The Perfect Stranger

Do you really know the people you call friends online? The Perfect Stranger puts this question front and center.

There are five main characters in this story - Meredith. married, with children and struggling financially, Kay, a single former prison guard, Elena, the single school teacher, Landry, married with children, and Jaycee, the sophisticated New Yorker. Women from all walks of life brought together by a common thread...breast cancer. Behind the keyboard, with such screen names as "The Boobless Wonder" and "Pink Stinks" they bare their souls ....sharing personal information and feelings they wouldn't share RW (real world). But when Meredith is murdered, in what appears to be a botched home invasion, the remaining members decide to meet in Cincinnati at the funeral. However, one member, Jaycee, is suspiciously absent...or maybe she still preferred anonymity. Is it possible Meredith shared too much information online? Was the killer stalking the blog? And if so, could the killer be stalking the remaining members? An even more frightening thought - what if the killer was one of the bloggers?

Staub reveals information, only after giving the reader a chance to ponder the question. There was a lot of "filler," adding pages, but not depth. This was frustrating, as it slowed the pace to a crawl. The characters, while not complex, were well developed and easy to like. The plot and subplot give the reader much food for thought. We've been told and tell our kids not to share personal information online, that people are not always what they appear to be. Yet despite the warnings, social media sites are an integral part of most of our lives. After reading The Perfect Stranger, I couldn't help be re-access my own interactions. With eighty titles to her credit, Staub has perfected the fine art of getting readers emotionally invested then rewarding you with a satisfying ending, The Perfect Stranger is no exception.

I wanted to read "The Perfect Stranger" just after finishing - and moderately enjoying - another Wendy Corsi Staub mystery called "Nine Lives." I was interested in the author's other work, and I thought this one, with its online angle, sounded particularly compelling. Honestly, looking back, I wish I had first checked out some of the reviews because I found the back cover descriptive blurb to be somewhat misleading, or at least not especially informative. The marketing blurb is a bit vague, noting: "During the darkest period of her life, Landry Wells found solace in a group of bloggers who had been in her shoes and lived to tell the tale." Had I been thinking critically, I might've guessed, but I was more intrigued by the online mystery angle. It was not until the third or fourth page that I realized that this entire novel was going to revolve around a group of women fighting, recovering, or dying from cancer. I have absolutely no problem with a novel that deals openly with cancer - and indeed Staub shows a great deal of respect, perhaps crafting the most realistic depiction I have ever encountered of the daily rigors of the disease. The problem for me is that I just lost a best friend to cancer less than six months ago, and I wish that the c-word had appeared somewhere in the description simply because I was not quite ready to devote three-hundred-plus pages to the topic. It is no secret since it is how the novel opens, but I went in unaware and that colored my overall enjoyment.

All that aside, what we have here is a fairly straightforward, though unfortunately flat mystery that revolves around a close-knit yet largely anonymous group of breast cancer bloggers who lose one of their own - from murder rather than the ravages of the disease. Lots of conversations, introspection, and a quite a few slightly unrealistic "blog posts" follow. I guessed the murderer by around the halfway point, and I thought it was pretty obvious. And honestly, I hate figuring out the story long, long before the main characters because everyone suddenly seems very dense and unobservant until the very end when they all catch up. Despite my personal reservations, I will say that the honest depiction of cancer was really the very best part of this novel, and I would easily and highly recommend it to survivors and family members because - though the murder angle may seem ghoulish to some - it celebrates those who bravely battle, win, and lose in the struggle against cancer.

Landry Wells is a cancer survivor who has become close to a group of bloggers who have also had cancer.

Meredith Heywood is the leader of this group, but things fall apart when Meredith is murdered in an apparent home invasion.

Landry decides it would be nice if the group went to the funeral and she contacts several other of the bloggers who decide this would be a good time to meet each other and get to know the people they have been communicating with for years.

Until it seems that the murderer may not have been some lone burglar but one of the group.

