Her Every Fear: A Novel

Great book from an author new to me. Kate Priddy is an instantly likable character, plagued with anxiety, but determined to conquer her fears. Refreshing to find a main character who is vulnerable, but not annoying. The suspense is a deliciously slow-burn, foreboding that gradually ratchets up into a taut, page-turning apprehension. The book will keep the reader wide awake late into the night, eager to find out what happens next. The story is strongly character-driven, well-paced and satisfying. It's a pleasure to read the work of a talented, confident writer who knows what he's doing. A dark, compulsively readable psychological thriller.

This book hooked me from the beginning. Who wouldn't want to escape to another country for six months, live in a great city, and bonus, a fantastic apartment? Of course, it all goes wrong, and fast. I was intrigued by the way this novel unfolded--the beginning is told from the main protagonist's POV then it kind of switches back and forth between a few people, but not in a set pattern. The first time it shifted to another POV it was just a bit jarring, but in retrospect, it was the perfect way to tell the story. I was actually sorry it ended, and wouldn't mind hearing more from these characters.

Let me start by saying Swanson's “The Girl with a Clock for a Heart” was not my favorite novel...not by a long shot. “The Kind Worth Killing” was a step up for Swanson. “Her Every Fear” was a big step up. While well written and full of double and triple crosses, “The Kind worth Killing” characters were a major disconnect for me, as they were sociopaths, making them impossible to root for. “Her Every Fear” is different, as the main character has both heart, substance and realistic feelings.

Kate Piddy, the main character, is well fleshed out as a beautiful, yet modest English young lady, who is prone to panic attacks, OCD and re-living her near death experience at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, who frequently visits her in nightmares. She is a compelling protagonist and for me personally deeply empathetic, as I have had bouts with anxiety. The first third of the novel was focused on character development of both Kate and Corbin, her second cousin, with whom Kate switches apartments in London for Boston, Corbin for work and Kate to expand her horizons, take some art classes, and try to forget her past ordeal. The cousins have never meet face to face before arranging the switch.

Everything is going haltingly smooth for someone who always expects the worst like Kate, until Corbin's next door neighbor, Audrey, is found brutally murdered just across the hall. The middle of the book delves more into Corbin's and Kate's pasts and what lead up to the murder of Audrey, as Corbin is suspected of leaving for London and his new life after possibly killing her. Other characters enter the plot, and are well drawn by Swanson. This switch in narrative tends to ratchet up the suspense as we worry about Kate and her ability to cope alone with an unknown evil.

Like with his two previous novels, Swanson appears to have great appreciation for the cinema classics especially the Noir genre. “The Girl with a Clock for a Heart”, a poor copy of Body Heat, “The Kind Worth Killing” reminiscent of Strangers on the Train with the type of irredeemable characters that Patricia Highsmith wrote about. “Her Every Fear” has undertones of Rear Window and “Vertigo” with one of the characters, a voyeur who also likes to watch from his window, and Kate needing to experience her worst fears …...again. Although this novel is suspenseful, to me the mystery was solved early on, which tends to take a little away from the dramatic tension. This third offering from Swanson is a fast read, my favorite of the three books he has written and certainly worth your time.

When an author is compared to Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, he has a lot to live up to. I’m not quite sure that Peter Swanson is quite worthy of that esteemed company but his book is page-turning – enough so that it kept me rapt and engrossed during a long transatlantic flight.

Here’s the premise: an attractive young Englishwoman named Kate is victim to an anxiety disorder, caused by a horrendous episode engineered by her unstable ex. When her Boston cousin Corbin – whom she has never met – suggests an apartment swap for six months, she surprises herself by agreeing. But as soon as she arrives at the swanky apartment, she discovers that her next-door neighbor has just been gruesomely killed. Who dunnit? Her cousin, who was, after all, romantically involved with? The nice guy across the way who promises to be Kate’s next love interest? Or, perhaps, someone who is lurking not far in the background?

Peter Swanson has a away of racheting up the suspense and leaving the reader gasping for more. I never quite believed that Kate was crippled by anxiety (many of her actions and decisions are inconsistent with the decisions of someone with anxiety disorder). And – without spoilers – I don’t think he quite makes the case for the inner psychology of someone who is held hostage to his own secrets. There are, indeed, hints of The Incredible Mister Ripley and Rear Window. If thrillers are your thing, you really should give this one a try.

A traumatized young woman jumps at the chance to switch her London flat for a distant cousin's Boston apartment. although she has never met the cousin, she is convinced that a change of scenery will help her immensely. But she fails to leave her anxiety, stress and negativity across the pond. the apartment is impressive but her hope for serenity is dashed upon the discovery of a neighbor's murder. suspicion quickly falls upon her cousin who so quickly left the jurisdiction. Kate, the young woman, is attracted to a voyeuristic neighbor and wonders whether she is losing her mind as weird things begin to happen in her apartment. Kate must confront her fears and makes choice that could cost her her life.

Although this tale may be inspired by HItchcock, Hitchcock it's not. It lacks the charm of Rear Window and the suspense of Vertigo. but worse, it completely misses the horror of the recognition that the monster is beside you that was so perfectly conveyed in Shadow of a Doubt. The mystery is easily solved and the romance is only mildly convincing. Kate's PTSD is well described but sadly her illness is more interesting than she is. It is a quick read and fairly entertaining but there really are no surprises or memorable moments or characters.

I won this ARC in a Goodreads Giveaway. My review contains spoilers

This story begins with Kate from England swapping apartments with her cousin Corbin, whom she's never met, from Boston. Corbin has accepted a job overseas and Kate wishes to attend art school. From a horrific weekend-long incident with her ex-boyfriend five years earlier when she thought he'd kill her, but instead killed himself, she suffers anxiety and PTSD. The day she arrives at her cousin's apartment and sees a distraught woman shouting and pounding on a neighbor's door, she believes that neighbor to have been murdered. She's right, Audrey was murdered.

We soon learn about Alan, the neighbor who lived across the courtyard from Audrey who had taken to frequently watching her through the windows with binoculars and fantasizing about them having a relationship. Having spied Corbin in her apartment one night, filled with jealousy, he tried to become Corbin's friend by playing racquetball with him. After meeting Kate and learning who she is, he sees her leaving one night and follows her. At the restaurant, she invites him to join her and he tries to convince her Corbin had something to do with Audrey's murder. They meet again when the building manager invites Kate for drinks and somehow Alan finds out and invites himself along. After two very strong martinis, Kate winds up sleeping with Alan afterward in his apartment, only to regret doing so.

We find out Corbin was seeing Audrey, but only in her apartment, as he refused to take her out in public. We learn about Corbin and his college days in England. Then there's Henry, a classmate Corbin met in college and the crime they committed against fellow-student and girlfriend Claire. To Corbin, it was a terrible accident. To Henry, it was an exhilarating thrill he wanted to experience again, and did later to Corbin's reluctance, when they returned to the states. There is also Jack, Audrey's supposed concerned friend who also tries to convince Kate her cousin is involved in her murder. We find out later Jack is actually Henry. The seasoned Detective James is a good solid character and remained so throughout the story.

The story is told from multiple POV's which answers questions and fills in blanks, but is disruptive and repetitive. I did not like the end of the story. I didn't have a problem with Corbin's death since he did participate with Henry in the gruesome murder of Linda, a victim carefully selected by Henry. After Henry murdered Rachel to teach Corbin a lesson, Corbin knew what would happen to Audrey and should have done something to prevent it instead of leaving. Though I am glad he returned to try to save Kate.

