Her
Every Fear, by
Peter Swanson, delves into the human psyche and the mind of
a serial killer. The story’s strength is with the character’s
thoughts. By having four different narratives, readers are
able to understand the complete picture of the disturbing
circumstances of the plot.
Swanson noted, “The idea for this story has been rattling
around in my head for awhile. Originally I was going to write
it as a romance where two people swapped apartments, never
met, but somehow fell in love. The more I thought about it
the more I thought it should be a murder mystery. Then it
all clicked, where a woman moves into her cousin’s apartment
and the day she arrives a corpse is discovered next door.”
There are just a few times in the story that people might
need to suspend belief as the main character, Kate Priddy,
becomes a psychopath’s magnet. After being traumatized
by an abusive boyfriend, she escapes to Boston, MA, to try
to gain some perspective. Kate is able to leave her home in
London when she and her cousin, Colin, decide to exchange
apartments. Soon after her arrival, she finds her neighbor,
Audrey, has been murdered, and the person of interest, her
cousin Corbin. To make matters worse, she meets Alan Cherney,
a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard in
the apartment facing Audrey’s. He confesses to Kate
that he was drawn to Audrey and basically stalked her from
afar. The suspense ratchets up when Kate’s fears, brought
on from her intense panic attacks, become well founded as
a serial killer, Henry, targets her as his next victim.
This story is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window,
Dial M For Murder and Wait Until Dark come to mind. Drawing
inspiration from other movies and books, Swanson commented,
“When growing up I loved Roald Dahl, The Hardy Boys,
and Nancy Drew. I also watched my first Hitchcock movie, Rope,
around the age of ten. It had a scene in it where two college
students strangle their victim. I wanted to play off this
relationship in my story, having an alpha and beta psychopath
with Corbin as the beta and Henry as the alpha. This is definitely
a story about the damage men can inflict on women. Besides
Rope, the other Hitchcock movies that influenced the story
are Rebecca, with the setting becoming an important element,
and Dial M For Murder, where the villain does not look like
a villain. Since I have seen all 53 of his films I hope to
put in my books his mode of suspense.”
This book has readers invested in the characters. It is a
psychological study of obsessive relationships that include
Allen with Audrey, Corbin and Henry, and her ex-boyfriend
George with Kate. It is a story of betrayal and revenge where
monsters lurk under every bed.
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