Highlights:

The supporting characters. The most interesting people are Meredith's daughter and Landry's daughter, and Detective Crystal Hanson and her husband, which is not good when I care more about them than the main characters, especially Meredith's daughter, who has the most interesting storyline..

The mystery: I always like the mysteries where a group of people - who don't know each other well get together and find there may be a murderer among them. (Sort of like Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None"). But they really needed more people to pull this off.

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Lowlights:

What a group of depressing people. As a survivor of Stage 3 breast cancer, I can say that the last thing I wanted to do was get on line and talk to strangers. I wanted to spend every minute I had with my family. And I especially don't understand why it continued for years afterwards. I can understand the characters who had no one else (it appears a couple had no friends or family) but both Meredith and Landry seem to have taken a lot of time away from their family to write these blogs (from the excerpts don't appear that interesting).

Don't women this age have enough sense to not tell perfect strangers everything about their lives?

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This book was interesting enough and well written that I purchased several of Wendy Corsi Staub's books.

"The Perfect Stranger," by Wendy Cori Staub is a mystery with a timely premise, i.e. how much of ourselves should we be sharing online with people we wouldn't recognize on the street - but with a less-than-perfect execution.

A group of middle aged and up bloggers who have been diagnosed with breast cancer are stunned when one of the group, Meredith, abruptly stops posting, and her daughter, Beck, posts a follow-up that she has passed away. However, it appears that it might be a case of murder, not a natural death, though her cancer was no longer in remission. The bloggers (and eventually suspects) include Landry Wells, a happily married wife now in remission; Elena, an elementary school teacher; Jaycee, who is still struggling with trauma from her youth; and Kay, whose mother had terminal cancer.

Detective Crystal Hanson, who is still mourning the loss of her young son, is convinced that the culprit is Jenna Coeur, a murderer-turned TV show personality, with many fans and aliases. However, the truth turns out to be more complicated, and perhaps even closer to home when it comes to the group of women who seemingly know each other. As other casualties begin to mount, the detective and the bloggers must piece together the clues in time to prevent yet another death.

The subject of how we come to trust others online and the hazards of doing so piqued my interest, but ultimately, I thought this book had too many secondary characters who were not developed enough. Even the characters with backstories tended to blur together at times, and I had difficulty focusing on the mystery because of this.

Reviewed by Amy W.
Book provided by Edelweiss for review
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

In her gripping new release, author Wendy Corsi Staub delivers yet another thriller that will make readers think twice about the faceless people they deal with online. The Perfect Stranger follows a group of breast cancer bloggers, including sections from their blogs at the beginning of each chapter.

On one hand, it is a testimony to those who battle cancer. On the other, it is an eye-opening tale of what can happen when you share too much information with the wrong person. It is a storyline full of a see-saw of emotions. Just when you think you have everything figured out, a new twist or turn is introduced. It’s a disturbing story when you consider that it is completely possible that it could actually happen in real life.

The story focuses on five main characters, richly detailing their lives. From the start to the finish, this is one storyline that grabs the reader and maintains your attention. Fortunately, the author wraps up all the loose ends in a very unexpected conclusion. If I had to point out anything that distracted from the story, it would be the fact that the switching of characters is abrupt. In spite of this, I found the book to be exceptionally well written and engaging.

Every cloud has a silver lining. The women who've come to know each other via their blogs often think of that saying and agree. They are very different women; middle-aged and young, from all over the country, stay at home moms and career women and those without children. But they all have something in common: breast cancer.

Each has discovered the lifesaving support group of breast cancer survivors and those making the journey. They share their stories, their emotions, tips for surviving the various treatments, and all the things they never tell their families and friends who aren't in the breast cancer club. No one who has not walked in their shoes will ever understand exactly their journey and how it makes them feel.