What I really disliked about the end was Kate's decision to give Alan a chance after (a) suffering two incidents of life-altering trauma and barely escaping with her life, and (b) he had confessed to her he was a peeper and he liked to imagine he and Audrey together! Even though his urging the detective to check on Kate saved her life, he's still a stalker and not to be trusted! She was very brave to decide to stay in the states, but very foolish to trust Alan and give him a chance. She should have returned to art school.

Londoner Kate Priddy's last romance was a disaster. Her boyfriend George was pathologically jealous, and - after they broke up - showed up at her borrowed cottage with a gun. George terrorized Kate for hours, then locked her in a closet and shot himself. Kate was found two days later, suffering from shock and claustrophobia. After recovering at her parents' home for months Kate resumed her life, but was plagued by anxiety and panic attacks.

It's now several years later and Kate, a talented art student, gets a tempting offer. Her Boston-based cousin Corbin Dell, whom Kate has never met, is being transferred to London for six months - and offers an apartment exchange. He'll gladly occupy Kate's small London flat and she can live in his luxurious Beacon Hill digs. With much trepidation, Kate accepts, and temporarily transfers to a Boston art school.

The cousins pass in the air (so to speak), and take up residence in each other's homes. Just as Kate is moving into her new place, she sees a woman pounding on the door of the adjacent apartment - looking for her 'missing' friend. Kate, who's always expecting the worst, gets a bad feeling.....which turns out to be prophetic.

On the day Kate moves in she meets several of the building's residents as well as Sanders the cat, a congenial feline who regularly calls on the tenants.

The next morning Corbin's next door neighbor - an attractive woman named Audrey Marshall - is found murdered in her apartment.

Corbin, who left town around the time of the killing, naturally becomes a person of interest. Detective Roberta James, who's in charge of the Marshall case, asks Kate about Corbin.....and requests permission to search his home. Kate agrees, but - before the cops arrive - does her own quick reconnaisance. A couple of days later, Kate looks through Corbin's basement storage unit and makes a shocking discovery.

Long story short, Corbin starts to look like a likely suspect, to both Kate and the police.

While the police are investigating Audrey's murder, Kate - though nervous - gets on with her life. She familiarizes herself with the neighborhood; buys bread, cheese, and wine (the fridge is already stocked with frozen meals from Trader Joe's. LOL); gets ready to attend her new art school; and sketches the people she meets. Kate also becomes friendly with Sanders, who periodically scratches on her door to be allowed in for a visit.

Before long Kate meets two young men: Alan Cherney - who lives on the other side of the building; and Jack Ludovico - an old friend of Audrey's. Kate appears to have faulty 'man radar' because - though both of these guys seem a bit off - Kate is quite friendly to them.

Within a couple of days Kate starts to get a creepy feeling in her apartment, and Sanders begins to appear and disappear without her opening the door. Hmmmmm.....food for thought.

The story is told from the points of view of several characters, and the author quietly sneaks in some surprising plot twists. That's all I can say without spoilers.

The book is a well-constructed novel of psychological suspense, but the middle parts are too slow and repetitive for my taste. Moreover, certain plot points don't ring true. I can't believe a normal, intellient person becomes a homicidal maniac in the blink of an eye.....and then behaves very stupidly. There's more that bothers me but I don't want to give away too much.

Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable thriller, recommended to fans of the genre.

The third novel by an emerging thriller writer, Her Every Fear is solid commercial fiction that is likely to find a large audience. The protagonist is an English woman named Kate Priddy. Kate believes that she attracts psychos. Her sometime boyfriend, George Daniels, had killed himself with a shotgun and she continually sees him in nightmares and daymares. Kate has agreed to trade her north London flat for her cousin’s flat in Beacon Hill, so that she might take art courses in Boston. The fact that she can draw expertly is an interesting part of the story.

Kate and her cousin (Corbin) have never met, but his past may contain some significant skeletons (literally and figuratively). Without revealing any major SPOILERS, suffice to say that her contacts and Corbin’s intersect. There are dead, mutilated bodies aplenty and numerous instances of things that go bump in the night.

The story is set in both London and Boston and is told from multiple points of view. There are also time-level shifts as we end chapters with cliffhangers, then return to another character and undergo the same experience from a different perspective. The ethos and mood are explicitly Hitchcockian and Highsmithian, as numerous reviewers have noted. The suspense is solid, the ending perhaps a tad too predictable.

This is a stronger novel than Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, two books with which it is being compared, but it is similar to them in that there is a relative paucity of likeable characters and the moral world which they inhabit is brittle and hollow. There is a bit more gore here than cozy readers are likely to prefer, but the sex is comparatively modest for contemporary commercial fiction.

Her Every Fear will hold nearly every reader’s attention; we can probably expect a cinematic version in the not-too-distant future.

Actual Rating 3.5

So there is plenty to enjoy about this book. This story is completely crazy and will definitely give you the creeps. As this story unravels and it pieces together the parts of the characters involved in the murder of Audrey will have your mind spinning.

Despite his eerie past, I really liked Corbin and he may have been my favorite character in this entire book. Corbin is the neighbor of the murdered Audrey and his connection to her is closer than is originally believed. The chapters from his perspective are the most interesting in this book. I liked getting to know Corbin and finding out about his past and how it leads to the murder of the present. I wanted things to end well for him. I also liked the perspective of Alan. He is a resident of the complex that the murder takes place. While he definitely has some issues, I liked that he was open and friendly to Kate. I have to say I really liked the way Peter Swanson wrote this book. How at vital moments when you couldn't wait to know what would happen next or the fate of a character it jumped to another characters perspective and shows how their actions lead to moment held in suspense. I'm not a person who likes murder mysteries and thrillers I can appreciate the story and the characters.

The one thing I did not like that much about this book was Kate's character. She is the cousin of Corbin and swaps apartments with him. Upon her arrival to the US and getting to Corbins place, she finds out his neighbor was murdered. Kate pretty much becomes obsessed with the murder and immediately suspects Corbin and does a lot of snooping. I get the way Kate is due to her own past and trauma, but I found reading from her perspective to be very annoying. I just genuinely didn't like her.

I think Her Every Fear was an interesting book that I enjoyed in the end.

Massachusetts author Peter Swanson, with degrees in Creative Writing, Education, and Literature from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, has written three novels and has had his stories and poems appear in The Atlantic, Measure, Mysterical-E, Soundings East, The Vocabula Review, and Yankee Magazine.

Peter understands terror. For those readers who dote on finding books to dispel the concept that no one today can write about fear in the manner of an Hieronymus Bosch painting such as The Garden of Earthly Delights or Gustave Doré's illustrations for Dante’s Inferno, welcome to Peter Swanson. His imagination is viral and his ability to explain the human psyche is astonishingly perceptive. From the first words of this brilliant new novel he sets in place that feeling of dissociative relationship between reality and nightmare as well as anyone writing. HER EVERY FEAR involves a young woman caught in a vise of voyeurism, betrayal, manipulation, and murder.

