An interesting concept that was well written. I enjoyed this book - would read more by this author in the future.

The book is a psychological thriller and it made me think about a lot of different things. It's intensily disturbing but also a very enjoyable reading. I simply couldn't put the book down. The ending got me, I wasn't expecting anything like that! I highly recommend it.

Sarah has everything she could want; a wonderful loving husband, 3 beautiful children, a beautiful home and a job she loves. But it seems someone else wants Sarah's life; someone who will stop at nothing to take everything she has and get Sarah out of the picture for good.

Split between the accounts of Sarah and her copycat, we see how easily the copycat can attack Sarah and make her and those closest to her question her and her actions. Sarah tries to keep herself focused on what she's knows is the truth but as the attacks get more intense and personal, Sarah begins to question who could be doing this and why.

The two perspectives combined with short chapters make this one a very easy read but one that will keep you guessing. The book leads you to suspect different people without revealing any clue of the reasoning. I did start to lean more towards one suspect but I still couldn't figure out a motive. When the answers are revealed, the book lurches from a small scale domestic mystery to a full on psychological thriller with a climactic ending leaving it open and unresolved.

Copycat is a disturbing look at just how vulnerable our online presence makes us; shopping, email, banking, social media; our whole lives are posted online for anyone and everyone to see.

I enjoyed reading Copycat but it wasn't one of my favourites. I felt the motive was a little loose in the end but the open ending made me feel there was maybe more to the Copycat's motive than we're led to believe.

A good book that's worth a read. Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Lake and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah is living a happy life with her husband and children when she receives a Facebook message from an old school friend, this message leads Sarah to discover that there is another Facebook profile in her name with photos of herself, her children and even inside her home. There is information on this profile that can only be known by Sarah or someone very close to her - how has this happened? Soon after the discovery of the fake profile things start to happen that Sarah has no control over, books about depression start to arrive at the house, phone calls are made to the children's school. Who can be behind these events? Is Sarah herself responsible for the events due to a mental illness?
This is a real page turner that kept me up late into the night.

I found this slightly freaky but also couldn't put it down. The world we live in now means that everything is out there and it can feel hard to have a private life - as someone can always find their way in.

Great book!

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was a scary book to read. Imagine if someone knows about your life before you even do..... Well written, fast paced and thrilling read.

I enjoy reading psychological/thrillers and Copycat certainly comes into this category. Although I finished the book I did find it a little long winded at times and worked out who was causing all the trouble relatively early. I just wish that the pace had been faster. I would recommend this book but cannot say that it is one of my favourites.

THis book was let down by the fact that it was obvious who was the perpetrator and the ending . very predictable

This is a book in two parts - before and after, so to speak, and each part is thrilling in its own way. The first half paints a picture of what is going on, the second half, the aftermath. It’s definitely an exciting read and will have the viewer guessing .

The tension in this story made it difficult to read for [prolonged periods. Such an innocent story that had such terrible developments. Affecting someones' mind is one of the worse torments imaginable. The descriptions and continuing imaginative developments in the story were extraordinary and it doesn't seem to be finished.

the first two thirds of this book is gripping.
It plays on modern fears of identity hacking and also losing one's mind..
Sarah is an average, somewhat selfish wife and mother and her word as a GP and other vents take place within the life story she sees herself as starring in.
Her husband is quite nice, not the most empathetic when he discusses ahis wife's possible mental condition with her new worst enemy, but he is a good father who has other problems to contend with apart form his wife, who may have started sending emails, Facebook posts and even book orders to herself.
The latter part of the story is brutal and continues too long in an attempt to build up yet more tension, and the end seems very hurried. For the most part I would recommend it and try another by Alex Lake

This book intrigued me. What an interesting thought using social media to scare and undermine. Also rather scary to feel it could actually happen. I was gripped to find out more. However I was disappointed in the ending as I felt another twist would have been welcome to make it an even better read and possibly a screen plot of the future.

Sarah Havenant and her lawyer husband Ben live in the town of Barrow in Maine with their 3 perfect children. One day Sarah is contacted by her old school friend Rachel who is moving back to town and would like to re-connect with Sarah. Rachel asks Sarah to confirm which Facebook account is hers as there are 2 under her name and when Sarah checks this out she discovers that both accounts are hers - someone is impersonating Sarah and using her own life events and photos of her loved ones to do so. The situation escalates tremendously from that point leaving Sarah doubting everyone around her as well as her own sanity at times. Her marriage begins to crack under the strain and her loved ones question her mental health - particularly as Sarah has experienced anxiety in the past.
I won't give away anything further other than to say that this was a fantastic and fast paced psychological thriller which reinforces the danger of sharing too much personal information online and how easy we make it for others to cause major disruption in our lives. I read this book in 2 days and would probably have been 1 had life not rudely interrupted at times. 5 stars all round - do yourself a favour and read this excellent book. Many thanks to Netgalley UK and HarperCollins UK for the advance review copy.