There is Landry, a stay-at-home Southern belle living in Mississippi, with her lawyer husband and two teenagers. Meredith's children are grown but that means she has the joy of grandchildren who visit often. Kay never married and made her livelihood as a prison guard. Elena is a thirty-year-old kindergarten teacher from Illinois. No one is exactly sure where Jaycee lives or what she does, but even those who don't share everything are welcome to join the club and take solace there.

Then tragedy strikes. Not the tragedy they are used to when one of the club loses the battle and dies of illness. Meredith is struck down in her own home by a murderer who leaves her dead body behind. The women are horrified and can't believe the fates would allow such a thing to happen. They come together to attend the funeral and in the process meet each other for the first time.

They feel an instant connection, although there is always a little nagging voice that tells them that they really don't know anything about each other. Has everyone told the truth or is one of them hiding back gathering intimate details about the women's lives in order to target them? The police don't know who may have killed Meredith, and the women aren't sure who to trust.

Staub has tapped into the fear of strangers that we all feel along with a portrayal of how personal issues can make someone in the virtual world seem like a long-lost friend. This fear is somewhat overblown as many have met friends and mates that started out as virtual friends with no ill effects. I found the book interesting as I've made many friends in the virtual world and later met them and added them to my friends list. I'm also a breast cancer survivor so that part of the story also resonated with me. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

I've never read anything by Wendy Corsi Staub before, but I enjoyed this story enough that I am now interested in reading her previous novels. The concept of bloggers being stalked and killed because of what they posted publicly was very intriguing to me. In this case, the bloggers are a support group of breast cancer survivors, and some of them may have provided too much personal information online. When one of their group is murdered, a few decide to meet in person for the funeral, but, after being questioned by police, they suspect it may have been one of them.

I wasn't sure who the killer was and I was even less certain about the motive. The mystery kept me interested, but there were far too many slow moments to call this a thriller. However, the group of women are something else: distinct characters, well-developed personalities and easy to match up to their online personas, introduced to us through occasional blog entries between chapters. I thought the multiple POVs were a great way to keep the storyline going, but the changes were a little haphazard at times.

I've been told this is not Staub's best work, but I thought it stood out from many other mystery novels, and I liked the real-life drama in this fictional setting. If you're looking for something different, it's not a bad way to pass a few hours.

This book was most definitely a WHODUNNIT mystery. Every character was a suspect.

Staub made it very difficult for the reader to accurately predict who the killer was by adding the voices of most characters in the book. I was sympathetic to them all. Admittedly, I simply did not know who the killer was (or their motive, really) until the very very end. I hadn't formulated a suspect, I just had no idea because I suspected a few.

This book kept at a decent pace, but it was not what I called a page-turner. It took me well over a week to read (if I can't put a book down, it takes less than a day.) Part of that may have been the extra small print (please note I am a Vine reviewer and was given an "advanced readers copy" which is likely not what you will get) or the writing, but it wasn't the story.

I enjoyed some characters more than others. I enjoyed all the mystery surrounding one particular character.

You've read what this book is about, but let me tell you one thing --- unless you're already a safety nut, you will probably come away from this book rethinking how you conduct yourself online.

This is my first Wendy Corsi Staub book and while I didn't much care about the mystery in "The Perfect Stranger", I still enjoyed the book for the dry, funny, realistic touches scattered throughout the narrative.

The central plot point of the book is that there were five women who got to know each other via a blogging group for cancer patients/survivors, etc. I really liked (for lack of a better word) the blog excerpts and the woman who dies in the book (Meredith) probably had the best named blog called "Pink Stinks" and it is clear why she is considered the leader of the women so when she dies, the surviving three (Landry, Elena and Kay) pretty much stick together for the funeral and find out that the death is being investigated as a possible homicide.

