This book was ok, it didn't really grip me. The story was a little bit boring. It also ended very quick and seemed to me to be unfinished

A good read overall. Plenty of action and suspense. Just wish I could have liked the characters a bit more.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Rain Winter was a journalist, who left her job to be a full time mum to her daughter, Lily. But her investigative brain won’t give up and she starts to look in to a murder case…could this be a serial killer?

As a child, she was almost kidnapped, but during the terrible event, her best friend died, and another, Hank was traumatised too. Investigating the murder case has brought back memories of this terrible time.

She also finds links, to other killings, of criminals who got away with a crime. Is this killer avenging the innocent?

I won’t say much more as I would hate to spoil any part of this twisted, dark tale. Yes, the killer is identified quite early, but this in no way reduced the nail biting tension. A real thriller in the true sense of the word. Brilliant.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest and unbiased review.

With themes of obsession and secrets combined with a haunted past, this is a dark and twisty psychological suspense. Characters are well observed and the storyline well paced. A tense, atmospheric and engaging read.

New book new author to me so was very excited to get cracking with it and let’s just say it didn’t disappoint please give this one a read it was fab!!

I am always excited when Lisa Unger publishes a new novel. Her stories are compelling, suspenseful, and gripping and I always find myself engrossed in the plot and intrigued by the characters.

In her new novel, The Stranger Inside, we have an excellent journalist who left her job to be a stay-at-home mum. However, Rain Winter is much more than that. She is haunted by a trauma in her past that left her scarred and full of guilt. The event that changed her life when she was twelve years old and involved her two best friends has still consequences in her life. After Steve Markham, a man accused of murdering his wife and walked out free is found killed, Rain decides to start her own investigation. Because Steve Markham is not the only guilty man who was found killed in the same circumstances as their victims…

What I love about Lisa Unger’s novel is that the tension never ever leaves the pages. There is a sense of dread as I turn each page that something bad is about to happen that makes it difficult to put her book down. Also, she knows how to create awesome and well-developed characters. They are multi-layered, dark, always full of surprises. I liked the protagonist of The Stranger Inside. From the outside, Rain Winter is a typical mother, a relatable woman who left her job to take care of her young daughter and now spends her days cooking, going to the park to join a group of mothers, and waiting for her husband in the evening. Inside, Rain is looking for revenge and closure. She is a survivor who hides her fear and anger for her past and we also see her struggle as her desire to go back to work compete with her love for her daughter. Rain is not the only protagonist of the story. I don’t want to say much about this character because I don’t want to give too much away, but just let me tell you that the complexity and different layers of this other character gave me goosebumps as I read.

Self-paced, claustrophobic, and thought-provoking, The Stranger Inside is another must-read from one of my favourite authors and I highly recommend it!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Wow did not expect to really like this book but I did had me hooked and reading till the early hours just to see what the outcome was. Loved it.

I feel like all my reviews lately are pretty down on the books and was SOOOOO hoping that this one would change all that... I was mistaken 😣

Now I adore Lisa Unger and have devoured her past novels (Sliver of Truth is AMAZING!) but this one just seemed a bit... lacklustre is the only word I can slot in there!

I didnt feel like I was actually reading a thriller, it was just so slow and I often felt myself wandering off in my own head which can be scarier than so called thrillers sometimes.

Action was lacking, we all love a book that keeps the characters alive with conversation but my God it was constant, where was the fast paced, stomach dropping, heart stopping parts you hope and expect in this genre?

The constant repetition done it for me, so much so I ended up speed reading/glancing through a third of the book. Without the repetitiveness (is that a word?) the ending could have been made sk much more explosive.

Basically... the overall story was good BUT it was just way too long winded.

2.5* from me. It wont put me off reading this author, as I said above I adore her work but this one just wasnt for me.

Thanks to netgalley and HQ for the ARC.

Gosh, but, Lisa Unger can write!
I've long believed that, if the writing is really good, I can read about anything. Well, this writing and storyline are first class and I was gripped and pulled along with this incredible tale.

I'm keen not to say too much about the storyline or plot (it's really good though)! So, enough for you to know that it's a well paced psychological drama with excellent characters that I really cared about. It covers childhood trauma and murder (without any unnecessary violence or bloodshed / gore), relationships, family, investigative journalism, psychiatry and at it's core a mystery.

In summary, I really really enjoyed it. The only reason for me its a 4 and not 5* is in my slight frustration with the lead character who, at times, was whiney and who regularly made and broke promises and irritated me. However, overall, she and the book were great.

