accurate. At first Sarah thinks that this is one of her friends playing a prank on her but things escalate and she realises that it definitely is not a prank.

I really enjoyed this story with all the different twists and turns. I also enjoy anything that has a social media element to it. The story way the character dealt with the situation felt realistic, I normally find myself shouting at the main characters for doing stupid things. I did guess correctly very early on who was behind it even with the red herrings that the author put in along the way. I would highly recommend this book and will definitely be reading more from this author.

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And maybe it is when people admire your looks, ability to host a dinner party or great taste in books. Sarah Havenant is intrigued and mildly curious at first when Rachel, a distant friend, comes back into her orbit and reveals there's another Facebook account in her name.

But what seems to be a coincidence soon begins to look deliberate and scarily like a takeover. With mounting disbelief and increasing anxiety, she not only has her Facebook identity copied but also her handwriting and access to her Amazon account.

Emails purporting to be from her get sent, disturbing friends and putting her children in potential danger. The whole scenario makes her start to question her own sanity, aided by her husband, Ben, who fears it is the most likely reason indicated by the notes she appears to send, plus the self-help books on depression and living with bipolar disorder she seemingly dispatched to herself while unhinged.

With rational explanations dwindling, panic mounting and odd occurrences escalating, Sarah is left feeling scared and bewildered, unable to fully trust anyone, though still certain she didn't do any of these things herself. In her quest to seek answers, she places herself dangerously in the path of the person seeking to undermine and harm her.

Finally, she is literally captive to the copycat culprit, held in fear of imminent death and apparently helpless to stop her life from being taken over by another. Tension and fear escalate as she tries to plan an escape.

No spoilers here. Suffice to say you will be held in the thrall of the author's skill at captivating story writing and ability to build up tension. I was gripped from the start with the way this psychological thriller exposé of our fear of identity theft is handled, though I did have a sneaking suspicion who the culprit might be before the unfolding denouement.