Creepy, compulsive, and deeply unsettling — a thriller that gets under your skin and stays there.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
If You Knew Me by S.P. Miskowski is a masterclass in building slow-burning tension that ignites into full-blown psychological chaos. The story follows Parker — a woman looking to break into journalism — as she stumbles across a chilling story pitch left unopened by her aunt, the former owner of an online magazine. Intrigued by the confessional nature of the letter, Parker follows the trail to Ann Mason, a reclusive woman with a mysterious past and a deep obsession with a short-lived detective TV show.

What begins as a quirky investigative mission quickly spirals into a nightmarish descent. Ann, initially polite, becomes unnerving and unpredictable, and what follows is a deeply disturbing portrait of obsession, fractured identity, and the dark side of fandom.

I love books that feature non-professional detectives and criminals — everyday people caught in extraordinary, often terrifying situations. This hit all the right notes for me.

Miskowski’s ability to blend traditional narrative with epistolary elements — letters, transcripts, dictated recordings — worked brilliantly. It gave me strong The Fan vibes (the Robert De Niro/Wesley Snipes film) and, of course, shades of Misery. But this isn’t just derivative homage — it’s a fresh, original exploration of how fandom and mental illness can dangerously intertwine.

The first half hums along at an intriguing pace, but the second half? It’s an absolute sprint. I had a sense of where it might go, but Miskowski throws enough curveballs to keep you second-guessing until the very end. The epilogue, especially, is a sharp, satirical jab at internet culture, trolls, and performative commentary — a perfect, eerie close.

A few minor gripes: it took me a moment to settle into the storytelling format, and there’s a subplot about Parker’s grandmother that, while thematically relevant, slightly disrupted the otherwise taut pacing.

That said, this book blew me away. It’s propulsive, chilling, and sharply written. I fully expect this to be a TikTok favorite among psychological thriller fans — the kind of book that keeps you up late and leaves your mind buzzing. Miskowski proves once again why she’s a legend in the genre.

Highly recommended if you love:
🔪 Unhinged female characters
📺 Obsession with old TV shows
🧠 A deep dive into fractured psyches
🌀 Narratives that spiral out of control

What a ride this was!
It starts with Parker Dillon, a journalist whose career is on life support after her aunt’s business in Seattle gets sold. While cleaning out old files she finds a strange letter from a woman named Ann Mason, a supposed confession to a terrible crime and decides to chase the story.

But Ann isn’t just elusive, she’s unnerving. What follows is a tense, twisty game of cat and mouse across several states, with Parker always one step behind a woman who may be more dangerous than she seems.

Ann is one of the most compelling and deeply unsettling characters I’ve come across in a long time. Her letters to a ‘has been’ TV actor and who she remains disturbingly fixated on, are both heartbreaking and chilling. Through these obsessive, confessional writings, it becomes clear that Ann is untethered from reality. But what’s truly unnerving is the uncertainty: is she simply a lonely, deluded woman or is she something far more dangerous?

I loved how skillfully Miskowski leaves room for interpretation. The story resists neat conclusions, inviting you to sit with the unease and draw your own assumptions. And the use of the epistolary format adds a raw intimacy to Ann’s voice. It felt like reading someone’s private, unfiltered thoughts, which added more context to the story.

If you love dark, character driven thrillers with unreliable narrators, slow burn mysteries with a creeping sense of dread, If You Knew Me delivers.

This was a hard book to get through, written through the perspective of a stalker. At certain points I felt like the plot dragged on. I also had a lot of moments of confusion and being uninterested in where the story was going. The characters were good, but not as fleshed out which made backstory kind of ugh. I definitely think that this author's style of writing is not for me, but that doesn't mean that it's not for you.

Miskowski is a very good horror writer. I've read a couple of her books and was definitely impressed. Enough to pick up this thriller of hers. Which, lamentably, turned out to be a dud.
To clarify, the author can write. This comes across clearly across genres. It's more the matter of choosing what to write. And this read like it was chosen (either by the author of her agent) to very specifically fit into the current market - a sort of write-by-numbers approach, checking every box along the way.

The result is a predictable and bland "female thriller," where all the character are women (if a man is there, he's evil), and there's some kind of a pursuit and manipulation and old secrets slowly coming to light. Oh, and the lesbian diversity boxes are checked too. Well through of the author.

