Phew! What a roller coaster ride. I haven't read such an engaging, well written thriller in a while.

The Other Girl is authored by Erica Spindler best known for her ability to jump between genres, beginning with Mills & Boon style romances, fitting in some of her delicious crime thrillers featuring The Malones and Stacey Killian and even fitting in some cross genre crime/sci fi fiction with her Lightkeepers series.

This new novel features a brand new detective Miranda Rader and I really hope that we get to see some more of Miranda in the future. Miranda comes from a troubled background, after getting busted for possession of pot when she was 15 and spending some time in juvenile prison, Miranda turned her life around and became a police officer.



Miranda is brought in as lead detective to investigate the murder of a professor at the local university. Son of the prestigious President of the University, the pressure is on to find out who killed him in such a brutal way. As Miranda begins to put together the pieces which may link the dead man to a terrifying night from her past, suddenly she's gone from Apple of the Chief's eye to a suspect. The only people who seem to be on her side are her partner Jake and her best friend Summer who owns a bar (with a really cool name!) The Toasted Cat.



But who can Miranda trust, it's clear somebody is setting her up but who? Then she remembers there was another girl there that night, another girl who knows what happens and who exactly covered it up... but who is The Other Girl?



This was a well written and fast paced novel. Erica has a wonderful way of writing and throws in particularly good red herrings, I'm not ashamed to admit that I fell for one of them hook, line and sinker. But there's a sadness to this novel too as it shows how a woman must struggle in a man's world, how someone who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks can be manipulated and disbelieved and the corruption within law enforcement, where money can buy you anything.

Miranda Rader grew up poor and rough in a small town in Louisiana. She might have had a very different future if it weren’t for one terrible night. Fifteen years on and Miranda is not the girl she used to be, she’s a tough, fair, by the books cop in a town not far away from where she grew up. She has a good reputation and she’s not about to let anything mar it. Then she catches the case of a murdered college professor in one of the most gruesome cases Miranda has ever seen. But it’s the little piece of newspaper at the scene that really scare the young cop – it’s all about that night 15 years ago. And when the cop that was on her case all those years ago ends up dead, Miranda knows the only think linking the two victims……is Miranda. When evidence at the first murder seems ti implicate her, Miranda will have to go back to that long ago night and the memories, and instincts, she’s kept buried for years to protect not only her innocence and her reputation, but her life. I have loved Spindler’s books for twenty years now. She keeps her characters fresh and her plot lines original. This is a doozy, and the perfect summer night read