Example – ‘Kate Priddy, who had never been to Boston and had no idea she would wind up in a tunnel under Boston Harbor, sat in the back of a stopped taxi cab and began to panic. It was not her first panic attack, not even of that particular day. She’d had one earlier that morning when she’d stepped outside of her flat in Belsize Park in London into a cold, gray dawn and suddenly felt like the whole idea of the apartment swap had been the worst idea she’d ever agreed to. But she’d done her breathing exercises, and repeated her mantra, and told herself that it was too late to turn back now…But this attack, with the taxicab stalled in the dark tunnel, was far worse than anything she’d had for a long while. The glistening walls of the endless tunnel curved up at the top. It was like being inside a massive constricting snake, and Kate felt her stomach fold within her, her mouth turn dry.’ And that is page one…….

The story is complex but Peter weaves it well – ‘Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life. But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London. When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidently learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met? Yet the danger Kate imagines isn’t nearly as twisted and deadly as what’s about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real. And much, much closer than she thinks.’

Even the layout of the book – with inserted plain black pages here and there – intensifies the emotions stirred by this immensely successful novel. Peter Swanson is clearly in the hallowed hall of suspense writers. There is a film here… Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, February 17
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Kate had been through some hard times. As a result of the actions of a previous boyfriend she has been left with severe anxiety and suffers panic attacks. She is starting to turn a corner and when a distant cousin in Boston is coming to London for six months he suggests they swap apartments it seems like the ideal opportunity to get her life back. Although the apartment is the height of luxury, discovering her next door neighbour has just been murdered does not set her at ease.

I really liked the way Peter Swanson created the sense of fear that Kate felt. He captured her growing sense of menace -which was pretty high to start with. I thought that this was a well paced novel, although the end seemed a bit rushed which is why I did not feel able to give it five stars but it is really worth a read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to do so.

HER EVERY FEAR is appropriately titled, though it just as easily could have been called “Neighbors.” Peter Swanson’s third effort takes a look at what has become a popular (maybe too popular) theme in recent genre literature: dealing with people who swap apartments or perhaps engage in short-term rentals with subsequent reason to forget. Those who enjoy reading about vulnerable protagonists who wind up in even worse straits despite all good intentions will find this book fully satisfactory.

The great majority of HER EVERY FEAR takes place within the somewhat claustrophobic confines of an apartment building. Kate Priddy is a young English woman who has agreed to swap her less-than-palatial digs in London with Corbin Dell --- a second cousin she has never met --- who resides in an extremely tony apartment in the heart of Boston. Kate’s baggage is not limited to her suitcases, but her cousin and his apartment both have baggage of sorts as well, and much of it is revealed gradually over the course of the novel. Kate is the hottest of hot messes, as we find out practically from the beginning on page one. She is subject to all kinds of panic attacks, and when we find out why, we learn that it is certainly for good reason. What is supposed to be a six-month change of scenery as part of her long-term therapy turns out to be anything but.

Kate’s arrival coincides with the discovery --- in the apartment right next door to her --- of the body of a young lady who has been brutally murdered. Naturally, suspicion lands on Corbin, who conveniently got out of Dodge just before the corpse was discovered. Corbin claims to have had very little to do with his deceased next-door neighbor, a statement that is contradicted by another neighbor, who has a penchant for window peeping and had been observing the woman’s activities in the weeks leading up to her death. Kate wonders why Corbin would lie about his involvement with the murdered woman, and so do the police.

Corbin is indeed lying, but not for the reason one might immediately expect. As the story progresses, Corbin’s problems become Kate’s in a major way. The best thing that she could possibly do is vacate the apartment and go back to London, which at least is familiar and secure. That is not going to happen, though. By the time the book concludes, nothing in Kate’s life will be the same.

Peter Swanson creates quite a mysterious stew here, accentuated by Kate’s near-constant anxiety, which she has learned to deal with, even if she can’t conquer it. That said, we’ve seen all of this before, at least with respect to the “trading places” subplot. Still, HER EVERY FEAR puts a couple of interesting twists on combining the fish-out-of-water situation, particularly when that fish is anything but a barracuda. Additionally, those readers who are tired of encountering the scenario in which the damsel in distress is rescued by a prince will find much to love here, given how Swanson puts a unique corkscrew on that plot device. Furthermore, his trademark ability to create slow-building suspense that becomes full in the last third of the book is on proud display here.

For those unfamiliar with Swanson’s work, start here and work your way back through his bibliography. You will be rewarded.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Ooo, this book was deliciously dark and twisted. I was really looking forward to reading it as I had already read and loved both of this author's previous books (The Kind Worth Killing and The Girl with a Clock for a Heart) so I had high expectations going in and I am pleased to report that Mr Swanson didn't disappoint.
Kate has had a bit of a past so she suffers a bit from anxiety and panic but she grabs the bull by the horns and agrees to a flat swap with a distant cousin, Corbin, who needs to move to England for work. In return for her flat there, he offers her his rather swanky apartment in Boston, Mass.
Corbin has a bit of a past too, but that's all I am going to say here!
So, the day after Kate moves into Corbin's place, the body of his neighbour is discovered. Murdered.
What happens next is a roller coaster of shocking twists and turns as we follow Kate and a variety of others as we race along to a rather explosive ending.
I read this book start to finish in a day. I really didn't want to be parted from it for even a second as I became so immersed in the storyline I just had to know what happened. What really impressed me about this book is the way it was plotted. How there were loads of small innocuous things that could be written off as forgetfulness and jet-lag and that, in isolation, mean very little but when taken together, all start to add up. In that way, I found that the tension built up slowly rather than being in your face but that really suited the theme and ambience of the actual story being told.
I also really liked the same scene being retold from a different character's pov. I find that for certain books, this can be a really good way of building characters if done well, and here it is very effective as it really let me get into the minds of some of the characters.
There are psychological thrillers that hit the ground running and although being psychological in nature they come across as more thriller in execution. This book isn't that. It is much more cerebral rather than physical. To get the most out of this book, I had to slow down my reading and really concentrate on every word. As I have found from his other books, there is so much that is subtle contained within the writing that, if I read at my usual speedy pace, I found that I missed so much.
Characters are one of this author's strong points and those in this book are no exception. Although I didn't actually like Kate as a person (character) I still managed to make a connection with her and so my actual opinion of her didn't make any difference to my enjoyment of the book. Other characters were also well drawn and easy to emote with / connect to. I am not going to cite examples as I think this is another book that you need to read to make your own minds up about them.
All in all, a cracking read for me that left me completely satisfied at the end. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson is a highly recommended novel of suspense.

Kate Priddy suffers from panic attacks and anxiety due to a terrifying experience with an ex-boyfriend. Kate, who lives in London, agrees to a 6 month apartment switch with Corbin Dell, her second cousin who lives on Beacon Hill in Boston. Hoping that a change will help her heal from her emotional trauma, she is planning to take a couple of art classes while in Boston. On the day of her arrival Corbin's next-door neighbor, Audrey Marshall, is discovered murdered. The police are questioning tenants, including Kate, who doesn't know Corbin; in fact, she has never met him, so she doesn't have a lot of personal information to provide the investigators about him. Still suffering from jet lag, Kate is thrust right into a murder investigation, while meeting new people who may or may not be involved, and her growing suspicion that Corbin may be involved.

Her Every Fear is a solid, intense thriller that reaches a satisfying conclusion. It is well-written. After a slow start, it does ratchet the suspense up as the novel progresses. The narrative is told through several different points of view. There is no shockingly unexpected twist or surprise, but it is creepy. As a character driven novel, there is some repetition and retelling of the same events. Actually, Her Every Fear would make a good movie. You'd have to work on some of the issues (below) but as a movie much of the repetition could be avoided and the creepiness played up.

