The Wrong Woman
-
-
4.1 • 19 Ratings
-
-
- $23.99
Publisher Description
IT WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT. WASN'T IT? A private investigator returning to the hometown he fled years ago becomes entangled in the disappearance of two teenage girls in this stunning literary crime thriller.
Reid left the small town of Manson a decade ago, promising his former Chief of Police boss he'd never return. He made a new life in the city, became a PI and turned his back on his old life for good.
Now an insurance firm has offered him good money to look into a suspicious car crash, and he finds himself back in the place he grew up - home to his complicated family history, a scarring relationship breakdown and a very public career-ending incident.
As Reid's investigation unfolds, nothing is as it seems: rumours are swirling about the well-liked young woman who crashed the car, killing her professor husband, and there are whispers about a second local student who has just disappeared.
As Reid veers off course from the job he has been paid to do, will he find himself in the dangerous position of taking on the town again?
Praise for The Wrong Woman:
'An expertly plotted mystery with echoes of Lee Child. I raced through it and missed it once I finished' ALLIE REYNOLDS
Praise for the critically acclaimed, award-winning novels of J. P. Pomare, Call Me Evie, In the Clearing, Tell Me Lies and The Last Guests:
'A plot that will drag breathless readers to the finish line' Herald Sun
'A master of the carefully constructed, impeccably paced psycho-thriller' The Australian
'The best crime and thriller writer in New Zealand' newsroom.
'One of the most exciting literary thriller authors to come out of the country' The Saturday Paper
'The atmosphere that Pomare creates is filled with unease and suspense' Better Reading
'A magician, whose every plot is like a magic trick' MICHAEL ROBOTHAM
'Twist follows twist and nothing is as it seems' CHRIS HAMMER
'A cunning, complex, contemporary thrill-ride that seems poised for the bestseller list' CHRISTIAN WHITE
'Couldn't put it down, can't stop thinking about it. Bump it to the top of your must-read list immediately' ANNA DOWNES
'This nerve-wracking, fast-paced tale takes all our fears about surveillance technology and twists them into
one nightmarish Gordian knot' ROSE CARLYLE
Customer Reviews
A gripping small-town crime thriller
The Wrong Woman is another gripping crime thriller from the pen of NZ author J.P. Pomare.
The deliciously dark and twisty narrative alternates between the present perspective of Private Investigator Vince Reid, reluctantly returning to his hometown to investigate a suspicious car accident, and that of crash survivor, Eshana Stiles, over the weeks and months leading up to the fateful night.
Upon his arrival in the "twin towns" of struggling Manson and more upper-class Ethelton, Reid discovers that the death of Sandown College academic Oliver Stiles and the serious injury of his wife in a car accident are not the only tragedy to face the towns. A local teenager has gone missing several days ago - and not just any girl, but the seventeen-year-old daughter of Reid's former boss, Chief of Police Stubbs. Maddison's disappearance follows upon that of another local girl, Kiara King, some months earlier.
As Reid digs into the circumstances of Oliver and Eshana Stiles's accident, more than once crossing the line between acceptable and illegal activity, he comes across alarming connections between the deceased college professor and missing girl Kiara. And it becomes clear that Reid is facing more than just the normal small-town animosity surrounding an insurance investigation - someone wants him off the case permanently. Can Reid uncover what really happened that dark and wet Wednesday night? Was Oliver Stiles's death the tragic accident it appears, and is it possible that he had something to do with the disappearances of Kiara and Maddison?
With short chapters and a back-and-forth split narrative, The Wrong Woman is a compulsively readable crime-thriller. Reid is an engaging hero, a man with a chequered past as a police officer, but a tenacious thirst for truth and justice, in spite of the barriers that seem to be constantly being placed in his way. Eshana Stiles, meanwhile, is a beguiling character - have her suspicions about her husband's fidelity led her to do something dreadful, or is she simply an innocent victim? The reader's sympathies are pulled backwards and forwards as her side of the narrative unfolds.
I'd thoroughly recommend The Wrong Woman to any reader who enjoys dark and twisty thrillers, especially those that employ the trope of small-town insularity and prejudice. Readers who love Jane Harper, Garry Disher or Chris Whitaker's work will gobble this up!
My thanks to the author, J.P. Pomare, publisher Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to read and review this title.