Dying for Christmas
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A novel full of twists, surprising turns, and suspense, Dying for Christmas is Tammy Cohen's most disturbing psychological thriller yet.
Out Christmas shopping one December afternoon, Jessica Gould meets the charming Dominic Lacey and impulsively agrees to go home with him for a drink. What follows are Twelve Days of Christmas from hell, as Lacey holds Jessica captive, forcing her to wear his missing wife’s gowns and eat lavish holiday meals. Each day he gifts her with one item from his twisted past—his dead sister’s favorite toy, disturbing family photos, a box of teeth. As the days pass and the “gifts” become darker and darker, Jessica realizes that Lacey has a plan for her, and he never intends to let her go.
But Jessica has a secret of her own . . . a secret that may just mean she has a chance to make it out alive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jessica Gold, the unreliable narrator of this exciting, chillingly complex psychological thriller from Cohen (First One Missing), is prone to blackouts and hears voices; even her own family calls her a misfit. Two days before Christmas, while loaded down with packages, Jessica stops at a coffee shop, where she meets a stranger, the charming, smiling, dimpled Dominic Lacey, who says she reminds him of his former wife. Recklessly, Jessica rides with Dominic to his apartment, located in an isolated area outside London. There he holds her captive, torturing her and making her sleep in a dog crate, with a so-called gift for each of the 12 days of Christmas. Jessica is sure her death will be the final present. Meanwhile, ambitious policewoman Kim Harper digs into Jessica's disappearance, hoping the case will bring a promotion. A deliciously dark twist midway through turns the plot around while keeping the story believable. Cohen realistically shapes her self-centered characters, with Jessica perhaps the most emotionally well-balanced.