There were a couple problems/nagging questions with the novel for me. They are all quite obvious. Why on earth would Kate agree to an apartment switch with a cousin she never met, quit her job, and move to Boston for 6 months? How does this mesh with someone who suffers from severe anxiety and panic attacks? How is she supporting herself? It seems that her recovery would progress more in London (and doubtful, to me, that any mother worth that designation would encourage her daughter to do this after the trauma she went through). Why would she be chatting up strangers the way she does? I have no anxiety disorders and I wouldn't be talking to all these people, freely providing personal information. And how does one person manage to be such a psychopath magnet? Where are the rational decisions? 3.5 for me.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

Many thanks to the publisher, Faber and Faber Ltd and Netgalley for granting my wish to read HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson. I was really looking forward to reading this book. I have to admit this is the first book I have read by this author, but I have his debut book “The Kind Worth Killing”, still to read.

The story follows Kate Priddy, an English girl who has swapped apartments with Corbin Dell, her distant cousin, and has moved to America for six months. Following a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend, and an abusive relationship, Kate needs a new start. She still suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. But a change of scenery living abroad and taking a university course is a positive set in the right direction…or was it?

“I should never have left the country. I should never have left my parents’ house. Not to go to university, not to go on holiday in the Lake District, not to go to London and definitely not to travel to Boston. Bad things happen to me. Bad people happen to me.”

But soon after her arrival Kate, Corbin's next-door neighbour, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered.

“A murderer had stood outside Audrey Marshall’s apartment…and planned to kill her. Then he went inside and killed/mutilated her with a knife.”

But Kate was intrigued with the murder and plays detective in learning more about the crime. The police begin asking Kate questions about Corbin's relationship with Audrey, and his neighbours have their own thoughts on the killing!

This story is an eerie story told by multiple points of view, including Corbin, a man of many secrets! What is Corbin hiding? Why is a neighbour Alan watching both Kate and Audrey’s apartment? Is Kate safe?

This is a well-written murder-mystery, in comparison to a Hitchcock thriller, where the characters are well-developed and creepy in nature, increasing the level of suspense. But one of my observations with the story is with every point of view change and perspective, there was a replay of information, which I felt slowed down the pace of the novel. For that reason my rating for this novel is 3.5.

I Highly recommend this novel and now look forward to reading his debut novel, The Kind Worth Killing.

Have you read Peter Swanson yet? No? Well, if you're a fan of twisty, turny suspense novels like I am, you'll want to add him to your 'must read' list.

Swanson's latest book is Her Every Fear.

Brit Kate Priddy suffers from anxiety, panic attacks and OCD. Her bouts and symptoms got even worse after surviving a horrible relationship with ex-boyfriend George. When the opportunity arises to switch apartments for six months with her distant cousin Corbin in Boston, she decides it's a great opportunity to reclaim her life.

But when a neighbour of Corbin's goes missing the day she moves in, Kate begins to wonder if she's made the right choice. And then the neighbour is found dead.....

A fantasic premise with loads of places to go - and an uncertain narrator to tell the tale. Love it!

Swanson has the reader knowing much more than our poor Kate. There are three other voices - Corbin, a friend of Corbin and another resident of the apartment building in Boston. We know what's happened, what's happening and the danger that Kate is in. Kate tries to downplay odd incidents.... she let the cat out didn't she? How did he get back in? Is someone watching her from the window across the way? (nice little Hitchcockian plot device) Has someone changed one of her sketches? Or is it her own anxieties causing her worries and suspicions?

The narrative switches between then and now and only serves to heighten the tension as we learn more about the characters and their secrets. Swanson has painted one heck of a scary antagonist in one of the three characters His inner dialogue is truly frightening. So, while we know the whodunit long before the police, it's the journey there that makes for a deliciously creepy read.

Swanson's last book, The Kind Worth Killing, had a fantastic 'gotcha' in the last few pages. I was looking (and hoping) for a similar ending. It's there, but subtle. One line in a paragraph near the end has me thinking that Kate may be making another bad choice......

Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.

But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered.

When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.

When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidently learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met?

Yet the danger Kate imagines isn’t nearly as twisted and deadly as what’s about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real.

And much, much closer than she thinks.

My Thoughts: Multiple narrators take the reader back and forth in time within the pages of Her Every Fear: A NovelHer Every Fear. It was easy to immerse myself in the stories of the narrators, as they fleshed out their own perspectives. When Kate had a panic attack upon first arriving in Boston, I could feel the fear and anxiety, and wanted to also experience the calmness finally settling within her body.

What we learn about each of the characters will help us put together the pieces of the puzzle, specifically who might have killed Audrey Marshall, but also what motivated the killer(s).

We learn the “who” fairly early on, but we are eager to keep turning pages to find out whether or not Kate will be safe when she is tucked away in Corbin’s apartment, and which one of the people she sees every day might be a killer.

The intensity mounts as one of the characters lands in Boston, with an unexpected plan, and we are eager to discover who will still be standing after a very disturbing and twisted encounter.

It was hard to review this book, for fear of spoilers, so suffice it to say that you won’t want to stop reading until the final page. And you might want to read only in the daytime. This is my first book by the author, but it won’t be my last. 4.5 stars.

Kate Priddy, a young woman from London, has arranged a six month apartment swap with her cousin Corbin Dell who has a spectacular apartment in the Boston area. As soon as Kate arrives, jet lagged and recovering from a panic attack in the taxi, she finds out that Corbin's neighbor Audrey has been murdered. Kate comes with her own set of baggage. Her only past relationship ended with her being kidnapped by an abusive boyfriend who locked Kate in a closet and then took his own life. She has post-traumatic stress disorder from this experience and often 'hears' her ex whispering uglies into her ear. The last thing she needed was more stress.

Shortly after Kate arrives in Boston, she meets Alan who lives in a neighboring apartment. Alan tells Kate that Corbin and Audrey had a relationship and Kate asks Corbin about it. Corbin denies knowing Audrey and Kate doesn't know what to make of this. She reflects on the sterility of Corbin's apartment and wonders if her cousin could be hiding something. Could he have something to do with the murder? She starts looking around the apartment for hidden information and signs of Corbin's involvement with Audrey. Kate begins to see things out of the corner of her eye and things disappear from the apartment despite the fact that she is the only one living there.

To make matters worse, Kate runs into an old boyfriend of Audrey's who cries on Kate's shoulder about his loss. He and Audrey had been college sweethearts but it seems that while he is still holding a torch for her, Audrey doesn't reciprocate his feelings.

She is attracted to Alan but wonders if he is too good to be true. He seems to know a lot of things that the police haven't even released and Kate wonders where he's gotten his information. His apartment is directly across from Audrey's and Kate wonders if he's been looking in on her. Kate also is concerned that Alan is following her. She goes out for dinner and just by chance Alan turns up at the same restaurant. Is it chance or has Alan been stalking her.

The novel requires that the reader suspends belief in everything rational. Characters who are portrayed with certain belief systems and values change essential aspects of their personality like chameleons. There is no cohesion or continuity in how the characters are portrayed. At times, I felt like they were caricatures of themselves. I thought that this book tried too hard and ended up like a jigsaw puzzle missing too many pieces. It is a page turner and I read it in two sittings. By the time I reached the end, however, I felt disappointed and resented the time I'd put into reading it.