It starts with a dogged journalist who randomly sets off on a completely unconfirmed potential story only to find out that the source of it has unsurprisingly stood her up. She then proceeds to spin her wheels a bit before returning home and moving on, only to find out the case isn't done with her yet. Why? Because she happened to stumble on a genuine psychopath who is out there rewriting her story, in blood.
So you have a not particularly interesting protagonist, an unhinged and utterly charmless antagonist, a jumbled together method of storytelling, a rather predictable plot, and a tediously drawn out ending.
Average at best and thoroughly steeped in genre cliches, this one is sure to find its audience. But it definitely didn't do much for me. I don't blame the author, everyone needs a paycheck, so people pander and write what sells. But I also don't want to read it either.
Thanks Netgalley.

Being that I am a fan of S. P. Miskowski's work, I hopped on the chance to read her latest, and I was not disappointed!

Parker Dillon is out of a job before she even got started. Planning on being a journalist for her aunt's website, her plans were stymied when her aunt decides to shuts the site down. Instead, her aunt offers her the job of cleaning up the office, so to speak, and that's when Parker discovers Anne Mason. Anne submitted a pitch for a story and what she divulges within is so interesting, Parker reaches out to her for more information. From there on out, this narrative hums with tension, keeping this reader up turning pages late into the night!

It seems that Ms. Miskowski has lost nothing in moving from horror/dark fiction to psychological thriller territory. If anything, I think her writing skills are more sharply honed than ever. With a deft hand she has the reader guessing, forcing them to develop and redevelop theories as to what is going on. The epistolary style is one I have always enjoyed and for me, this story lived in those portions. Anne was telling one story, while all the while revealing herself underneath. What Ms. Miskowski was revealing was her brilliant writing skills and I ended up enjoying this book immensely.

Overall, this was a story that started slow, got faster and then rocketed towards the denouement in a flurry of late night page turning that left this reader with a reading hangover, and already looking forward to Ms. Miskowski's next book.

Highly recommended!

*ARC from pubisher

This book seemed so promising. The premise and the cover were intriguing.

I just could not get into this one. I think writing style is a big part of it.

I’ll likely pick this one back up after it’s published and get it in person to try that experience but for now this book and I are simply not a match unfortunately. I’m bummed. I’m also super picky about my thrillers though. I made it to 20% before putting this one down for now.

Thank you for this ARC and Thank you for the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

Review Copy

IF YOU KNEW ME is a psychological thriller about a reporter trying to make her way in life post pandemic. She finds what seems to be an exciting lead on a story that she believes she can sell to a major magazine. She takes off on a journey to interview the woman who wrote the letter.

One thing though. The woman can't be found and in spite of agreeing to the interview, disappears.

The craziness continues and the reporter moves on with her life. Too bad the woman doesn't.

IF YOU KNEW ME may be the most interesting novel Miskowski has written. It is certainly the most bizarre.

If You Knew Me is a slippery psychological thriller driven by aspirations perceived in diametrically opposed ways, yet at their heart, might be beating the same rhythm. While dealing with a life in transition post-Covid, Parker Dillon wants to be a writer, a journalist of worth, striving to find that one story that will put her in the public eye. Ann Mason…is a cipher, a blank slate driven by tabloid logic to the point of obsession, and a world in which reality is something found in the listings of TV Guide. As their paths intersect, Miskowski expertly weaves multiple forms of communication (emails, audio files, personal letters) for nuance and clarification as we discover a woman (Mason) whose manipulative, casual embrace of evil infiltrates the lives of everyone she comes in touch with, while Dillon is trapped in Mason’s web of mounting deceptions, just trying to get her life back. Excellent, unexpected, and thought-provoking, as if we’d expect anything less from Miskowski.”—John Claude Smith, Author of the Bram Stoker finalist novel, Riding the Centipede, and the forthcoming Our Savage Anatomies.

*Huge thank you to S.P. for sending me an advanced digital copy of this one!*

Fandom.

Six letters that when put together in that way form a work that seems to hold so much more weight than it should. I should know. As – perhaps – the world’s most prominent fan of Canadian author Andrew Pyper, I’ve seen the stereotypical idea of how people view fandom with almost every single Pyper post I make. And I get it. Stephen King’s Misery set the table for what horrible rabid fandom can look like and with the rise in stalking and obsession that has seemingly ramped up over the last decade (which I presume is directly related to the proliferation of social media), I understand why people post Annie Wilkes memes/gifs or send them via DM’s when I post stuff.

