The Stranger in the Mirror

May 3, 2021
A trucker finds the protagonist of this soapy psychological thriller from the pseudonymous Constantine (The Wife Stalker) walking a New Jersey highway with no memory or ID. He brings her to Philadelphia and helps her start over as Addison Hope, a name taken from a tombstone. Two years later, Addison is engaged to Gabriel Oliver, whose family owns an art gallery. Gabriel’s mother has reservations about him marrying an amnesiac that are borne out when Julian Hunter visits the gallery and recognizes Addison as Cassandra—his wife, and the mother of his seven-year-old daughter, Valentina. Gabriel is skeptical, but Addison returns to Boston with Julian, hoping to remember who she was and what happened the night she vanished. Constantine (sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine) squanders a clever premise and suspenseful opening with a string of increasingly absurd plot twists. Addison is a resilient heroine for whom readers will root, but her supporting cast lacks depth, and the tale’s villain borders on caricature. Fans will hope for better next time. Agent: Bernadette Baker-Baughman, Victoria Sanders & Assoc.

May 1, 2021
An amnesia victim has built a near-perfect new life when she runs into someone from her past. A disheveled, bleeding woman who doesn't know even her own name is picked up hitchhiking on a highway in New Jersey by a kindly trucker. He and his wife become her surrogate parents, helping her manufacture a new identity as Addison Hope. Addison soon meets Gabriel, a wonderful young man from the Philadelphia Main Line who is so smitten he ends a yearslong relationship with another woman and proposes. Gabriel's mother, Blythe, isn't ready to pop the champagne, though--she wants to know who this girl really is. In truth, Addison feels the same reservations. Meanwhile, up in Boston, a handsome psychiatrist named Julian is caring for his 7-year-old daughter on his own after his wife disappeared two years earlier. Could it be...? In their fifth outing, the sisters who write as Constantine have cooked up another plot involving people with hidden identities--and it works well to embed that issue in the head of the protagonist, who doesn't know herself or anyone else from her past. The plot is twisty but not excessively so--it's the kind where an experienced reader can enjoy staying a few steps ahead of the reveals rather than the kind where the answers are obvious too early or are based on too many late-breaking details. Like most of Constantine's work, including fan favorite The Last Mrs. Parrish (2017), this one is set in the lap of luxury, this time a bit stripped down: fewer ritzy locations and rich-people caricatures, a bit less wealth porn. Still, Gabriel's country-club-snob mother is one of the best characters, and one of several wine recommendations is slipped in as the villain is about to enter his secret den of psychosis: "I have the house to myself overnight for the first time that I remember, and have decided to open the Odette Estate Reserve...." A fast, fun read for domestic thriller fans.

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June 1, 2021
Another twisty and unsettling domestic psychological thriller (following The Wife Stalker, 2020) from established book-club favorite Liv Constantine, the pen name of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine. Their previous titles are in development for both TV and film. So who is Addison Hope? She doesn't even know. Two years ago, she was rescued by a kind driver who found her injured on the side of the road. She does not remember anything that happened before that, but is tortured by intermittent violent images from what she assumes is her earlier life. Addie has made a new life for herself in Philadelphia and is engaged to be married. Her wealthy prospective mother-in-law hires a private investigator to investigate what she fears is feigned amnesia. Meanwhile, a man in Boston wonders what happened to his wife, who disappeared without a trace, leaving him and their seven-year-old daughter behind. At the intersection of their lives there is a shattering truth that unfolds in a toney drama, certain to appeal to fans of the genre.

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July 1, 2021

A woman is found hitchhiking in New Jersey in ripped clothing, with bloodstained hands. Diagnosed with retrograde amnesia, she adopts the name Addison Hope and begins a new life in Pennsylvania with a kind couple who become her surrogate parents. Over the next two years, she falls in love and becomes engaged to gallery owner Gabriel Oliver. Despite a happy life, Addy is plagued by recurring violent flashbacks that frighten her and might hint at her past. Suddenly, Addy's promising new life tilts off-kilter when a man named Julian Hunter claims she is Cassandra, his missing wife and the mother to his young daughter Valentina. As Addy attempts to piece together her past, she is pulled in two directions. Does she belong with Gabriel, or is she obligated to rejoin a life she doesn't remember? VERDICT This latest novel (after The Wife Stalker) from sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine (writing as "Liv") is a deliciously disorienting psychological thriller that will keep mystery lovers second-guessing everything they read as they struggle to unravel the complex tapestry of Addy's life.--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

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