To begin, I’d like to thank HarperCollins UK for sending me an ARC of this book, and to NetGalley for facilitating.

As usual with my reviews I will not make any direct references to events so that there is no hint of a spoiler in sight!
From the title and synopsis it is clear that this is a thriller, centred around a stalker. A cyber stalker by the sounds of it. This piqued my interest of course due to the nature of the world we live in now - a lot of lives are lived on the public forum and information that was once “sensible to keep private” is now displayed openly for all to see. Which would presumably make identity theft (at least ones online identity), far easier to spot. I know I’ve personally had a handful of friends send me messages asking me not to accept a friend request from a duplicate profile that had been set up by some unknown person. So reading the synopsis, this book felt very interesting and current. And shows that the author has a clear grasp of the type of crimes we are likely to be facing going forward. Stalkers/bullies have adapted and moved on with the world, everything is done digitally now.

Most of the characters were well thought out and had good levels of complexity to them (as most humans do!), however I found the British characters a little lazy. They were stereotypical brits, no complexity to them, just the type of British character so often portrayed in American dramas. So I was quite surprised to find that Alex Lake was actually a Brit herself! Yet all of the British characters seemed to be thrown together from a text book of cliches while the American characters actually had quite a bit of depth and complexity. That aside, I enjoyed the back stories and the slower “offhand” ways they were delivered. Because of that, the book flowed very well, there was no “introduce a character and give a brief history of their life before continuing with the story” which can often be quite jarring for a reader.

The first two parts of the book were awesome - although I did figure out very early on who was behind the stalking - although that probably says more about how often I read/watch thrillers than the predictability of the book. It was purely from one throwaway line during a snippet of someone’s backstory that I pieced it together. I enjoyed the few references to an event 10 years ago that I knew somehow tied in, and I knew “who” but not “why”... and the “why” kept me reading.

Honestly the book was addictive. I couldn’t put it down, the pace is perfect and the story is so gripping and immersive! The fact that I had figured out the perpetrator took nothing away from the reading experience for me. It was exciting to watch it all unfold and frustrating that Sarah hadn’t pieced together what I had!

At the point where we learn who is behind Sarah’s misery, it got a little too “teen thriller” for me to enjoy it as much as the first 2 parts. The language and dialogue that the stalker used was a little contrived and immature. Almost what you’d expect to see in a late 90’s teen horror movie... As was the situation that Sarah found herself in. I think I felt a little disoriented because up until that point I had been reading a clever psychological thriller which had morphed into a teen horror film script. Of course I continued reading until the end - I had already invested a lot of my time in the story and I wanted to see how it would end. But I did cringe a few too many times at the cheesiness.

That being said, it is still a book I would recommend and I really did enjoy reading it! I just felt uncomfortable at the end with what felt like a genre and target age change.

And so, last but not least, I’d like to thank Alex Lake for the effort she clearly put into writing this book, the development of the characters. And the way she is trying to shine a light on the dark possibilities (actually more like realities, I fear) of social media - if people didn’t want to see an issue before they read this book they’ll certainly be questioning and checking their privacy once it’s finished!

It's great to find a book you can't put down. Fast paced and innovative, the plot kept me guessing about how it would all end. The apparent lack of motive is a clever device that keeps up the mystery as the unfortunate Sarah struggles to understand events which become increasingly impossible to explain.

To make things worse, everyone around her, including her husband and the police, begin thinking these are all symptoms of escalating paranoia. She has no idea who would be doing this to her or why, so begins to suspect everyone.

I would have expected a qualified medical doctor to have been a little sharper than Sarah Havenant and I spotted some errors, such as wrong names used, which is odd for a commercially published novel. There were minor issues though as Copycat is one of the best thrillers I've read for a long time - highly recommended.

This is the second book I have read by this author and I shall be looking out for her next! I am now a huge fan. Twists and turns, fast paced and well written. One to be recommended to anyone who likes a psychological thriller.

A perfect cautionary tale for our times...

Wonderfully addictive, and perfect for dramatisation...

This was a psychological thriller and a half! I couldn't put it down I read it in a day, a real page turner.

Loved it and 5 massive stars from me.

Highly recommended.

