Megan Miranda’s The Perfect Stranger is billed as being a sequel to her highly successful All The Missing Girls – although as far as I can tell, there are no common characters or plot threads, unless one counts the fact that one of the characters in The Perfect Stranger is a “missing girl”! So if, like me, you haven’t read the earlier book, you won’t have any problems getting into this one, as it’s a standalone, and is a thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing read that asks some interesting questions. How well we can ever know another person? How honest and accurate are our self-perceptions? Just how far would you go for a friend who’d done a lot for you?

Leah Stevens worked as a journalist in Boston until a story blew up in her face. She had been investigating the deaths – seemingly suicides - of four young college students which she was convinced were murders, but when she refused to reveal a key source, she was slapped with a restraining order and the paper threatened with a lawsuit. Betrayed – it was her boyfriend who tipped off their editor – with no job and nowhere to go, Leah is relieved when she runs into Emmy Grey, someone she’d lived with shortly after leaving college some eight years ago.

Over several drinks at Emmy’s place, Leah gathers that her friend has just come out of a bad relationship and is keen to get out of Boston, too, so they stick a pin in a map and settle on Western Pennsylvania as the place they can both make a fresh start. Leah gets a job as a school teacher (and I have to say, the author’s comments about various aspects of the profession struck a real chord with me!) while Emmy drifts about, cleaning houses, working at a local motel… and because their schedules are so different, with Emmy often coming home as Leah is going out, they rarely see each other. Even so, however, Leah gets the impression that all is not well with her friend; she’s tense and on edge and it’s like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Because their schedules are so different, it takes Leah a few days to realise that Emmy hasn’t been home for some time. The post-it notes stuck on the wall reminding her the rent is due and various phone messages from Emmy’s boyfriend have fallen down rather than been removed, and Leah begins to worry for her friend’s safety. But if she files a missing persons’ report, it will lead to questions about Leah’s own situation, and those are questions she is not willing to answer. When a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to her is attacked on the other side of the lake from where Leah lives and a fellow member of staff at the school is the prime suspect, she is forced to accept that she can no longer distance herself and fly under the radar if she is to find out what happened to her friend.

Leah opens up to Kyle Donovan, the handsome young detective assigned to the assault case, telling him about Emmy and her fear that something has happened to her. But as the investigation proceeds it becomes apparent that even though Leah had believed herself to be very close to Emmy, she really didn’t know her at all, and worse, the police are starting to believe that she doesn’t actually exist. Leah knows that once her past is revealed, and it’s known that she is suspected of having invented a source, that belief is only going to be reinforced; yet Leah can’t give up. She’s got to prove that Emmy is real and then find out what has happened to her in order to prove her credibility and clear her own name. And in doing so, she starts to question her own long-held certainties about herself, her drive to seek the truth, her belief in her ability to read people and get them to open up to her… and to realise that she has been a victim of her own hubris.

Megan Miranda does a terrific job in this book of creating and maintaining an atmosphere of menace and uncertainty. She skilfully drip-feeds the truth about Leah’s situation, hinting at what she’s running from and slowly fitting the pieces of the puzzle together – although it’s not until well into the story that we finally discover the nature of the terrifying events that set her on the path she’s now travelling. And there’s also the fact that Leah is somewhat of an unreliable narrator, something the author plays with so cleverly that there are times the reader even questions the fact of Emmy’s existence, wondering if the police are right and she’s just a figment of Leah’s obviously active imagination.

On the negative side, however, there are times when there is perhaps just a little too much going on, there are a few plot-threads that are not suitably resolved, and a couple of large inconsistencies that really had me scratching my head – and not in a good way. The mystery is full of satisfying twists and turns, with a few suitably gobsmacking moments of realisation along the way, but the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. Things end well for Leah and Kyle, but it’s all a little low-key, so while I was pleased that everything was nicely tied up, I’d expected something a little… well, more.

