How Can I Help You
A Razor-sharp Suspense about Two Librarians Whose Lives Have Become Dangerously Intertwined
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
** 'A MARVELLOUSLY INTENSE, READ-IN-ONE-SITTING GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE AMONG THE BOOK STACKS' - GUARDIAN **
From the author of Looker comes this razor-sharp suspense about two librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.
No one knows Margo's real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.
That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo's subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a patron's death in the library bathroom offers a hint of Margo's mysterious past, Patricia can't resist digging deeper - even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.
Taut and compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature and the dangerous pull of artistic obsession.
PRAISE FOR HOW CAN I HELP YOU
‘A dark and spellbinding descent into jolly madness’ – MONA AWAD
‘A gripping and dark psychological thriller... Delicious... I read it one sitting’ – HARLAN COBEN
‘A sly meditation on art and identity and the depths we'll go to protect our constructs. I couldn't have loved this book more’ – PAUL TREMBLAY
‘With transfixing dual female narrators and an artful, innovative structure, How Can I Help You is both a riveting commentary on false pretenses and an utterly beguiling cat and mouse thriller’ – KIMBERLY McCREIGHT
'Openly indebted to Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith, this is a terrific two-hander... This makes for fine cat-and-mouse (or cat-and-cat?) suspense, but also an unsettling moral tale' - SUNDAY TIMES
'A fun and entertaining cat-and-mouse novel... a perfect book for when you just want to sit back, relax, and read about women behaving badly... you'll fly through the pages' - GLAMOUR
‘A delicious mystery begging to be enjoyed beachside… Sure to satisfy just about any thriller craving’ – ROLLING STONE
‘Unnerving... reads like a homage to Shirley Jackson’s work’ – NEW YORK TIMES
‘Sims plumbs the depths of obsession and madness... deftly building the tension until the explosive ending’ – WASHINGTON POST
‘Fresh and funny... A quick read that is reminiscent of Laura Lippman's Sunburn and Christine Mangan's Tangerine’ – BOOKLIST
** A Publishers Weekly Book of the Week **
** A CrimeReads Book of the Month **
** A Town & Country Must-Read Book of the Summer **
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This brilliant slice of psychological suspense from Sims (Looker) is set mostly in the mundane confines of a Midwestern library. The Carlyle Public Library's newest circulation clerk, Margo Finch, is a diligent employee who goes out of her way to keep the building clean. But Margo is actually a fugitive named Jane Rivers, a former nurse whose hospital stints coincided with a string of suspicious deaths—it's Jane's compulsion to help patients die, based on her own assessment that their time has come. Eventually, she comes to accept her dull work routine as a trade-off for her freedom, but her murderous urges are revived when a library patron is found dying in a restroom. That opportunity coincides with the arrival of a new research assistant, failed novelist Patricia Delmarco, who brings to the job secrets of her own, and gradually becomes obsessed with uncovering Jane's past. Sims skillfully alternates between the perspectives of each woman, slowly bringing her simmering plot to a boil, and delivers a stunning climax. Patricia Highsmith fans will savor this unforgettable thriller.