And that perfectly highlights the double-edged sword of fandom. There’s an expectation now that people go too far, that people grow obsessed and with unchecked mental health issues often associated with extreme fandom, not only does it become an expectation, but it also becomes an ‘I told you so’ mentality after the fact.

Case in point is ‘If You Knew Me.’ This book is a powerful examination of what unchecked mental health issues multiplied by obsessive fandom looks like. It reminded me a lot of the movie ‘The Fan,’ which starred Robert de Niro and Wesley Snipes. If you’ve not seen it, I highly recommend you do.

In that movie, it’s a fan obsessed with a sports star. In this book, it’s a fan obsessed with a former TV star. And with the way this one unfolds, Miskowski does a phenomenal job of unsettling us readers.

What I liked: The book follows Parker, a recently unemployed woman who longs to be a writer, but hasn’t found that story yet. While housesitting at her aunt’s place, who formerly owned a large online magazine company, she finds a story pitch that was sent in and unopened. Inside, she finds Ann Mason’s story, detailing something she did as a teen, something awful, but she only told one other person – the former lead in a short-lived detective show that she loves.

From there, Parker travels to Ann’s place in Arizona in the hopes of interviewing her. Once there, Ann’s left and Parker begins to find cracks in Ann’s story.

Miskowski deftly interweaves Ann’s dictated storyline with Parker’s interviewing of those around Ann – a neighbour, a former employer – and it works far more efficiently than a lot of mixed media/epistolary style books have for me. It allows the reader to effectively see the chaos inside Ann’s head, while also connecting with Parker.

The first half of the book smoothly rolls along. But the second half. The second half is a full sprint towards an ending that seems foretold but unexpected. I kind of knew what would be coming, but all the while Miskowski kept things so schizophrenic on Ann’s side, that I just didn’t know for sure, wasn’t 100% in what I thought I knew and that amplified the tension.

The ending/epilogue was also a really great use of mixed media but also a snarky look at online commenting and internet trolls.

What I didn’t like: There were two things of note for me. The first was that it took me a minute to get into the epistolary aspect of the novel. I often struggle with storytelling in this style and it took a bit for my brain to get on board.

The second was that there’s a bit later on about Parker’s grandma that is necessary to the story and Parker’s narrative, but for me at least, it seemed to take some steam off the train that was thundering down the track.

Why you should buy this: I for one can’t wait to see this book all over Tik Tok. I can’t imagine this won’t be in every second video about what psychological thrillers had the poster up all night finishing it. This is a book that could be categorized very easily as ‘propulsive.’ It never lets up, never allows you to take a breather to figure out all the chess pieces that are moving in the background and the fact that Miskowski describes a half dozen episodes so fully of a fake TV show shows the depth and detail that go into everyone of her novels.

This one is a taut, nerve-wracking thriller that absolutely blew me away and reinforces why Miskowski is a living legend. Get on this one, you’ll not be disappointed.

A very unusual story about a crazy stalker and a wannabe writer. The story takes the reader inside the mind of the stalker and it is a scary place to be.. There are a lot of surprises and the ending is unexpected.

This is a solid read with an intriguing premise that caught my attention. However, the pacing was all wrong for me, and made it hard to get into the story. It was slow to the point useless and tension never reached any climax which was really disappointing.

In _If You Knew Me_, SP Miskowski has once again captured the nuance of women's anger and frustration in characters who through their invisibility become dangerous. While we're never sure what is actually true or what is an all-consuming fantasy, in this story, disappointment is a powerful driver of violence. it's a rare treat to find female characters this powerfully motivated.

Parker the reporter and Ann the illusive subject of the story Parker hopes will save her career on the surface have little in common. But just underneath they harbor the shared fantasy that life would be more interesting if they burned it all down. As the story unfolds we get a fascinating peek at internal lives of women and the choices they make.

Miskowski is a powerful storyteller and her writing is beautifully crafted as always. _If You Knew Me_ is a journey not to be missed.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“If You Knew Me” by S.P. Miskowski is a slow-burning, psychologically rich story that reads like a character study wrapped in a mystery, laced with dark humor, and infused with subtle dread. It’s not a thriller in the traditional sense (don’t expect high-octane twists or page-a-minute pacing) but rather a cerebral, disquieting journey into obsession, delusion, and the blurred lines between truth and performance.