With all that said, however, I enjoyed The Perfect Stranger enough to recommend it to fans of strongly written, atmospheric mysteries. It caught my interest early and kept me turning the pages, so I’m definitely interested in reading more by this author.

reviewed by AAR's Caz

The first thing my mother said was: “I don’t remember any Emmy.” As if this were the most important fact.


Leah Stevens was a journalist, but she pushed too hard for the truth that ended in tragedy, one that made her suspect. Filled with shame, guilt and failure she flees Boston, bumping into her old college friend Emmy Grey who is escaping her own personal disaster (a rotten relationship). The answer is to head to Pennsylvania together for a fresh start, a much more quiet setting where Leah can take up teaching. Naturally, her mother sees this as a huge step backwards in her road to success. Why teaching? Why there? Lurking through the story is an incident that led Leah to her current hiding place, hiding from life, memories, her future. Then a woman is attacked, one who resembles her roommate Emmy- when Emmy fails to come home, Leah knows something is dreadfully wrong. Terrified for herself and desperate to find her friend before it’s too late, she begins to uncover the mystery.

In walks Kyle Donovan, a police officer working the case as it grows stranger still. Emmy hasn’t just gone missing, she has disappeared into thin air, as if she never existed at all. Leah begins to doubt Emmy was ever real, pushing her to confront someone from her past, someone she is better off staying away from. Has she lost her mind? Is Emmy someone she conjured into existence? How can someone vanish so completely that they leave no crumbs behind? There aren’t even pictures! Maybe Leah has lost her mind! We don’t know anymore than she does. The reader comes to doubt her recollections. Just what did she do in the past, was she wrong? Is she a liar? Just who is the victim? Is someone after her?There has to be a truth to dig up, someone must have seen something? As she pieces her life together, and dissects her time with Emmy she begins to realize things are not solid, that she is to blame but why?

I thought this story was going somewhere else, so it was a nice surprise I guessed wrong. I was tricked, which I like in a mystery/thriller because I hate when I guess everything straight off. I doubted the ending, thinking most of us would react differently. As Leah’s past surfaced, I didn’t trust her nor the way she couldn’t remember straight- I think this is the best part of the novel- that self-doubting demon in all of us. The fear we have betrayed ourselves, either by confusion or delusions. What can we do when no one can back up our truth? Confirm what is real?

This was good, there are some strange characters even at her school. I kept thinking I knew what happened and pegging ‘who done it’ but nope. In All The Missing Girls, I didn’t guess what was going on either so I have to give Megan Miranda credit, it isn’t easy to mislead most avid readers. What bigger stranger exists than ourselves?

Publication Date: May 16, 2017

Simon & Schuster

There's just something about Megan Miranda's writing that suits me perfectly. This is the second book of hers that I've read and thought it was outstanding. I've heard people compare her to Gillian Flynn but I actually think her books are more suspenseful. This book leaves you questioning "fate" when just the right person shows up out of the blue. READ IT NOW!

my review: https://youtu.be/Al-lfMjFQW0?t=13m53s

First I would like to thank Megan Miranda for another edge of my seat story with so many twists and unexpected turns! In addition I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this thrilling novel in exchange for my honest review.
Leah Stevens needs to dissapear, start over, she happens to run into an old roommate from college, who, it just so happens needs to get away also.....too good to be true? From this point in the story forward Megan Miranda does a spectacular job of weaving in parts of Leah's past and present life along with glimmers of Emmy....The Perfect Stranger. Awesome read, I really enjoyed it, I can't wait to see what Megan Miranda has for us next!

Leah Stevens is running. She really needs to leave Boston, so when she learns that her old college friend, Emmy Grey, needs a roommate, she is eager to live with her in her isolated cabin near the woods. Emmy, too, wishes to start a new life, having just left a troubled relationship. The women decide to start over together, Leah as a high school teacher, and Emmy as an employee in a hotel.