Definitely recommend and massive thanks to @NetGalley, @HQStories and Lisa Unger for the opportunity to preview in exchange for my honest review.

What a great book. This book is suspenseful, full of tension and compelling. Once I started reading this book, I was unable to put it down.
The characters were compelling and well developed.
The storyline was captivating and well written. I couldn’t stop reading as I just wanted to know what would happen next. I was immersed in this book from start to finish. The ending of this book was not what I had expected at all. It left me in a state of shock and gave me the goosebumps.
I do have a couple of negative comments. I felt that the book was a little too long. Also, it was confusing in the beginning until I discovered who the narrator was.
All in all, this was such a good book.

The Stranger Inside tells the story of Rain Winter, mum of Lily, wife of Greg and former radio news show producer and investigative journalist, who is taking a break from work to look after her daughter.

After she learns of the murder of a man who was acquitted a year ago of killing his pregnant wife, Rain’s journalistic interest is piqued as it was a case that she reported on and she wonders who could have carried out the vigilante-style execution.

Before long, she finds herself obsessing over the story again as there are links to other cold cases with a similar pattern that the FBI is investigating, including one with which Rain was personally involved.

This well-plotted novel reveals how Lara (Laraine), as she was then, was the victim of a terrible ordeal as a 12 year old with her friends, Tess and Hank, in the woods near their homes. A man called Eugene Kreskey and his scary dog, Wolf, attacked the children and irreparably changed their lives.

Rain and Hank are very damaged by their ordeal and although they both tried to get over it in their own ways – Rain by putting everything in a ‘box’ and trying to forget it happened, and Hank by being a psychiatrist and trying to help save other children – they are still intrinsically connected by the awful events.

Rain becomes obsessed with trying to work out the links between the cases and her husband has to put up with her erratic behaviour as she ends up reliving her own ordeal. Hank, meanwhile, is also deeply disturbed by events and suffers his own inner torment. Both are still suffering from lots of guilt and post-traumatic stress and are trying to balance this with attempting to live a normal life.

Overall, I really enjoyed this absorbing thriller. It was a hard read at times as it was disturbing to hear how the children had suffered and see their subsequent emotional turmoil, which obviously followed them into adulthood. There were lots of tense moments as we followed the thoughts of both characters and learned more about how they were affected by what had happened to them.

The end of the book was gripping and the suspense had me turning the pages quickly, desperate to find out what was going to happen and how everything was going to be resolved!

This is the first book of Lisa Unger’s that I’ve read but I’ll definitely be checking out her others now!

I received copy of the book from NetGalley, many thanks.

Although it took me a few chapters to get fully submerged in the book, this dark and compelling story didn't disappoint

I won't rehash the story as the author is the best at this. I found myself really rooting for the antihero and hoped they would come out on top (maybe that's just my stranger inside!)

Revenge and good v bad is the book theme and it delivers a twist you may seem coming but it's get you thinking what you would do in the same situation.
A must read, praise for Lisa Unger

** spoiler alert ** I don't think I particularly liked any of the characters in this book,and that made it hard to care what was happening.
You've got to like,or really dislike someone to be invested in the story.
What I'm taking away from it mostly is how the way we treat people shapes them.... Kerskey was as he was due to the abuse he suffered from his parents.
They in turn were abused by their parents.
I'm afraid I am that person that wanted to know how a child was killed... Too many vague hints but nothing solid that I recall...
This is all sounding a bit negative.
I read the book,it kept me interested to the end.
Pretty much was I was hoping for.
I did roll my eyes slightly at the end though.

OMG this book ticks all my boxes. Tension, suspense, thrilling, gripping and a real page turner. A thriller par excellence. It has been a while since I have read by this author and WOW has she come back with a bang. A nail biter of a book. You need to read this book, hell no you MUST READ this book. I am a very very happy reader. An easy five stars and so Highly Recommended.
I would like to thank the author, HQ and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Wow! What an amazing read that kept me interested and intrigued from the opening few paragraphs right to the end. The book started with what you assume to be a justice seeker, redressing the errors of law courts in a very orderly, well organised murder of Steve Markham who got away with murdering his wife. This seemed to connect to other so called justice killings. The story then switched to the central characters of the book, Rain (Lahraine/Lara now a stay at home mum, but was an investigative journalist) Hank (a physiologist) and Tessa who when they were young were attacked by Eugene Kreskey. Tessa was killed and Lara and Hank were both badly injured. The story was told from the vigilantes perspective and from Rain’s.

