City of Strangers
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Accidents Happen, The Hidden Girl, and The Playdate—called “a supremely accomplished debut thriller by a writer to watch” (Booklist, starred review)—comes a new, heart-pounding novel about a journalist set on discovering the identity of a stranger who has turned her life upside down.
When Grace and her childhood sweetheart Mac come home from their honeymoon in Thailand, they’re shocked to find a dead body beside their pile of unopened wedding presents. The police are unable to ID the man, so it is assumed that he was a burglar who died from natural causes. Little do they know that evidence for a rather different story is hidden right beneath their apartment…
Three months later, Grace finds a card that, in place of well wishes, bears the message: “That man was Lucian Grabole.” A newspaper reporter fearing for her job, Grace lands on an idea that could answer some questions, and save her career as well. She’ll pitch a story to her boss called “Who was the man in my kitchen?”
Soon Grace is trekking across Europe, talking to strangers and piecing together clues as she tries to unravel the mystery of who Lucian Grabole was, and why he met such a macabre end. Suddenly, with two more deaths linked to the case, it becomes clear that Grabole most certainly did not die a natural death. And the answer to the mystery of who the killer is, and why, lies back in Grace’s apartment...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freelance photographer Grace Scott, the heroine of this uneven psychological thriller from British author Millar (The Hidden Girl), comes home to her Edinburgh apartment from her honeymoon abroad to discover a stranger's body on her kitchen floor. A cryptic note found among the unopened wedding presents and a stalled police investigation lead Grace to try to identify the dead man. Despite her husband's demands that she leave the matter to the police, Grace forges ahead in the hope that her investigation will also jump-start her career as a photojournalist. As Grace and her fellow photographer Nicu Dragan follow leads across Europe, veteran reporter Sula McGregor is covering the gruesome deaths in a pit of two people with no apparent connection to each other. Eventually, a link to the three deaths emerges. While Millar expertly builds tension and brings the story to a climatic end, the characters never develop fully. Hopefully, her next outing will be a return to the strong writing readers enjoyed in her earlier books.