When a stranger who looks like Leah is found murdered and Emmy’s new boyfriend is found at the bottom of the lake, Emmy goes missing, Leah reports her missing roommate to the police, but they can find no record of an Emmy Grey. It’s as if she had never existed. This is when Leah’s investigative skills kick in, and she begins her own investigation.

This book is filled with twists and turns! Along with the realistic characters, they make this a book that is nearly impossible to put down.

Leah Stevens is reinventing herself. She used to be a big-city journalist, but she did something, for her own reasons, that many considered unethical. What she printed caused someone else to make an even more devastating choice, and she had to leave the profession. In the midst of all her drama, she runs into her old roommate Emmy, who suggests they get out of town and make a fresh start together. She begins a job teaching at the local high school, and settles into her routine. She and Emmy lead very separate lives, but after a few days of not seeing her, she begins to worry.

There's a lot going on in this tiny town. Another girl has been found beaten almost to death, and a coach at Leah's school is the police's prime suspect. He's been sending Leah creepy emails and calling her cell at odd hours, so immediately she's involved. When she reports her roomie missing to the cute local cop, the mystery of who Emmy is and what she has done is deepened, enough that some people doubt she even exists.

As a teacher-librarian, I like that Miranda was able to create a teacher character who actually lives in a real teacher world. She addressed the fact that Leah had to get her certification, could only leave the building on her conference period, etc. She must have teachers in her life, because it's a profession that's often misrepresented in literature and on television. She's also great at pushing and driving a tense plot. She does a nice job at creating a "page-turner" by withholding just enough information to keep readers engaged.

What she doesn't do so well is tie everything together. There are so many small mysteries twisting and turning in this book, and I don't feel that any of them are resolved very well. So many of the plot lines that seemed really important in the beginning, turn out to be nothing. Also, the ultimate resolution to both major mysteries is completely unbelievable.

The writing is also not that engaging. I'll say the same thing I said about All the Missing Girls. With the quality of the thrillers that are out there now, these books just aren't standouts. When compared to new titles like Under the Harrow and The Girl Before, where writing is just as great as the story, there's just no comparison. The plots are fun, but the prose is lacking.

Megan Miranda is an author to savor and has my highest recommendation for those seeking thrillers/mysteries. All the Missing Girls was probably one of my favorite and certainly narratively original novels from 2016, and now with The Perfect Stranger, she once again hit it out of the park for me.

This is the type of book that keeps you hanging on every line; Miranda's phrasing and descriptions are nothing short of delicious. It's impossible to stop at the end of any one chapter, as each ending immediately entices you into beginning the next.

And the characters! These are terrific, flawed, morally ambiguous people who practically jump from the page. I can't say enough good things about this author or her books; the only justice I can do is to whole-hardheartedly recommend picking up her novels and devouring them. They're worth it!

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a good mystery. This book has it all and I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I stayed up all night to find out what happens. A real page turner.

Entertaining quick read, filled with suspense. Nice character development.

Forced to resign from her reporter job in Boston, Leah reacquaints herself with Emmy, an old friend. Both women need a new beginning, so decide to rent a home in a small Pennsylvania town. Now a high school teacher, Leah struggles to come to grips with what happened in Boston while trying to figure out how to start her life anew.

One day, Leah realizes she hasn’t seen Emmy in almost 5 days. When a young woman is found bludgeoned almost to death, Leah fears the worst and asks Kyle, a local detective, for help finding Emmy. When Emmy’s boyfriend is found murdered, clues seem to point towards Leah because no one can locate any evidence that Emmy actually existed. Each day that passes brings new fears to Leah’s life, and she will have to use every reporter skill she’s ever learned to get herself out of the hole into which someone seems to have wanted her to fall.

Billed as a sequel to “All the missing girls,” Miranda’s “The perfect stranger” seemed more as a standalone read to me. I didn’t find it to be as exciting, and it definitely wasn’t as suspenseful as “All the missing girls.”