To be honest, the mystery itself is written capably enough although it does get a little messy here and there and I did feel there was a tad too many characters, but the little touches from the blog excerpts and interactions of family, etc. painted an intriguing picture and I will concede that the few pages that close out the book is probably the best writing in the entire story so I can't quite knock it down to the "Its Okay" star rating. It definitely has its flaws but "The Perfect Stranger" has some good points that I intrigued and held my attention nonetheless.

The Perfect Stranger by Wendy Corsi Staub is a 2014 Harper Collins publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss for review purposes.

It's hard to imagine a diagnosis of cancer, a struggle to remain optimistic, especially around your family and close friends. Having someone to talk to who you can really, really open up to and speak freely with are those who are going through the same thing you are. Meredith found a group of wonderful ladies to blog with about their breast cancer battles. But, when Meredith dies suddenly the ladies are stunned to learn it wasn't the cancer, it was a home invasion robbery. Their online friend was dead because of a blow to the head. Now everyone is under the microscope as the police try to determine what really happened.

After forging such a close bond with one another, the ladies feel compelled to gather face to face to pay their respects to Meredith. Landry appears to have the most stable home life of the other women and when she travels a long way from home to attend the funeral, she can't get her husband's warnings about online scams and predators out of her head. But surely none of these cancer survivors would be a killer?

This story is suspenseful and has more suspects than you have thought. It was also a very emotional story as we are given insight into the private thoughts these women have as they go through the shock of discovering they are sick, to deciding what treatment is best, to coping with everyday life issues. These women bonded in such a special way it was hard to see that nearly destroyed because they became so paranoid about each other and felt they couldn't trust their special online friends. Naturally, there were those close to the victim who needed to be looked at as well. So, the guessing game never stops. In the course of a murder investigation the police must probe into the personal lives of the victim and those closest to them so there were some secrets exposed, and this causes more suspicion . I did enjoy the story, there was some things that happened which would make this a good book club read. Occasionally the story stalled here and there and sometimes I had trouble with the online names and real names. I can't go into details but I was really disappointed in some people in the story no matter what their intentions were . I don't think the good outweighed the bad on that front, but at least something good did come out of something bad. (if that makes any sense) I was happy to see the victim's family get some peace and hopefully some of their personal problems will be resolved so that they can live a happier life in the future. This one is a 3.5 rounded to 4

This was a little different from my usual read. It's suspenseful with clues dispensed throughout the story as to who the killer might be. I found myself not only curious to find out who the murder is and the motive but also became caught up in the lives of these women and what they had been through together and were still going through in their fight and recovery from cancer.

The point of view of the killer enhances the story. The thought process they go through after thinking they've gotten away with murder is eerie in how it is so human. We don't like to humanize murderers but instead when we think of them, we regard them as less than human and not on the same level as us. When you get into their head, it makes them that much more real and easier to understand their twisted logic.

The plot twists are not so obvious early on, instead the reader gets a sense of something "not quite right" but must continue reading and discovering clues. Not only does the story explore the difficult journey cancer patients must face but it also deals with the safety of the internet and how much is too much to share with the world. And how much can you trust someone on the other side of the screen.

The women in the story have different backgrounds, different experiences, different lives but have the common experience of fighting cancer which brings them together. These are women who would not have met had it not been for that bond. It was interesting seeing how they fit together despite their diverse backgrounds.

The Perfect Stranger was a refreshing change and a look at how the internet can provide both positive and negative affects to our world.

Rating: B+

I really enjoyed reading this mystery, and I did not guess the killer before the ending. There are several characters in the book, but it is easy to catch on and keep up with all the players. I liked the pace of the story - the plot unfolds during events that occur on three consecutive weekends: the murder, the funeral and the big reveal. In hindsight, the clues were sprinkled throughout the story, and a better armchair detective might have figured out what was going to happen. I did not find anything obvious or predictable, and the ending was a surprise for me.

As a blogger, I could really relate to several sentiments expressed by the lead character, Landry. I have called fellow bloggers "friends," even though we have never communicated outside of blogs, FaceBook and email. I have been nervous when meeting an online friend for the first time, and I have wondered if we would we have been friends if we met face to face first.

