My thanks to Amber Choudhary at Midas Public Relations for the invitation to read for this blog tour for the psychological thriller The Other You by J.S. Monroe which will be published on 9 January by Head of Zeus.
Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police as a Super Recogniser, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.
At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health, in his high-tech, modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she’s with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.
Until, one day, Kate looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor. A doppelgänger. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?
Gripping, emotive, original and complex, The Other You is a psychological thriller that explores memory and identity, paranoia and pretense – and asks whether we ever truly know the people we love.
Our Author: J.S. Monroe
My Review: The Other You
Kate had a special gift, that only 1% of people possess, the ability to remember faces, which she used to work for the Police, as a ‘Super recogniser’ after a glace she’d be able to identify your face again in a crowd. But following a car accident, shes lost the ability and recovery time is taking longer than she’d hoped.
During her time in the hospital, she met Rob and life had brought them together. Kate now lives in Rob’s ultra-high-tech Cornish home, which is controlled remotely using apps and technology that Rob has designed. He’s a Techpreneur and is London based and comes home to Kate at the weekends.
In Kates’s previous life, before the accident she lived on a houseboat with Jake, he was a crime reporter and writer – but they were just plodding along going nowhere. Kate only took on the Police work as an income to her real passion for art and portrait work. Kate’s moved on but Jake is still hankering after her and any little grain of contact keeps him going. So when his boat is torched in the night, he turns to Kate. Bex their mutual friend who still lives in the village with Jake offers him her spare room until he finds somewhere else to stay.
It’s not coincidental that Jakes’s boat is sunk and he’s sent a USB stick in the post with CCTV footage of Kate on the night of the accident and a court case that has just sent several top criminals to prison after Kate identified them. Also, that at the same time in Cornwall Kate nearly drowns. The Police, in the form of Kates former boss DI Silas Hart is convinced its all connected, and take a trip from Swindon to Cornwall to speak to her.
Now it turns out Rob has a fear of meeting his doppelgänger – his perfect match and Kate has this ability to remember faces and yet Kates convinced Rob isn’t the Rob she met and feel for. What’s going on?
Jake, Silas and DC Strover aren’t going to be put off and the strange tangle of coincidences only increases the need to get to the bottom of this puzzle involving – modern-day slavery, murder, drugs, and brain implants.
This book took a few chapters to warm up for me, but it soon got rolling and when it did there was no stopping. I live not far from salubrious Swindon and regularly drive past Gablecross Police Station, and have holidayed in glorious Cornwall, so being able to picture both in my mind always helps me to read and enjoy a book even more. The characters were well written and likable and I liked the way the book used the chapters for the characters to tell their part of the story. With its twists and plotline its a brilliantly planned out and researched. The use of technology helps add to the thriller element of the book, making it fast-paced and adds an edge to it.
Thrilling, complex and compelling.
To buy this book – click here https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/JS-Monroe/The-Other-You/23955653
@JSThrillers @HoZ_Books @midaspr #TheOtherYou