I’ve now read all of Peter Swanson’s thrillers, and I can confidently say that one of them is a near-flawless masterpiece (The Kind Worth Killing), two are very good, though somewhat flawed, thrillers that occasionally rise to the level of The Kind Worth Killing (All The Beautiful Lies, The Girl with a Clock For a Heart) and one–that leaves this novel–is just average. It still contains some of the fine ingredients that make Swanson such a treat to read, but they do not cohere into a satisfying whole. I still felt compelled to finish the book, but it started to feel like a chore near the end.

One thing that is impossible not to notice about Swanson’s style is his apparent fixation on sociopathic/psychopathic women, who are invariably beautiful, shamelessly manipulative, and who also have a bad habit of murdering people who get in their way. He established this pattern right off the bat in his debut novel, perfected it in The Kind Worth Killing, and it pops up again in his most recent novel, All The Beautiful Lies. It seems he decided to turn the tables in this novel, though, and that makes total sense. If every one of his novels featured this type of character, that would invariably become tiresome. Thus, the deviant types in this book are all men, and the main female character, though still beautiful, is an outright victim.

I have no problem with this change in his typical formula. It was nice to see him make an effort to switch things up. The problem lies elsewhere. Most prominently, the main character, Kate, is not particularly compelling, and worse, becomes tiresome to read about as the story unfolds. The title is apt–the reader almost literally becomes familiar with Kate’s “every fear”, and she has a lot of them. Not without good cause–she was the victim of a major trauma and clearly has an intense anxiety disorder and PTSD as well. But her neuroticism is not exactly fun to read about and it makes up a large portion of this story. It did not take me long to become fed up with the repetition of phrases describing nervous tics, such as her habit of tapping her fingertips together.

This problem is compounded by the intense interest her creepy and neurotic (though in a much different fashion) neighbor, Alan, takes in her. Alan is a peeping tom and a stalker, and descriptions of both of those unpleasant activities also take up a large chunk of the storyline. Not a particularly compelling character, and the on/off romance between Alan and Kate is even less compelling and charming.

I found Corbin, Kate’s cousin and the owner of the Boston apartment she is staying in, to be the most interesting character. At least, the fairly long section that introduces us to his backstory was the only part of the book that really had me glued to the pages. His association with Henry Wood was initially fascinating, but later in the book, that too became fairly tedious and was defined by too many cliches and implausibilities, mostly on Wood’s part.

Taking a larger view of the book, I think the biggest problem was the lack of a mystery that only unravels near the end of the story. You know, or strongly suspect, who did what by the halfway mark, or not much later. There is no big twist here–something Swanson excels at. That essentially means the rest of the book is composed of passages describing deviant characters being deviant and neurotic characters being neurotic. Swanson is a highly talented writer with above average descriptive powers for the genre, so a fair amount of these passages are pretty interesting, but the lack of a mystery really diminishes the “page turner” appeal of the novel’s latter half. It does not end with a bang–not at all. More of whimper, actually.

Finally, I did enjoy the fairly limited inclusion of Detective Roberta James, who appeared prominently in The Kind Worth Killing. She is a very good character and I hope to see more of her in later novels. However, I must admit that when I realized she was part of this story, I immediately began to ache for some hint as to the fate of her former partner, Detective Kimball. I really enjoyed his chapters in The Kind Worth Killing, and would have loved to know what happened to him (and of course, the character who the final chapter is devoted to) after the end of that story. Well, I’ll just say it right now–it doesn’t happen. Swanson doesn’t even include a subtle or vague reference to that book’s storyline. Fair enough–I guess I understand why he didn’t do that. I’m still disappointed, though.

So, all in all, I still finished the book and enjoyed some of it, but it would be the last novel I’d suggest to anybody who hasn’t read Swanson yet. It just doesn’t rise to anywhere near the heights that his second and most famous novel reached, or that his first and fourth came close to.

She travels to another country – only to have “Her every fear” realized…

A house swap. Kate Priddy swaps flats with a second cousin she has never actually met, Corbin Dell. He will live in her home, a smallish flat in Belsize Park, London and she will reside in his opulent apartment in Beacon Hill, Boston.

Kate is a very anxious person who is prey to panic attacks. She cannot fully believe that she has ventured to the other side of the Atlantic on this adventure. She takes anti-anxiety pills since being immobilized by fear and grief after a traumatic event in her past.

Her first day in Boston she meets an intriguing neighbor who lives across the courtyard. Alan Cherney is easy to talk to – exuding a sense that she feels she has known him a long time. Also, she finds him attractive in a quirky way.

Shockingly, a woman has been found murdered in an apartment next to hers. She finds a key in Corbin’s apartment with the dead woman’s initials on the key tag. Inexplicably, she crosses the crime scene tape and actually enters the apartment! Is this far-fetched? Just because it is something I would never entertain the thought of doing, does that make Kate’s actions unbelievable? Why would someone who is anxious in the first place, embark on an action that is sure to be adrenalin inducing? You be the judge.

When she is in the murdered woman’s apartment, she realizes that Alan Cherney is looking back at her. His apartment is directly across the courtyard from Audrey’s. Can he see her? or is the lighting precluding him from seeing anyone?

Kate is (privately) an accomplished portrait artist. She sketches the faces she encounters in her day-to-day life. Since arriving in Boston, she has drawn some astutely accurate charcoal portraits of the people she has met. Naturally she finds it extremely unsettling to find that her sketches are not as she remembers them. Have them been subtly changed? The eyes don’t seem quite right…

The reader is told that Alan has been looking at Audrey Marshall for many months. His excellent view of her apartment from his, has led to his being a voyeur in her life. Now… she has been murdered.

The police question Kate. Due to the fact that she has never even met either her distant cousin Corbin, or the murder victim, Audrey, she cannot imagine that she can be helpful to their inquiries.

The reader becomes acquainted with Alan Cheney. Turns out he has a history of voyeurism. That being said, I liked him and found him to be a sympathetic character. (Maybe because he would look at the title of the book Audrey was reading and read the same book along with her… LOL)

Next, the reader gets to know Corbin. We see what he is thinking and experiencing in London. This is not his first visit there. We find out what happened the last time he was ‘across the pond’.

Some relationships are difficult to end.

Corbin has a shocking history that eventually comes to light. Desperate for friendship, he befriended the wrong person… Can he change? Is it even possible? Or, will his previous actions forever color his future?

Who killed Audrey Marshall?

“Her every fear” is a great character-driven thriller with a satisfying ending. The settings were as well developed as the characters and the plot had an almost Hitchcockian feel. I would love to take a meander through the Beacon Hill apartments with the wandering cat, Sanders.

I liked this novel better than the author’s last novel, “The kind worth killing“. That is saying something, because I really enjoyed that one as well. The only flaw for me was Kate’s behavior at times – however I was willing to suspend belief and accept the author’s explanation for her actions. Highly recommended to all who love suspenseful reads centered around psychopathic killers.