The story centers on Parker Dillon, a journalist recently laid off after her aunt's small media company is sold. While cleaning out old files in her aunt’s office, she finds a strange and unsettling letter from Ann Mason, a woman claiming to have committed an unforgivable act. Intrigued by the potential of an exclusive story, Parker embarks on a cross-country investigation that takes her from Seattle to Arizona to California. But what starts as an ambitious pitch quickly turns into a personal unraveling.

Ann, as we come to learn, is a deeply unreliable narrator. Much of her character is revealed through her obsessive fan letters to a washed-up TV actor who once played a detective—letters that serve as both confessions and fantasy. Through these epistolary elements, Miskowski masterfully shows us a woman untethered from reality, consumed by parasocial relationships and self-delusion. Ann sees herself as an investigator, a wronged party, a tragic heroine—anything but the disturbed and dangerous figure we come to suspect she truly is.

The book alternates between Parker’s grounded but sometimes meandering search and Ann’s increasingly unhinged inner world. Parker herself is a likable and relatable anchor to the story, and her budding LGBTQ+ romance adds a refreshing softness amidst the tension. Still, the pace can lag, especially toward the end, and I found Ann’s long letters and inner monologues slow or repetitive. However, these details do paint a disturbing yet eerily believable portrait of someone lost to their fantasies.

What’s most compelling is the ambiguity: Is Ann dangerous, or simply deluded? Is her story real, exaggerated, or entirely fabricated? Miskowski never gives us clear answers, and that’s exactly the point. The ending may feel unresolved or even underwhelming to some, but it fits the book’s tone—quietly unsettling and frustratingly real.

Overall, “If You Knew Me” isn’t just a mystery; it’s an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, the lies we believe, and the hidden menace behind seemingly harmless obsessions. With layered characters, understated suspense, and elegant prose, S.P. Miskowski delivers a story that lingers long after the final page. It’s a perfect fit for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with a psychological edge and don’t mind a few open-ended threads left dangling.

If you Knew me is a psychological thriller that follows Parker, a journalist working for her aunt’s company. Her job is lost when the company is sold, but her aunt helps support her by giving her the task of sorting through and disposing of the company files. She comes across a strange letter from Ann Mason, which inspires her to write a story on the unusual woman. This is the start of a story about obsession, truth and identity.

I loved this book, I found the characters well developed and complex, I enjoyed how as the story unfolded, the characters history and development moved alongside the plot, driving motivations and the story forward in an engrossing way.

I especially enjoyed the epistolary aspects of the book, making it seem more realistic, it pulled me into the story effectively and made me feel involved in Parkers investigation and Anns obsessions.

The writing is fantastic, beautiful prose without being overly flowery and descriptive, it was easy to read yet intricate enough to enjoy and ruminate over.

This is a great book for fans of thrillers, slow burn reads, and character led stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and S.P. Miskowski for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

If You Knew Me had an intriguing premise and moments of strong, moody atmosphere, but overall it didn’t fully land for me. The story is a slow burn, which can work well in a psychological thriller, but in this case, the pacing dragged a bit too much in places and made it harder to stay fully engaged.

The writing itself is solid—introspective and thoughtful—but I struggled to connect with the characters, and the tension never quite reached the level I was hoping for. It felt like it was building to something more impactful than what we ultimately got.

That said, there were definitely compelling elements, especially in the exploration of identity and past trauma. It wasn’t a bad read by any means, just not as gripping or memorable as I had expected.

This was the oddest book. So much unnecessary detail. The writing felt cluttered and dragged on. The plot was confusing and scattered and just kind of uninteresting to me. The characters were interesting but the way they were written felt like the author had developed some deep backstory and then as they wrote the would throw in some deep detail with backstory over halfway through the book…
Not my style, not recommending.

This book was so good I want more from this author loved the storyline it was great a page turner till the very end people will not be disappointed thank you for this read

The book has no ending, the writing just stops. 48% there was a 6 word email and 3 sentences later she said "those seven words haunted her" and I wanted to throw my kindle. I should have stopped, especially when she kept referencing covid and then copy/pasted an entire fake reddit thread.

As a former journalist, I admittedly love any story about writers. But the book never took off for me. The first 10% was so much telling — Parker's career, her ex, her aunt's career — that I got restless, I'm bummed because I really thought I would love this book, but it wasn't for me.

Thriller lovers, watch out for your next great read. If You Knew Me by SP Miskowski was a great read.