An NPR Best Book of the Year
The author of the wildly popular The Kind Worth Killing returns with an electrifying and downright Hitchcockian psychological thriller—as tantalizing as the cinema classics Rear Window and Wait Until Dark—involving a young woman caught in a vise of voyeurism, betrayal, manipulation, and murder.
The danger isn't all in your head . . .
Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.
But soon after her arrival at Corbin's grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey's. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey's place, yet he's denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman's old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.
When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidently learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn't sure. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she's just met?
Yet the danger Kate imagines isn't nearly as twisted and deadly as what's about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real.
And much, much closer than she thinks.
Told from multiple points of view, Her Every Fear is a scintillating, edgy novel rich with Peter Swanson's chilling insight into the darkest corners of the human psyche and virtuosic skill for plotting that has propelled him to the highest ranks of suspense, in the tradition of such greats as Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, Patricia Highsmith, and James M. Cain.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
The author of the wildly popular The Kind Worth Killing returns with an electrifying and downright Hitchcockian psychological thriller—as tantalizing as the cinema classics Rear Window and Wait Until Dark—involving a young woman caught in a vise of voyeurism, betrayal, manipulation, and murder.
The danger isn't all in your head . . .
Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.
But soon after her arrival at Corbin's grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey's. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey's place, yet he's denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman's old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.
When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidently learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn't sure. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she's just met?
Yet the danger Kate imagines isn't nearly as twisted and deadly as what's about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real.
And much, much closer than she thinks.
Told from multiple points of view, Her Every Fear is a scintillating, edgy novel rich with Peter Swanson's chilling insight into the darkest corners of the human psyche and virtuosic skill for plotting that has propelled him to the highest ranks of suspense, in the tradition of such greats as Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, Patricia Highsmith, and James M. Cain.
Reviews-
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October 17, 2016
Kate Priddy, the heroine of this unconvincing psychological thriller from Swanson (The Kind Worth Killing), who’s still traumatized by a boyfriend turned stalker, impulsively agrees to swap her London flat with Corbin Dell, an American cousin she has never met. After a harrowing plane trip and a ride through Boston’s Sumner Tunnel that prompts a panic attack, Kate arrives at Corbin’s luxurious Beacon Hill apartment just before the discovery of a murder in the apartment next door. The body of book editor Audrey Marshall is marked with gruesome postmortem cuts, which prove to be similar to those of other victims in places where Corbin has lived. Kate begins to suspect that her cousin knows more about Audrey’s murder than he claims. As a fragile Kate tries to hold herself together, another stalker targets her. The characters, especially the female ones, rarely make rational decisions, and Kate herself doesn’t consistently react in the face of grave danger in the manner of someone suffering from crippling anxiety. Swanson fans will hope for a return to form next time. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Associates. -
October 15, 2016
Swanson's third thriller, after The Girl with a Clock for a Heart (2014) and The Kind Worth Killing (2015), nods both to the Leopold & Loeb case and to Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley, offering twists and intensity aplenty.A young Englishwoman named Kate, mending after a horrific trauma--her jealous ex stalked her, locked her in a closet, and killed himself just outside it--decides a change of scenery might help restore her, and she agrees to a six-month apartment switch with Corbin, an American cousin she's never met. If she's looking to tamp down her paranoia and learn to trust again, though, her cousin's ultra-luxe Boston apartment is a disastrous choice. As soon as she arrives, Kate discovers there's been a grisly murder next door. A series of small discoveries in the borrowed apartment, a little police attention/skepticism, and a couple of "chance" conversations with neighbors and acquaintances of the victim lead her increasingly to the conclusion that Corbin was romantically involved with the young woman and is the prime suspect. Swanson is most persuasive when we're with the vulnerable but resourceful Kate, who ends up carrying on an ever more dangerous shadow investigation, and with her unlikely romantic interest, an awkward, somewhat creepy (the "somewhat" makes him a rarity--and a catch--in this fictive world), but well-meaning neighbor named Alan. The book flounders a bit when Swanson enters Highsmith territory, attempting to inhabit the minds of sociopathic killers, but he does complicate things interestingly and engineers a tense and intricate finale. A solid and quick-paced thriller--but one that seems to feature a pop-up psychopath behind every door and under every bed.COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from October 1, 2016