Peter Swanson does it again! The gripping, page-turning, hypnotically chilling new novel, “Her Every Fear” deserves every single one of the stars in my five-star review.
In “Her Every Fear”, Kate Priddy decides, on a whim, to swap apartments with her cousin after a traumatizing experience leaves her crippled in fear, with paralyzing anxiety attacks. When she heads to Boston (and he to London), Kate begins to doubt her choice. The world is full of dangers and strange people with bad ideas—how can she keep herself safe? While living in her cousin’s apartment, a neighbor is murdered- a neighbor her cousin may (or may not) have had a relationship with. What is the real reason her cousin was so desperate to escape Boston? And why does the handsome tenant across the courtyard know so much about the murdered girl? When the police start investigating and her cousin claims his innocence, Kate starts to question everyone around her- including herself.
Swanson can tell one hell of a tale. From page one, a reader is immediately drawn into Kate’s world- living through every frightening plot twist and turn. The suspense-fueled story keeps a reader guessing until the very end, as all three murder suspects become possible, than impossible, than possible again. This book is completely addicting and impossible to put down and every chapter ends with a reader desperately wanting more. This is how a good story is told, folks. This novel is completely immersive, and it is one of those novels that will hook you and make you completely ignore your boring, adult responsibilities to read “just a little bit more”.
Kate is a great character, traumatized by a past incident with an ex-boyfriend that makes her look twice around every corner. Her paranoia and suspicion add to the plot and make a reader look a little more carefully at all the players. The ending hits, hard and dramatically, and brings both disappointment (that the end is here) and satisfaction (as the plot has been resolved and justice has been delivered).
Having only read “The Kind Worth Killing” before by Peter Swanson (and being completely blown away by that one too!), I think I have found a new novelist to follow and I can’t wait to see what he delivers next!

HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson is a riveting and suspenseful mystery which may make you suspicious of everyone you meet. Set in both Boston and London, it weaves the lives of the main characters into a web of anxiety, fear and distrust. The story takes place over a few days and starts out in Kate Priddy's point of view (POV), adding other characters' POVs as it goes along.

Kate has just arrived in Boston to spend six months experiencing life in a new place and taking design classes. She's agreed to a house switch with her second cousin, Corbin Dell, who she's never met, as he's been transferred to London for the six months. Kate has been anxiety ridden since she was a little girl but now has PTSD from a horrific attack by her ex-boyfriend five years ago. As she walks down the hallway toward her cousin's condo door, she encounters a girl who pounds on a neighbor's door. That girl believes something bad has happened to her friend. Later on, Kate finds out that the neighbor, Audrey Marshall, was killed. Then strange things start happening to Kate in her cousin's condo--slight changes to things around her, cat left inside when she knows she let it out into the hallway--enough to where she questions her sanity. This makes the reader wonder if Kate is an unreliable narrator or if something odd is really going on.

Corbin Dell first visited London as a student. Though he was a bit of a loner, he began dating a bartender at a local pub. He didn't really gel with the other American students but partied with them on occasion. He left town when his studies ended, with a big secret and a regret that follows him daily. Corbin arrives in London to work his six months at about the same time that Kate arrives in Boston. He emails her to thank her for the switch in homes and the detailed info she left him about the neighborhood. He also sends an email to Audrey, even though he knows she won't answer him.

Alan Cherney has lived in the condo building for about a year. He moved in with his heiress girlfriend, but since she's left him, he has to move out again within the month. He has been obsessed with Audrey for a long while, almost to the point of being a stalker.

Henry Wood was the life of the party in London. Every person he met was a friend, and the other American students tended to gravitate toward him. Corbin saw him around school, but didn't really interact with Henry until near the end of their studies in London. Though they parted under unusual circumstances, they renewed their acquaintance back in the USA and became bosom buddies. Eventually they parted ways and Corbin moved on with his life. But he still remembers Henry, and apparently, Henry has never forgotten Corbin.

All the characters have strengths and weaknesses, and no two are alike. By using the various POVs, the author reveals a bit of each character's personality and the reason behind their current actions. I'm giving the book 4.5 stars because with every new POV, I had to figure out where it began in the timeline of Kate's experiences. The pace of the novel would've benefitted from giving the time, day and city at the beginning of each change in POV.

Even though I felt that the killer was inferred before the final traumatic scene, the interplay between the characters and the intensity of the plot kept me captivated throughout the story. The author is a master in writing suspense and creating tense scenes, and readers will be engrossed in this novel to the very end.

If You Liked This, You May Also Like: THE KIND WORTH KILLING and THE GIRL WITH A CLOCK FOR A HEART by Peter Swanson, EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE by Windy Mejia, I SEE YOU by Clare Mackintosh, THE DRY by Jane Harper, THE SLEEPWALKER by Chris Bohjalian

* An e-galley was provided by William Morrow and Edelweiss for an honest review.
** Visit Blue Moon Mystery Saloon for more book reviews

I have never read anything by Peter Swanson before but, after reading this, I am certain he is on my ‘must read’ list. The novel begins with Kate Priddy, who has left London for a six month apartment swap with a cousin she has never met – Corbin Dell – in Boston. From the beginning, we are aware that Kate was the victim of an event which has left her deeply traumatised, so this is a big step for her. Unfortunately, on arrival at Corbin’s beautiful apartment, she almost immediately discovers that his next door neighbour, a young woman involved in publishing, named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered.

Kate has planned to take some classes in design and illustration; drawing and sketching calms her and she is able to reproduce faces after only one meeting. At first, she meets neighbours, but all is definitely not as calm in the expensive apartment complex seems on the surface. Detective Roberta James is keen to search Corbin’s apartment, which seems to have no imprint of his life in the tidy, but devoid of any real personality, rooms. Then there is the attractive Alan Cherney, who lives in the apartment opposite Audrey Marshall’s and seemed to have an obsession with her, which reminds her uncomfortably of events in her own past. Lastly, there is the man who claims to be Audrey’s friend, who hangs about outside the apartments and approaches Kate more than once.

Trying to shake off her feelings that something is wrong and knowing that what happened to her has made her somewhat paranoid, Kate tries to settle down into normal life. However, gradually, as the story unfolds, we learn about not only Kate’s past, but also that of the other characters and realise that danger lurks in the very place that Kate has fled to, to start a new life. This is a very creepy, well written and excellently plotted novel. I was really impressed with this – dark, twisted and scary, with characters you will care about. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Thanks to EDELWEISS and PETER SWANSON for allowing me to read and give an honest review.
Boy, does the title describe Kate Priddy to a tee. Due to something that happened to her early on in her life, she is pretty much afraid to live her life, scared of meeting people and moving on. When the opportunity comes for her to switch places with a cousin she’s never met, she decides its a great chance for her to get over some of her fears and attend some classes. Little did she know that she was going right into a spider web of murder.
I like the writers writing style, I was hooked right from the beginning, I liked Kate, and all of the secondary characters were just right for the story. This was a great psychological thriller, even though you know who the murderer’s are , you will enjoy how the author takes you there. The author did a great job introducing you to each and every character, he even took you into the killers head, he let you get to know to know them, you may not understand what made them kill, but you will understand pure evil, pure innocent.
This novel has it all, its scary, it a true thriller, you will be on the edge of your seat. Believe me even though you know who the killer is or the killers are, it has some very shocking scenes, I was very happy with the ending. So if you are looking for a psychological thriller, edge of your seat read,  great characters, and a perfect ending, you will love this novel. I will defiantly be reading the other books written by Peter Swanson.
Thank you EDELWEISS and PETER SWANSON….

It takes a little while, as Swanson feeds us info in dribs and drabs (wretched authors not giving we control freaks everything we want at once!), but we soon learn that (house-swapper) Kate's still fragile after an event with an ex boyfriend five years earlier. The apartment swap is more an act of defiance than anything... doing something out of character and challenging herself and anxieties.