I wasn’t a big fan, so will leave it up to you Adult readers to decide if you want to read it or not.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book came with huge anticipation, having enjoyed All the Missing Girls so much and I am pleased to say that whilst different, this is equally as good – phew! The characters are well developed and the plot twists so many times, that the reader’s attention is held right to the very end.
Leah has left her job as a journalist in Boston but we don’t find out exactly why for some time. Several plots unravel as the novel progresses and eventually tie together to give the whole picture. She is reunited with her old flat mate, Emmy after a chance meeting in a bar and the two plot to start afresh in a new place, a small town in Pennsylvania. Leah changes careers and becomes a high school teacher whilst Emmy works shifts doing what she can to cover the rent – the two literally only passing each other at home. When a woman is nearly murdered close to their house, Leah becomes suspicious of a fellow teacher who had shown her attention and who seems to be the focus of the investigation. Around the same time, she discovers that Emmy is missing and she has a hard time convincing the local police that she even exists as Leah soon realises she never really knew Emmy at all.
There is suspense by the bucketful and a touch of romance but essentially this is a psychological thriller with multiple layers and subplots and thanks to Miranda’s skill at storytelling is both compelling and believable. It is a real page turner with interesting characters, in fact all the ingredients for a good book!

This book, for me, is a perfect example of how the genre should be done. I know the phrase is overused but I couldn't put it down, everything else became a chore from the minute I started reading. The characters were well drawn and compelling, perfectly flawed and I just had to know how it would end. Tantalising hints on every page left me practically devouring chapter after chapter at every opportunity. Would I recommend? Most definitely. I'm off to look up Megan's other work.

I really liked Miranda's previous book All the Missing Girls so I was looking forward to reading this. Miranda is definitely a very smart writer in both books. I don't know how she keeps all her details and clues straight. I found this to be another strong book that kept you guessing and wondering what might happened. There were a few times I found it a touch too detailed/confusing and I don't necessarily feel that 100% of all the ends really got tied up to my satisfaction. However, as a whole I still enjoyed the book and would continue to read Miranda's books.

This book is full of twists and turns, edge of your seat, thrilling pages. This will not disappoint, recommended to all

Wow! This book is a nail biter to the end. I loved this book!

I loved All the Missing Girls and enjoyed this book just as well. I went into it with no expectaitons and was not disappointed. The book is full of twist and turns which kept me eagerly reading. I was satisfied with this book not have a lot of predictable situations and pleased that I was unable to figure the puzzling story out. This book requires that the reader pay attention. The story involves a missing girl Leah, or did Leah ever really exist. I hope Megan will continue to write novels for adults as she had now made to to my best read books.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon abd Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The second novel in a mystery series that can be read as a stand-alone. This book includes some eerie settings and characters. I missed the first one, but if it was as suspenseful as this thriller, then I may go back and read it too. It kept me guessing til the end. The plot is interesting and there are plenty of twists throughout, even with how the reader feels about certain characters (it's written in a way that makes you question whether certain ones are what you thought they were in the beginning). A good mystery, especially for fans of the author's YA mysteries and those readers who enjoy NA thrillers.

Net Galley Feedback

I was blown away by the story structure of last year's All The Missing Girls, therefore, I was super happy when Simon & Schuster's Marketing Manager Nicole McArdle emailed me and asked if I wanted to read this book. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I was excited to read The Perfect Stranger and at the same time I was a little anxious. I wondered if the story would match up to my 2016 favourite. The stories are different. Yes they are mystery thrillers but the voice and told and storytelling techniques are so different that a comparison is unnecessary and useless.

The Perfect Stranger is good. Really good. Once I started reading I was hooked, I felt so connected to Leah and wanted to help her make better decisions. A brilliant mystery/thriller that hooks the reader and you will stay up all night to get to that amazingly satisfying ending.

I loved this book - a quick, thrilling read with slippery characters at every turn. I was a fan of Miranda's book All the Missing Girls as well but I think I liked this one more.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review