- format: Kindle (Amazon)
- File Size: 614 KB
- Print Length: 288 pages
- Publisher: MIRA (September 1, 2016)
- Publication Date: August 22, 2016
- Sold by: Harlequin Australia
- Language: English
- ASIN: B01E83Q6HK
In 2003, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared.
She'd been enjoying her teenage summer break: working at a fast-food restaurant, crushing on an older boy and shoplifting with her best friend. Mysteriously ominous things began to happen—blood in the bed, periods of blackouts, a feeling of being watched—though Bec remained oblivious of what was to come.
Eleven years later she is replaced.
A young woman, desperate after being arrested, claims to be the decade-missing Bec.
Soon the imposter is living Bec's life. Sleeping in her bed. Hugging her mother and father. Learning her best friends' names. Playing with her twin brothers.
But Bec's welcoming family and enthusiastic friends are not quite as they seem. As the imposter dodges the detective investigating her case, she begins to delve into the life of the real Bec Winter—and soon realizes that whoever took Bec is still at large, and that she is in imminent danger.
As the pretender walks in Rebecca’s shoes, she realises that whoever is responsible for Bec’s disappearance is still in her life.
In this chilling psychological thriller, one woman’s dark past becomes another’s deadly future.
My Take
When our unnamed central character decides to impersonate Bec Winter who has been missing from Canberra for 11 years, she means to do it for only a few days, and then to disappear. However she finds that plan is not so easy to carry out. For a start the police are reluctant to release her to Bec Winter's parents. When they finally allow her to go "home" they ask her to avoid publicity and the detective in charge of the investigation visits her every day trying to jog in her memory details of her original "abduction".
The longer she stays the closer she gets to working out what actually happened on the day Bec disappeared. The reader is assisted by narrative about what actually happened to Bec in 2003, but not everything is revealed. There are several plausible red herrings about who might have been responsible for Bec's disappearance.
We also become aware that our impersonator has a history which she is not anxious to be revealed.
A rather tangled but interestingly worked plot, and a relatively quick read.
My rating: 4.5
About the author
Author website
Anna Snoekstra was born in Canberra, Australia to two civil servants. At the age of seventeen she decided to avoid a full time job and a steady wage to move to Melbourne and become a writer. She studied Creative Writing and Cinema at The University of Melbourne, followed by Screenwriting at RMIT University.
After finishing university, Anna wrote for independent films and fringe theatre, and directed music videos. During this time, she worked as a cheesemonger, a waitress, a barista, a nanny, a receptionist, a cinema attendant and a film reviewer.
Anna now lives with her husband, cat and two housemates and works full time writing.
I look forward to more by this author has I do feel like the execution could have been better and more revealed. I did like the ending.
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