Swanson has us head jumping a little, which was a little disconcerting, though only in the beginning when I wasn't expecting it, and at the end where the plot jumps about in time.

We learn 'whodunnit' before the end, but aren't sure how things will pan out for those involved.

Swanson's book is well-paced and I was turning page after page, eager to learn everyone's fate. He manipulates the timing of chapters at the end so things are slightly out of sync, and I couldn't decide if the tactic was exceptionally clever or a tad confusing. It heightened my anticipation, but also had me re-reading bits to confirm my understanding.

As a lover of 'justice' in the guise of 'karma', I was a little frustrated by the conclusion, but it made sense and was probably better that Swanson didn't cave in to sentimentality.

This is an enjoyable read and - like Swanson's debut novel, The Girl With A Clock For A Heart - offers up unpredictable and not-always-likeable characters and a complex and twisted plot.

3.5 stars

Kate Priddy, a young English woman who suffers from flashbacks of an attack by her ex-boyfriend, trades apartments with her cousin, Corbin, in Boston whom she has never met. Upon moving in, she learns that a woman in the same building who had a strange relationship with her cousin had been violently murdered. When suspicion falls on Corbin and Kate starts to be attracted to one of her other neighbors who also knew the murdered woman, her safety becomes threatened. This story was a real page-turner despite the fact that a backstory about the killer was introduced so his identity became known early. The views inside a murderer’s mind were done well. It was an absorbing tale.

I could hardly put this absorbing book down! I read it in two days. There was a lot of tension and almost all the men were creepy in some way. Kate reminded me of some of my own relatives who are anxious and fearful and expect the worst to happen. So her character sounded authentic. However, the psychopath murderer was not all that believable to me, how that person could move around so deftly, change names, follow and stalk people instead of working (how does one pay bills if one doesn't work?) I wasn't satisfied with the ending. How could Kate choose to go with Alan when he's such a creeper peeper, a heavy drinker, and just all around mediocre and unimpressive? I don't see that relationship becoming successful. The most admirable character to me was Detective Roberta James. I would like to see her in more of the author's books. I wonder if he has considered building a series around Roberta set in Boston.

I loved the author's previous book and was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it's glacially paced and there are a lot of plot holes. The book would have been much better if the multiple characters' stories had been intercut. Instead, the author focuses on a very passive character for a long time, then releases a lot of secrets at the very end. Some excellent opportunities for suspense were completely missed as a result. His editor did not do his or her job. Read the author's far superior The Kind Worth Killing instead, and hope, along with me, that his next book is of a higher quality.

This book was outrageous in the best way possible! There were times that I thought Kate was a lunatic and she was making all of this stuff on her own. Then I thought for sure Corbin did it. It had to be. But wait, maybe it was Alan, who seems nice but is a creeper in a way? Who the hell is Jack? Oh, it had me on the edge of my seat from page 1!

This is the first mystery/thriller type book that I have ever read where the author actually tells you about 3/4 of the way through the book who actually did the killing, then proceeds to tell the reader exactly what happened. This was a unique angle for me, and if written wrong, could be disastrous to the story, but Peter did such a fantastic job that I can't wait to go out and purchase his other 2 books. Seriously, if you like thrillers/mystery/suspense, this one is a must-have on your TBR.

Kate Priddy was an art student living in London who has been a bit unstable after a traumatic incident at the hands of an ex-boyfriend nearly ended in her death. When a distant cousin, Corbin Dell, from Boston suggests they exchange apartments for 6 months, Kate thinks the change of scene might be just what she needs to help improve her mental state.

The day after she begins living in her cousin's upscale Boston apartment, the woman next door is discovered murdered. Could Corbin have been involved or is there something darker behind the woman's death.

I enjoyed the creepy, suspenseful atmosphere of this read but, this book could have benefited by better editing - seemed repetitive at times and contrived a bit.

3.5/5 stars

Very thought provoking with many shocking twists and turns. I received an ARC from William Morrow Books/Harper Collins for an honest review. Characters definitely weren't what they seemed, but are they ever. Kate Priddy, a victim of a psycho-ex swaps apartments with her cousin Corbin Bell moving from London to Boston to attend school while Corbin moves for work. A murdered neighbor is found the next day after Kate arrives and the madness ensues with weird neighbors, a wandering cat and a building with a doorman, but multiple flawed access that even the residents aren't aware of. Psychopaths and serial killers living every day life fooling those around them. This book will make you think twice about checking locks, closets and under the bed as well as not discounting your instincts about misplaced items.

check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

Kate thinks she is doing an easy apartment swap with her cousin and from day one she is thrown into an experience that is something that she is trying to escape. She had a tragic experience a few years prior to this book and something happens and the post traumatic feelings are returning, but in this instance she decides to fight back and not be the victim.

This was quite the creepy book and although I predicted who the culprit was, it was still interesting. The creep factor helped me be okay that I knew who dun it and guessed the ending. If you have read this genre for a bit, you would probably guess it also, but you can still enjoy the journey.

When you're already plagued with panic attacks and a bit of OCD -- always imagining that the worst will happen -- what happens when it actually does?

Kate Priddy agrees to switch apartments with a second cousin who has an apartment in Boston while he goes to her flat in London for 6 months. Little does she know that Corbin Dell has terrible secrets and that she will be drawn into the web of a psychopath who is out for a very twisted revenge.

I do love the suspense thrillers by this author and have read all he's written to date. This one won't disappoint. Interesting characters who take turns narrating, great description and detail, and a really good story make this book hard to put down.

Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the e-book ARC to review.

I truly enjoyed reading this book cover to cover because it had the right amount of thrill build up and mystery to make it a true thriller and developed the characters so well that I found myself understanding all of their feelings and motives. The point of view rotates in this book, but it's so well done that it flows nicely and rounds out the story. When Kate switches apartments from her flat in London with her cousin Corbin in Boston, she immediately walks into a precarious situation in his building. His neighbor has been murderer. Kate tries to figure out if she knows the killer while others explain their harrowed past. This is a must read!

Her Every Fear is the newest novel by Peter Swanson depicting the perfect storm of characters coming together in a grand apartment building in Boston. The tale is told via the point of view of the main characters, all with personality flaws that range from the off-kilter to the catastrophic.

Kate Priddy is a young art student from England who decides to trade apartments with a distant cousin in Boston. She has been the skittish kind all her life but is now suffering from full blown anxiety resulting from an attack on her life by a former boyfriend. Of course, right away the reader is reminded of the old saw “Just because a person is paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t really out to get them”.

The cousin who has moved to London in this trade is Corbin Dell. Corbin seems to be the kind of person who has two sides to his personality. One is the caring man who believes that life has treated him unfairly and only wants a simple life with a family; the other side is a weak and miserable person who can be used and manipulated by others with stronger personalities. Throughout the book both Corbins are present.

In another wing of this prestigious dwelling is Alan Cherney who is a voyeuristic peeping-tom who has observed the comings and goings of many of the primary and secondary characters in this well wrought story. He’s observed the woman who lived next door to Corbin as she went about her daily activities. On the first day in the chronology of this book this is the woman, Audrey Marshall, who turns up murdered and mutilated. Alan tries to connect the dots between his observations and the deadly results but only has bits and pieces to go on. Kate too is curious beyond control and uses a key she finds in her cousin's drawer to enter the dead woman’s apartment and search for clues.