I also enjoyed the author's writing style. In the Prologue of the book, we meet Laundry as she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor asked her to "come by the office in person," and she is "blindsided, numbly staring at the doctor pointing the tip of a ballpoint pen at the left breast on the anatomical diagram." As the word "malignancy" sinks in, Laundry begins to feel nauseous. "The tinny taste of fear fills her mouth, joined by bile as her stomach pitches and rolls, attempting to eject the tuna sandwich she devoured in the carefree life she was still living at lunchtime."

This was the first title by Wendy Corsi Staub that I have read; she has several other novels and I look forward to reading more of her work! If you are a fan of suspense thrillers, you should check out this author and this book!

When Meredith, a popular breast cancer blogger, is murdered in her own home, the other bloggers in her circle of friends become worried that someone may have been stalking her through her writing. A major concern of the bloggers is how much information revealed is too much. They are planning to meet in person for the first time to attend Meredith’s funeral, but thoughts of a stalker following their moves heightens their fears, and at times borders on paranoid.

With multiple characters and perspectives, and a lot of personal detail, the murder mystery became secondary to the dangers of an online stalker. While I enjoyed the book, I didn't feel the tension or suspense a murder mystery should evoke until almost the very end. It felt more like a warning about the dangers lurking on the internet and social media.

Audio production:
The book was narrated by Allyson Ryan who nicely captured the feelings of emotion and fear in each of the women while at the same time providing distinct voices for each of them. Because of the multiple perspectives and changing scenes, the audio requires a little extra focus and attention to detail.

I looked forward to reading this book because it was touted by Lee Child as "solid gold suspense." The Perfect Stranger is a story about a group of women who've been diagnosed with breast cancer and share their experiences through blogging (and the dangers of sharing too much information online) and become friends. The blogs are very touching and gives us a glimpse of what breast cancer survivors go through when faced with their own mortality but the story line itself on who could have done it fell flat of my expectations. It started out suspenseful enough but one of the clues given in the book didn't even explain what the meaning or purpose behind it was which left some of the story lines unfinished. Incredibly frustrating!

This is the first book I've read by this author and will probably be the last.

The story has a multitude of mysterious characters and you kind of halfway get to know each of them. The plot circles mainly around five women who meet online through their blogs after experiencing breast cancer. The story frequently switches around to the viewpoint of many different people. Most of them, save one or two, all seem to have something weird going on in their lives. When one woman in the circle of online bloggers is murdered, the other four fly out for her funeral and also to meet in person. After the murder, the book kind of drags along. I felt the author spent a little too much time on insignificant details. I found myself getting a little bored between the first murder and the last chapter when the killer is discovered. It was a rather disappointing ending as the actual killer had no believable motive at all to go to such lengths and trouble to murder total strangers. This author seems to be a very good writer but I don't think this book was her best work by far.

Blogs, tags, emails, websites, online databases ... "It's basically all there".

So thinks a character in The Perfect Stranger by Wendy Straub. That character also thinks it's open season on people who are open books on the internet. In this case, it's a group of bloggers who reveal far too much - or just enough - about themselves. As they gather for the funeral of one blogger who was murdered in her own home, they realize they all share more than just a cancer diagnosis. The investigation takes a turn when detectives discover one of the bloggers is not who she says she is.

The Perfect Stranger moves along mostly via chatty dialog and a manageable headcount. It is a quick "lite" read, ranking much closer to cozy than thriller. It's okay and readable enough, but it gets wearing having to read so many different ways of saying the same thing: be careful what you reveal on the Internet.