London artist Kate Priddy agrees to a temporary apartment swap with her American cousin, hopeful that the move will push her past the crippling fears she's struggled against since she survived an attack by her stalking ex-boyfriend. Kate is certain she has the best of the deal; Corbin Dell's elegant Boston apartment is a far cry from her cramped London flat. But she barely unpacks before detectives arrive to question her about the murder of the woman living across the hall. Corbin claims that he barely knew Audrey Marshall, but Kate doubts his story when she finds Audrey's key hidden in his apartment. As Kate's suspicion mounts, her only friend in Boston, Alan Cherney, confesses that he watched obsessively from his apartment window as Corbin and Audrey developed a secret relationship. When Corbin goes missing in London, Kate becomes the prize in a cat-and-mouse game between killers. The skillfully conjured Boston winter creates the perfect atmosphere for breeding paranoia, which kicks into high gear with the introduction of Cherney's Rear Windowlike flashbacks. Swanson established a reputation for complex psychological thrillers with his previous novels (The Kind Worth Killing, 2015, and The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, 2014), but here he introduces a delicious monster-under-the-bed creepiness to the expected top-notch characterization and steadily mounting anxiety.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.) -
October 1, 2016
When Londoner Kate Priddy reluctantly agrees to a six-month apartment swap with an American second cousin she's never met, she arrives in Boston overloaded with luggage--and more than her share of emotional baggage. She soon learns that her luxurious apartment building is the scene of a homicide and her anxiety accelerates as she regrets her bold transatlantic move. Kate's relentless sleuthing leads her to doubt her cousin Corbin's innocence when she makes a few questionable discoveries in his apartment. As Kate pushes herself to acclimate to her new American life, she uncovers more inconsistencies related to the homicide and further suspects Corbin and several other people in her new social circle. Is she simply an anxious woman with an overactive imagination, or is there something sinister lurking in her world? VERDICT Psychological thriller devotees should block time to read Swanson's (The Kind Worth Killing) novel in one sitting, preferably in the daylight. Readers can expect the hairs on their necks to stand straight up as they are consumed with a full-blown case of heebie-jeebies. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/16.]--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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August 1, 2016
Unnerved after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped and nearly killed her, London art student Kate Priddy readily accepts Boston-based cousin Corbin Dell's proposal that they swap apartments for a while. Soon she's alarmed to learn that next-door neighbor Audrey was murdered and even more alarmed when charming Alan Cherney across the courtyard insists that Corbin was friendly with Audrey, which he denies. Swanson's The Girl with a Clock for a Heart and The Kind Worth Killing are both being made into films. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Washington Post
"Most readers won't anticipate the Hitchcockian twists and turns in this standout suspense tale." — Washington Post
"Chapter by chapter, the text peels back layers to reveal a pathological relationship between Kate's cousin and a long-ago acquaintance that's reminiscent of a folie à deux out of Patricia Highsmith... By then, readers, privy to much Kate doesn't know, may be experiencing their own anxiety." — Wall Street Journal on Her Every Fear
"Peter Swanson tells the engaging story of a woman battling severe anxiety who decides to radically change her life - and the horrifying results that follow - in Her Every Fear... An effective and compulsive thriller." — St. Louis Post Dispatch
"[It] has 'movie adaptation' written all over it. It has an alluring location, a fragile yet resilient protagonist and a thoroughly Hitchcockian storyline, replete with the requisite false starts and plot twists... High tension, lightning-fast pacing and psychological drama in spades." — BookPage on Her Every Fear
"Psychological thriller devotees should block time to read Swanson's (The Kind Worth Killing) novel in one sitting, preferably in the daylight. Readers can expect the hairs on their necks to stand straight up as they are consumed with a full-blown case of heebie-jeebies." — Library Journal (starred review)
"The attractive young woman at the heart of this white-knuckle novel, has many fears-mostly justified... Swanson, who also wrote The Girl with a Clock for a Heart and The Kind Worth Killing, has quickly established himself as today's master of the suspense novel." — Otto Penzler, LitHub.com on Her Every Fear
"Peter Swanson's third thriller cracks to life in the opening pages. His characters are engaging, and the reader is treated to multiple points of view... The payoff for the reader is an excellent whodunit with a magical appeal for the mystery thriller lover." — Seattle Book Review on Her Every Fear
"I loved it! A brilliantly original premise, delivered with panache." — Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go on Her Every Fear
"Did you like the film Rear Window? I did, and turning the pages of Peter Swanson's HER EVERY FEAR harkened every chilling and suspenseful moment of watching it. Swanson's pace is brisk, and at any moment you think you have the crime solved, but then another twist happens." — Bookreporter.com
"Peter Swanson creates quite a mysterious stew here.... Those readers who are tired of encountering the scenario in which the damsel in distress is rescued by a prince will find much to love here, given how Swanson puts a unique corkscrew on that plot device." — Bookreporter.com on Her Every Fear
"A compelling tale of murder and deception that keeps the reader turning pages. Kate is a sympathetic heroine who has seen too much, but rises above it." — Authorlink.com on Her Every Fear
"The skillfully conjured Boston winter creates the perfect atmosphere for breeding paranoia, which kicks into high gear with the introduction of Cherney's Rear Window-like flashbacks. Swanson ... introduces a delicious monster-under-the-bed creepiness to the expected top-notch characterization and steadily mounting anxiety." — Booklist (starred review)
"There are many twists and turns in this layered novel... It's definite stay-up-all-night kind of read and will...