All of the characters have relationships with each other via hook-ups both physical and electronic. No one character trusts the other characters but in a disturbing way they all need each other for this tale to come to fruition. I thought this was one of the best spine tingling, character driven mysteries to come along this year. The characters were all flawed in such a way that causes the reader trepidation in trusting them too much – or trusting them at all. To put a little more icing on the cake this tale of murder and suspicion takes place on Bury Street – nice touch Mr. Swanson. This is the perfect storm of settings, characters and things that go bump in the night. Add this one to your list of must-reads!

This book was slow and a bit boring. The characters were very well-developed and I liked the main character, Kate, a lot. The story just didn't do it for me, though. I knew half-way through this book who the killer was and why he killed the victim. This led to a pretty dull reading story that I only enjoyed from the aspect of the characters and their psychological intricacies. I think there is an audience for this book but I just don't think that audience is me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Faber & Faber Ltd. for giving me the opportunity to read this which I voluntarily reviewed.
I enjoyed this. It was an exciting, character.driven book, told from numerous perspectives.
I could feel Kate's anxiety, at times I was shaking with her.
As in all good mysteries I was unsure whether "the baddie" really was "the baddie". In fact, I changed my mind so many times I felt dizzy!
This book reminds me of a Hitchcock movie and I can see it transferring to the big screen.
If you love dark, creepy thrillers I would definitely recommend this book.
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I received an advance copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Here is my honest review:

I loved absolutely everything about this book.

The suspense builds slowly at first, and then much more rapidly towards the end. I found myself flying through the pages and being genuinely surprised by the plot twists. The pacing of each revelation is perfect. The sense you get through the first half or so of the book, that things just aren't quite right, is fully explained as each character's actions and motivations are explored. I wasn't left with any burning, unanswered questions at the end of the book. This is a top-notch thriller and one of the best books I have read in the last year.

check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

Kate thinks she is doing an easy apartment swap with her cousin and from day one she is thrown into an experience that is something that she is trying to escape. She had a tragic experience a few years prior to this book and something happens and the post traumatic feelings are returning, but in this instance she decides to fight back and not be the victim.

This was quite the creepy book and although I predicted who the culprit was, it was still interesting. The creep factor helped me be okay that I knew who dun it and guessed the ending. If you have read this genre for a bit, you would probably guess it also, but you can still enjoy the journey.

When you're already plagued with panic attacks and a bit of OCD -- always imagining that the worst will happen -- what happens when it actually does?

Kate Priddy agrees to switch apartments with a second cousin who has an apartment in Boston while he goes to her flat in London for 6 months. Little does she know that Corbin Dell has terrible secrets and that she will be drawn into the web of a psychopath who is out for a very twisted revenge.

I do love the suspense thrillers by this author and have read all he's written to date. This one won't disappoint. Interesting characters who take turns narrating, great description and detail, and a really good story make this book hard to put down.

Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the e-book ARC to review.

I truly enjoyed reading this book cover to cover because it had the right amount of thrill build up and mystery to make it a true thriller and developed the characters so well that I found myself understanding all of their feelings and motives. The point of view rotates in this book, but it's so well done that it flows nicely and rounds out the story. When Kate switches apartments from her flat in London with her cousin Corbin in Boston, she immediately walks into a precarious situation in his building. His neighbor has been murderer. Kate tries to figure out if she knows the killer while others explain their harrowed past. This is a must read!

Her Every Fear is the newest novel by Peter Swanson depicting the perfect storm of characters coming together in a grand apartment building in Boston. The tale is told via the point of view of the main characters, all with personality flaws that range from the off-kilter to the catastrophic.

Kate Priddy is a young art student from England who decides to trade apartments with a distant cousin in Boston. She has been the skittish kind all her life but is now suffering from full blown anxiety resulting from an attack on her life by a former boyfriend. Of course, right away the reader is reminded of the old saw “Just because a person is paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t really out to get them”.

The cousin who has moved to London in this trade is Corbin Dell. Corbin seems to be the kind of person who has two sides to his personality. One is the caring man who believes that life has treated him unfairly and only wants a simple life with a family; the other side is a weak and miserable person who can be used and manipulated by others with stronger personalities. Throughout the book both Corbins are present.

In another wing of this prestigious dwelling is Alan Cherney who is a voyeuristic peeping-tom who has observed the comings and goings of many of the primary and secondary characters in this well wrought story. He’s observed the woman who lived next door to Corbin as she went about her daily activities. On the first day in the chronology of this book this is the woman, Audrey Marshall, who turns up murdered and mutilated. Alan tries to connect the dots between his observations and the deadly results but only has bits and pieces to go on. Kate too is curious beyond control and uses a key she finds in her cousin's drawer to enter the dead woman’s apartment and search for clues.

All of the characters have relationships with each other via hook-ups both physical and electronic. No one character trusts the other characters but in a disturbing way they all need each other for this tale to come to fruition. I thought this was one of the best spine tingling, character driven mysteries to come along this year. The characters were all flawed in such a way that causes the reader trepidation in trusting them too much – or trusting them at all. To put a little more icing on the cake this tale of murder and suspicion takes place on Bury Street – nice touch Mr. Swanson. This is the perfect storm of settings, characters and things that go bump in the night. Add this one to your list of must-reads!

This book was slow and a bit boring. The characters were very well-developed and I liked the main character, Kate, a lot. The story just didn't do it for me, though. I knew half-way through this book who the killer was and why he killed the victim. This led to a pretty dull reading story that I only enjoyed from the aspect of the characters and their psychological intricacies. I think there is an audience for this book but I just don't think that audience is me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Faber & Faber Ltd. for giving me the opportunity to read this which I voluntarily reviewed.
I enjoyed this. It was an exciting, character.driven book, told from numerous perspectives.
I could feel Kate's anxiety, at times I was shaking with her.
As in all good mysteries I was unsure whether "the baddie" really was "the baddie". In fact, I changed my mind so many times I felt dizzy!
This book reminds me of a Hitchcock movie and I can see it transferring to the big screen.
If you love dark, creepy thrillers I would definitely recommend this book.
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I received an advance copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Here is my honest review:

I loved absolutely everything about this book.

The suspense builds slowly at first, and then much more rapidly towards the end. I found myself flying through the pages and being genuinely surprised by the plot twists. The pacing of each revelation is perfect. The sense you get through the first half or so of the book, that things just aren't quite right, is fully explained as each character's actions and motivations are explored. I wasn't left with any burning, unanswered questions at the end of the book. This is a top-notch thriller and one of the best books I have read in the last year.

I won this book thru Goodreads. The plot sounded very interesting and it was in the beginning. However, the reader was told 'who done it' way too early. I was waiting for the twist to come to make a great climax to the book but it never came.

Peter Swanson has done it again! What, you may ask. He has written another awesome book! I love it. This isn’t your typical who done it mystery. I figured the who pretty early, but the how and why, and all the details just sucks you into the depths of it.

Wow so much deception twist and turns. Kept you wondering and turning pages. Glad Corbin had a conscience finally and Henry finally got the ultimate healing therupy he needed. I am glad Kate survived and may have a chance at happiness as she deals with her every fear.

I really can't believe all the big ratings. This book was juvenile, predictable, and yet unbelievable. The best thing I can say about it is that the print was big, the pages small, and the reading fast. More than being disappointed in the book, I'm disappointed in all the great reviews. Life is too short to read a bad book and the store reviewers have been my go-to. sigh.