Landry Wells has survived cancer,and she also has a way to help herself mentally with this,she has a website that she blogs on and she is friends with several other bloggers and cancer survivors.
One day she finds out a friend has passed away. She is very upset, and later finds out it was not cancer that took out her friend it was murder.
Landry feels she must go to the funeral up north and invites several of the other girls in the circle to her funeral. Landry goes to Meredith funeral and two others show also.
Soon the group is questioned by police, and they start finding out they may be targeted next.
This book was my first Wendy Staub book. From what I understand, her books are good,but this was so boring.. so hard to get through.. It was outlandish and just dragged along.
I gave this a reluctant 3 stars.
I enjoyed the character Landry.. the others were dull.
This was a dud.

"The Perfect Stranger" was written by one of my all-time favorite authors, Wendy Corsi Staub. She has never disappointed me and didn't in this good read, either. Maybe the thing I liked the best is the unique plot (although, I, also, loved the unexpected ending). Several women who are cancer patients blog with each other and have become online friends, never having met. After one of the popular bloggers is murdered in her home, other developments transpire, leaving the group to wonder if one of them will be next.

Fortunately, I've never experienced the heartbreak of cancer, but Mrs. Staub's excellent writing enabled me to feel the emotions and fear and hopelessness that they incur during the long treatment process.

The one thing that drew them together would be the one common thread that threatens to tear them apart. Known by their blogging names, PINK STINKS, BamaBelle, I'm O-Kay and The Boobless Wonder and PC BC, these bloggers are united by dealing with breast cancer. Some are in remission, others are dealing with new treatment options, and others believe its simply a matter of time before hospice is called and the countdown begins to the end. Even though most of them are sharing their feelings with family and friends, no one really understands what they are dealing with like someone who is dealing with it as well. That is what has allowed them to simply step outside the limits of their blogging friendship and form a bond outside that as well even though they have never met.

However when Meredith Heywood winds up the victim of a home invasion robbery, soon the clues begin to add up that it was merely a murder staged to look like a home invasion robbery. Is it possible the during all her blogging posts that Meredith shared too much personal information online that someone had simply took their time and began putting things together to uncover who Meredith really was and where she lived. All those times she shared spending time alone while her husband Hank was dealing with his aging mother and trying to locate suitable nursing care for her, provided the perfect window of opportunity for someone looking for one. At least Meredith didn't have to wait for the cancer that was raging her body for the third time, to take her life. She simply didn't see it coming and she died before she knew what hit her.

Now left dealing with the implications of who had murdered Meredith, her blogging friends finally meet for the first time and her funeral. Something she had always dreamed of doing and never thought that her funeral would be the one place they all finally got to meet. Landry Wells, a successful mother of two wonderful teens and wife of her husband Rob, a busy attorney, she was the picture of what people would call a true Southern Belle. Elena Ferreira, has been trying to find a way to manage her stress as a first grade teacher, and no family to speak of. She is more than thrilled to have these blogging women to fall back on for support dealing with her own cancer. Now if she can only manage dealing with that stress without drinking or dating the one guy in her school that is beyond persistent in wanting to date her. Kay Collier, dealing with the memories of losing her own mother and never feeling truly wanted as a child, her online friends are her only outreach in dealing with her cancer, and Jaycee, the only blogger who has never revealed anything about who she is has a reason for keeping her personal life a secret. If any of them found out just who she really was, her secret would be finally revealed.

I received The Perfect Stranger by Wendy Corsi Staub compliments of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own. As a blogger for the last 6 years, this one really hit home for me. In light of all the issues with identity fraud and social networking stalkers, you begin to wonder just how some people can use technology to gain insight into your life you'd never dream before. Rob, Landry's husband is concerned about her "blogging post and friends" and wonders just how much information she is sharing online but never seeks to check it out for himself. If you are truly that concerned, you would think a simply internet browse would take care of that, but it also adds to the element of suspense to the novel and when you discover who did it, you'll be looking at the information you decide to share online anymore! I easily give this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion and look forward to more novels from Wendy in the near future.

