Book Review & Giveaway: The Stranger Inside

Synopsis:

Even good people are drawn to do evil things . . .

Her mother told her not to take the shortcut through the woods. But she ignored her mother’s warning and twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped abduction while walking to her friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not so lucky. And Rain witnessed them being taken against their will.

Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity, but managed to escape after being subjected to unimaginable horrors.

Their abductor, Eugene Kreskey, was sent to prison but released years later. Then someone delivered real justice — killing him in cold blood — and he will never pose a danger to anyone again.

Rain is living the perfect suburban life. The truth about her dark childhood is deeply buried. She put aside her career as a hard-hitting journalist to be a stay-at-home mother to her infant daughter. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain finds herself drawn into the case. Her investigative instincts discern the eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor and force Rain to revisit the memories she has worked so hard to leave behind.

Is a vigilante extracting justice in his or her own way? Who is the next target? Why can’t Rain just continue her quiet life as a wife and mother without becoming involved?

Author Lisa Unger explores the minds of both perpetrator and victim, where the lines between right and wrong, crime and justice are blurred.

Sometimes people deserve what comes to them.

Review:

Bestselling author Lisa Unger never fails to deliver a first-rate psychological thriller and with The Stranger Inside she further elevates the genre.

Someone is murdering murderers or, in the case of Steve Markham, an accused murderer who was acquitted by a jury. A year later, Markham has lost his job, friends, and lover, and is on the verge of losing his house after insisting that he did not kill his wife and unborn child, whose bodies were found in a shallow grave a few miles from his home. And then he loses his life. It is a cold-blooded, calculated, well-planned execution detailed through a first-person narrative from the killer who reveals that “he died the way Laney Markham died. Bound, gagged, and stabbed more than twenty times with a serrated hunting knife.”

The killing rattles Rain, who has given up her own career as an investigative journalist while her husband, Greg, continues his work as local television news producer. He wants her to wean their thirteen-month-old daughter, Lily. “How much longer are you going to nurse her?” he asks. “I want you back.” When Rain tells him, “I want me back, too,” her response is about much more than breast-feeding. Unger deftly and compassionately portrays Rain’s ongoing struggle to balance marriage, motherhood, her changed body and psyche, missing her career, and the need to find and embrace a new normal. Rain is damaged as a result of the trauma she suffered in the woods on that fateful day, making her effort to manage her life and relationships even more challenging than for most first-time mothers. Unger conveys Rain’s story through a third-person narrative, explaining Rain’s love for her work. Investigative journalism is powerful — “when you investigated the truth, when you put the words down on the page, you ordered the chaos of the word. When you took control of the narrative, it stopped controlling you. She hoped.”

“She couldn’t let it go.” So Markham’s murder sends Rain back into action with the assistance of her colleague, Gillian, and the encouragement of her producer, who offers no apology for wanting Rain back at work. When she realizes that Markham’s killing was “obviously planned and clearly executed,” Rain cannot escape the pull into the investigation.

Unger gradually reveals what each of the three children endured. Tess was killed. Her mother, Sandy, still mourns her, but managed to forgive her killer, who was himself a victim of abuse and psychic trauma inflicted when he was a child. Forgiveness is a concept Rain cannot grasp, in part because Rain’s memories and feelings are, at the outset, deeply submerged. It’s the only way she can deal with her guilt about having disregarded her mother’s warning, yet survived the ordeal. Rain is also haunted by her own role in how the abduction came about.

Hank went on to became a successful psychiatrist with a thriving practice, as well as a consultant and commentator. “He helps people through trauma, has used his experience to do good.” But he harbors dark secrets about how the abduction permanently impacted him and manages to carry on from day-to-day, as well as the stress of remaining in control. But staying in control is becoming increasingly difficult and he fears he is going to make a mistake.

When Rain pays her a visit, Sandy observes, “I always found it interesting. The work you and Hank chose for yourselves. You an investigative journalist, Hank a psychiatrist, Like all these years, you’re still just trying to understand what happened that day. What do you think will happen if you can put together all the pieces?”

Do you ever wonder about who lives and who dies and why?

It becomes clear that Rain and Hank continue to be connected, but not just by their shared status as survivors of that horrible day. To observers, both appear to be highly functioning, but appearances are, of course, deceiving. Unger takes readers on a frightening and absorbing journey into their innermost thoughts and feelings, demonstrating that even though they both survived, neither of them is healed. Both are deeply and, perhaps, irreparably, scarred by their experiences, and battling demons born out of trauma. And over the ensuing years, the damage inflicted upon them as children has manifested in disturbing ways.

The Stranger Inside is a tense and gripping study of the long-lasting impact of trauma, coupled with a compelling mystery. Unger has fashioned two layered, complex characters — Rain and Hank — at the center of the story and surrounded them with an equally intriguing cast of supporting players, including Kreskey. The book’s pace never lags and Unger’s revelations of clues to the truth are expertly timed for maximum effectiveness. The result is a fascinating, haunting tale of lost innocence and the desire for justice to be served in the quest to find relief from suffering. When Rain does finally “put together all the pieces,” Unger delivers a jaw-dropping conclusion to her dark, atmospheric, and emotionally rich character study.

Also by Lisa Unger:

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Stranger Inside free of charge from the author via Net Galley. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising