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Extraordinarily tricky – this book will have you going back to re-read sections – shaking your head in wonder as you uncover the fiendishly-clever writing required to support that crazy-out-of-nowhere-humdinger-of-an-ending.

This adroitness alone would easily merit the five stars – but this is one snappy, absorbing, fascinating read, an all-around winner, in this reader’s opinion, and one that I would highly recommend.

Mysterious 30-something Sophie, a beauty with a somewhat bumbling mannerism, a terrible lack of self-confidence, a missing husband, and the persistent and increasingly unmanageable delusion that she is being followed, has reluctantly begun seeing a psychiatrist, Dr Thacker.

“We’ve never been like everybody else
Other people’s lives were never as interesting as ours.”

(This reader cannot help but agree, on both counts, Sophie.)

As the doctor does his best to get to the root of Sophie’s problems, including the unexplained and tragic loss of her husband, and just exactly what she is hiding, it becomes clear that things are not at all as they seem – with hints and secrets, impenetrable clues and devilish teasers beginning to pile up – as we helplessly watch our narrators (and most of our frames-of-reference) rapidly descend into what can only be seen as massive unreliability.

Running out of ideas, where the reader goes from here is only deeper into the madness – of the story, that is – which now appears unsolvable, until, as I mentioned above, one crazy-out-of-nowhere-humdinger-of-an-ending is suddenly revealed.

No spoilers here, this book is great fun – a wonderfully intricate puzzle, which would require more cunning than this reader has to offer to stand the remotest chance of figuring it all out ahead of time.

My stop today on the @rachelsrandomresources #blogtour for #OtherPeoplesLives by @JERowney

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.