This book is absolutely thrilling. It's one of those books that you really hate putting down. The book has to do with a blogger, Meredith, who is murdered by another blogger. By the end of the book many people were murdered. It has a surprise ending, so I don't want to give that away. Unlike many thrillers, it doesn't go into detail describing "blood and guts" and has no sex scenes. I don't care one way or the other about "blood and guts" or sex scenes but I know many people have a problem with it. Read this book right now!

Definitely not the best book this author's written. There were way too many characters to keep straight and none of them stood out enough to make them memorable. And there were too many loose ends left hanging -- Beck's marriage situation was never revealed and how the main character ended up back together with another character at the end particularly stood out to me as just dangling. It was also very easy to figure out who the killer was though the motivation was weak. An okay read, but disappointing from an author of this quality.

This author keeps the reader on her toes waiting for the next hint of what is happening! Her characters come alive in the pages as she describes them in a way that we know them! Once in awhile we believe we have discovered the culprit-then surprise! We are wrong! Don't miss this one by one of my favorites!
The only reason I did not give this book five stars-the story told from different viewpoints was somewhat disconcerting.

Perfect Stranger is an interesting twist to the new online life of blogging and social media; an "one of the bloggers ends up dead, who done it?" sort of story. I'm a fan of Ms Staub's prior works, Perfect Stranger is not among my top favorites but it's a great summer vacation beach read or a winter by the fire sort of story.

Definitely not one of the author's better works. There's no flow, the story jerks and stops, moving slowly. The suspense one would normally hope to find just isn't there. Lost interest and stopped reading early on.

Not the author's normal fare. More a character study and a cautionary tale. I loved it, as a woman, and a relative of women who have battled with cancer, as a user of social media like yahoo groups and facebook. There are a cast of characters so if that isn't your thing you should take a pass.

I chose this book after reading the back cover. I thought the story would be an intriguing and suspenseful who-done-it. While it started out strong, and held my attention for a few chapters, I found myself bored and disinterested. Eventually I gave up reading it.

A story of 5 women bloggers, Landry, Meredith, Elena, Jaycee and Kay. They all have or have had breast cancer. They become on line friends through blogging. When one of their friends is murdered they decide to meet in person and go to the funeral. They wonder why their friend was murdered and if any of them could be next. Can they really trust each other?!

Another great suspense novel from Wendy!

Landry Wells has survived cancer,and she also has a way to help herself mentally with this,she has a website that she blogs on and she is friends with several other bloggers and cancer survivors.
One day she finds out a friend has passed away. She is very upset, and later finds out it was not cancer that took out her friend it was murder.
Landry feels she must go to the funeral up north and invites several of the other girls in the circle to her funeral. Landry goes to Meredith funeral and two others show also.
Soon the group is questioned by police, and they start finding out they may be targeted next.
This book was my first Wendy Staub book. From what I understand, her books are good,but this was so boring.. so hard to get through.. It was outlandish and just dragged along.
I gave this a reluctant 3 stars.
I enjoyed the character Landry.. the others were dull.
This was a dud.

"The Perfect Stranger" was written by one of my all-time favorite authors, Wendy Corsi Staub. She has never disappointed me and didn't in this good read, either. Maybe the thing I liked the best is the unique plot (although, I, also, loved the unexpected ending). Several women who are cancer patients blog with each other and have become online friends, never having met. After one of the popular bloggers is murdered in her home, other developments transpire, leaving the group to wonder if one of them will be next.

Fortunately, I've never experienced the heartbreak of cancer, but Mrs. Staub's excellent writing enabled me to feel the emotions and fear and hopelessness that they incur during the long treatment process.

Aside from the "murder mystery" plot, the secondary story about these women with breast cancer who find cancer patients like them in the computer world of blogging was of major interest to me. So many thoughts and feelings I had during my bout with breast cancer were put into words I couldn't or didn't express 20+ years ago--- especially the constant fear of the Big C returning. I honestly felt I myself made new friends reading this book.