The story in the present day and the past unfolds very well and almost organically. It’s not done chronologically but I felt this was more effective as we learned more about the three children and what happened to them and the present day events in a piece by piece way. There are some scary scenes especially of the attack and the children’s terror and how they become frozen by what had happened which was very well described. I liked the way that the author made an analogy to Fairy Tales as they can be terrifying and full of menace. The story is very dark at times and twisty and there were a couple of times when my jaw dropped especially towards the end where there were some revelations I definitely wasn’t expecting.

I loved the psychological aspect of the book especially the exploration of Lara/Rain and Hank’s inner personas, in fact they probably weren’t entirely sure at times who or what they were as they were so damaged by what had happened to them. Apart from inner turmoil, they have to live with survivors guilt and whether they like this or not, the two were entwined and trapped by the thorns of Kreskey’s evil. Hank seemed to be the most damaged but as the book progressed you see that was not entirely true. Lara has suppressed a great deal of the past but realised she had to open Pandora’s box if she stood any chance of moving forward to a future with past ties cut. The story was sad at times as you realise just how hard it was for victims of violence to move on. The ending was an exciting climax and I loved the subliminal message that the FBI investigator, Agent Bowers gave to the justice seeker. The book ended on an optimistic note for Hank and Rain/Lara which as a reader I think we needed as at times I felt like I’d gone through a wringer! The characters deserved a break and a chance to be the people they should have been before evil robbed them of their innocence and stunted their growth into adulthood.

Overall, a fantastic read. I liked the characters and the way it was written and I would like to read more by Lisa Unger. Thank you to HQ for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have heard a lot about Lisa Unger, but had never read her crime fiction before, a matter I rectified by reading her latest, this twisted psychological suspense novel about justice, judgement, vigilantism, ghosts, trauma, and mental health issues. Rain Winters, married to Greg, is a former news producer and journalist, now a stay at home mom with her baby, Lily, determined to provide her with a safe, secure and loving environment. When working in her job, she was partnered with her best friend, reporter Gillian Murray, she obsessively covered the trial of Steve Markham, charged with the murder of his pregnant wife, Laney. Convinced of his guilt, she was devastated when he was acquitted. She wakes up one morning to hear that Markham has been murdered in precisely the same manner that his wife was. This is not the first killing carried out by someone out there, determined to enforce their own form of retribution, there have been others too and it appears the FBI are beginning to investigate.

Markham's death triggers the traumatic memories from Rain's childhood, which on the advice of her Pulitizer prize winning father, she had kept tightly locked up inside her in a metaphorical box. Then known as Laraine, she and her best friends, Tess and Hank, experienced horrors no child should ever have to. A shocked and injured Rain escaped, thanks to Hank, but Tess and Hank were taken. Tess never survived, but Hank did although both he and Rain were left to deal with the guilt and consequences in the years after. The person who had committed such heinous crimes against them was charged and convicted, but upon release was killed by an unknown perpetrator. Hank and Rain felt that he had deserved his fate. Now Rain feels the insistent tugs of her shadowy past as she journeys back in time, opening the emotional wounds of her childhood, revisiting the consequences of what happened to her and Hank, a Hank she could not cope with and shut out of her life to embrace the new life offered by her marriage to Greg and daughter, Lily.

Unger's writing is tense, suspenseful, dark and atmospheric as she explores the interior lives of a Rain struggling to juggle the demands of being a mother and her inner desire to return to her former profession and that of the killer. With the character of Sandy, the psychiatric nurse, and mother of Tess, suffering the most agonising loss of her daughter, Unger provides a forum to look at the morality of vigilantism and the concepts of justice and judgement, with Sandy favouring the harder won road of the more long term solution of forgiveness rather than the perpetuation of the never ending cycle of violence. This is in many ways a complex and thought provoking read that follows the repercussions on the psyche of survivors of a terrifying trauma, infused with some light and redemption in the end. Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger
Thanks @netgalley @launger And @hqstories For my ARC
Publication date 3rd October
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The Stranger Inside centres around main character Rain, a stay at home mother and former journalist. When a local man is found murdered, Rain is drawn back into investigate. There are similarities and links that go way back to Rain’s childhood. Is this the work of a vigilante or something far worse?
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This was a difficult book to review as I didn’t want to drop any spoilers. I went into this book blind and I’d recommend reading it this way. A fantastic, original and complex thriller. Highly recommended xxxxx