An audio book.
Shay has been sharing a New York appartment for 18 months with Shaun. She fancies him, but he has a girlfriend Jodi. Shay's 31 years old, 5' 10", and has just lost her job in market research. She's interested in stats - the book's peppered with facts from Shay's notebook (her "databook"). In a subway she sees a woman jump in front of a train and die. She's affected by the incident and follows it up.
Meanwhile, beautiful Cassandra and her sister discuss what to do. They were in a small group with Amanda, the dead woman. The group includes a lawyer, actress, computer expert, etc. They all share a secret. Cassandra's worried that Amanda has spilled the beans so they arrange an informal gathering, inviting all those in Amanda's mail history and anyone else who's interested. Shay turns up. The sisters are curious about her. The people in the group wear special necklaces. Few of them know that they're trackers. Shay thinks she might have picked up a necklace while in shock after the incident.
There are flashbacks going back days to give us the recent backstory (Amanda, a nurse, stole morphine and used it on a man, James, in an act of revenge planned by the group, but the man wasn't supposed to die). There are flashbacks going back years showing how each woman was recruited into the group (each being treated badly by men). Flashbacks going back decades show the two sisters as young teenagers harrassed by a step-brother, and show Shay's upbringing.
The narrative is from Shay's PoV or the sisters'. The sisters befriend lonely Shay, which boosts her self-esteem. They coach her and she researches social skills. They encourage her to undergo a make-over which makes her popular with men (and makes her look like Amanda). She soon finds a new job (remote-working) and when asked to move out, she surprisingly easily finds a new flat (Amanda's old one). The sisters are tracking her and have planted cameras in the flat. Shay's job is fake, set up by the group. The police are questioning some of the group and Shay. Shay begins to see through the sisters - following them and researching online, discovering other group members. She starts investigating the man's death, contacting his friends and relatives. The sisters frame her, planting the dead man's wallet etc in her room, putting out a blooded scalpel, and tipping off the police. Strangely, the police question Shay then let her go. We learn that Amanda was about to confess.
By now, Shay trusts nobody. She learns that a member of the group, Valery, was the sisters' older sister. In a chapter from Valery's PoV, we learn that her step brother James (who used to go under another name) tried to rape her. Getting no support from her mother she'd left home. After a gap of years the sisters reunited and plotted revenge.
Valery phones Shay, pretending to be a policewoman, asking to meet her at the station where the crime was. When they meet, Valery uses a hidden gun to force Shay to the platform. Valery plans to push Shay under a train. But Shay is wired. Undercover police are ready.
Epilogue - 2 months later. We learn how the police had been closing in on the sisters. We learn that Shay pushed Valery in front of a train, making it look like self-defence.
I was listening to (rather than reading) this book and may well have missed crucial hints. The information that Valery was an older sister and that the dead man was the sisters' step brother feel rather unfairly hidden, and the involvement of the police at the end is never explained - I thought the epilogue would fill in the details.
Other reviews
- Kirkus reviews (The authors dole out clues in a series of interlocking flashbacks; finally we get the detail that makes the pieces come together, with just a few little issues to argue about in your book club. Lots of frenzied flipping back and forth for readers who like to figure out the puzzle.)
- Joan Baum
- Goodreads
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