Sarah Havenant is a thirty-eight-year old doctor and a mother of three who has returned with her dependable British husband, Ben, to her hometown of Barrow, Maine. For Sarah a return home has meant reconnecting with old friends and in common with almost everybody of a similar age she enjoys the convenience of keeping in touch with a host of friends and acquaintances in a non-committal basis via Facebook. So when someone who Sarah was at school with gets in touch asking which of the two Facebook profiles is the correct one for her, she is alerted to the other Sarah Havenant! This second account, purporting to be Sarah is scarily accurate and includes photos of Sarah, her friends and even some from inside her house with the history going back six-months. It seems someone is determined to convince Sarah that she has a stalker and at first she assumes it is either an elaborate prank or a misguided attempt at humour but the only possible suspect denies all involvement. However a disorientated Sarah cannot help being unsettled by the fact that this second profile was flagged up by a girl she was never good friends with at school, Rachel Little, just as she herself is due to return to Barrow. Coincidence or could Rachel be harbouring a long held grudge about some teenage boyfriend stealing? Distracted and unsettled, Sarah confides in best friend, Jean, finding Ben unwilling to spend time worrying over what could simply be a technical glitch. Until, that is, the mysterious other Sarah sends the real Sarah a friend request and from then on things get far, far worse for Sarah as an array of bizarre events play out.

Given Sarah’s history of anxiety and the panic attacks which began in earnest after the birth of her seven-year-old son, Miles, it takes little for the constant gnawing tension at the bottom of her stomach and her paranoia to swing into overdrive. Suddenly she is suspecting everyone from patients at the surgery to her mother-in-law in the UK and each and every event takes on a darker and more ominous interpretation. As her settled family and professional life begins to implode, Sarah feels frightened and let down by how willing Ben is to believe everything is a cry for help under the weight of her fragile mental health and Sarah reaches out to an old school friend in the Barrow police, Ian Molyneux. Yet with no actual crime having been committed and no obvious threat made rational attempts at working out who could possibly benefit and who has the technical skill necessary leave Sarah puzzled as she becomes increasing worried about this cyber threat becoming a very real threat and coming dangerously close to her children. As her friends support is tested and her marriage to Ben is taken to the brink with the consensus seeming to be that Sarah is losing her mind, can she ever take back control of her life and just how far is her enemy willing to go..?

Copycat is fairly tepid affair, albeit with a promising opening, however the necessity to suspend disbelief for much of the novel proved an issue for me and as a repetitive second half played out the story dragged, overriding much of my earlier optimism. In truth there is little suspense throughout and this isn’t helped by the cast of characters who all lack depth, not to mention the patently obvious identity of Sarah’s nemesis by the twenty-five percent mark to anyone who has read a handful of psychological thrillers. It is difficult to actually envisage a meaningful relationship between Sarah and Ben, as I found their responses to each other awkwardly wooden with little chemistry between the insipid couple. I do not think it helps that the novel opens with the disconcerting events immediately beginning to unfold and therefore the reader doesn’t have the benefit of seeing the Havenent’s in better times. Likewise there is little consideration given to an abrupt ending which fails to offer much insight into the futures of either Sarah or her stalker. With the final quarter of the novel becoming a little wacky as the predator moves from malevolent to schizoid in the course of just a few pages, Copycat falters drastically into the close. Something I did enjoy were the interspersed chapters (neither marked or italicised) where the perpetrator behind Sarah’s intended destruction gave their own first person progress report and added some creepy intrigue to the whole affair. Clearly an insight into the mind of someone dangerously unhinged, these sections are the only slightly menacing parts and kept me reading just for the comic baddie humour they brought to the novel.

As Sarah begins to realise the full extent of her digital footprint and just how much information she has made public, one of the most interesting aspects in the narrative is how this equates to putting up a bulletin board outside your house with your holiday plans, photographs of your children and an update on your daily plans listed! The added danger with social media however is that anyone wishing to misuse such information doesn’t even have to be in the same neighbourhood, let alone country.

After Sarah has spent much of the story conducting a top-down approach as to whom might hold a grudge the only possible candidates seem to have paper-thin motives, thus it is no surprise that when events do unfold and readers discover how Sarah has supposedly bought all this on herself, the motive seems ludicrously feeble. Attempts to link Sarah’s situation to a somewhat similar mystery over a decade before in Barrow were never really fleshed out in enough detail to be of meaningful significance during Sarah’s own troubles and could only be appreciated in the final few chapters of the book. The writing is fairly unadventurous and perhaps because of the colourless characters there are few serious attempts at delivering at delivering a multi-layered narrative. The plot moves quickly up until halfway and Lake’s succinct chapters makes for a easily readable yarn but as the pages flick past with little mounting suspense, Copycat never really captured my imagination.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller by Alex Lake, the novel is full of twists and the pace of the story keeps you wanting to read more. I had previously read and enjoyed 'After Anna' by the same author so I had high expectations and I wasn't disappointed.
The lead character Sarah Havenant, discovers she has a stalker who is going one step further by completely taking over her identity. The stalker assumes Sarah's identity by setting up a fake email and Facebook accounts complete with personal photos, which not surprisingly unnerves her and causes not only a lot of confusion but puts her life at risk.
The book is gripping and thought provoking putting into question what really is possible to do when someone is so determined to cause this kind of havoc.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for receiving a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.