by Okay.G. Whitehurst
Frieda McFadden, now a part-time doctor specializing in mind damage, is a a number of award-winning writer of psychological thrillers. She considers her coaching provides her a bonus in writing such works. Most, like The Boyfriend, are standalones, so no worries about coming into the center of a sequence. The writing is tight, the storytelling is laser-focused on the 2 major characters, whose tales are introduced in a past-present format. The 2 tales mirror one another, which creates steadily rising pressure on this romantic thriller.
A local New Yorker, McFadden has set numerous her books in New York Metropolis. Her feminine lead, Sydney Shaw, whereas not a local, has lived within the metropolis for years, can spot a liar a mile away, and by no means, ever desires to be taken for a vacationer. The reader sees New York Metropolis as Sydney does, and she or he concentrates on the habits of the folks round her, not the structure or the nightlife. Habits defines the town, notably impatience and safety-consciousness. Don’t get in a New Yorker’s means or in his/her/their private house except invited. Thus, the reader learns that courting within the metropolis is a really tough course of.
Sydney and her girlfriends Bonnie and Gretchen dwell in the identical constructing, have comparable tiny residences, and are obsessive about discovering the best man, getting married, and possibly having youngsters. All their associates and kin are doing it, and this places added, inside strain on these girls as a result of they’re of their mid 30s. Bonnie desires to be unique along with her man, however he has dedication points; Gretchen seems to be settling for the constructing superintendent; Sydney has been on lots of unhealthy dates, together with one so unhealthy she needs to be saved from assault by a surprising thriller man, who seems to be Dr Thomas Brewer. He’s a stunning, type, and beneficiant man who doesn’t flip out when Sydney has spontaneous nosebleeds as a result of a clotting dysfunction.
Sydney so desires him to be the One. However is he presumably too good to be true? In spite of everything, why hasn’t he ever been married?
A younger lady is brutally murdered, and the police join it to a number of different murders. Sydney turns cautious and suspicious. It doesn’t assist her mind-set that she thinks she has a stalker. It additionally doesn’t assist that her ex-boyfriend is Detective Jake Sousa of the NYPD and the lead detective on the murder case. Sydney finally ends up with each an excessive amount of and too little info, making her romantic decisions tough certainly.
McFadden’s type is deceptively easy. The brief, declarative sentences make this a quick learn, however she buries essential info within the unobtrusive type. Her relative lack of stylistic range does appeal to some consideration, however the lack of distinctive character voices is extra problematic. These are niggles as a result of this romantic suspense novel will enchantment to readers of a number of genres, particularly those that want their violence off-page. Attentive thriller readers will doubtless see the stunning ending coming, at the same time as they’re thrown off monitor by the crimson herrings. The thriller reader might be delighted by the robust frisson of hazard, and romance readers will chuckle at McFadden’s amusing digs at romance at the same time as she conforms to expectations of the style.
Whereas not a daily reader of romantic suspense, I cannot hesitate to seize extra Frieda McFadden. She’s justly earned her awards.
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