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A special thank you to Penguin/NAL and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Camilla Way delivers a dark hypnotic psychological thriller debut, WATCHING EDIE, a smashing, brilliantly crafted suspense, portraying the dark side of friendships. Keeping readers glued to the pages—With pulse-pounding intensity, building to a stunning climax --you do not see coming.

Spellbinding, every character is deeply flawed. The past and present - Combustion! From "Then" (Heather), to "Now" (Edie). From high school to seventeen years later.

Two unlikely friends. Obsession--reminiscent of Single White Female, and The Roommate, a tragedy tears these two apart. It has simmered for years, and now a slow burning threat is waiting to surface and DESTROY!

In high school, Edie, the popular beautiful one. Heather, the heavy, social outcast misfit. The link: a dangerous controlling boyfriend, Connor. Heather is overly protector of Edie. Friendship, betrayal, lies, hurts, jealousy, revenge, guilt, drugs, control—toxic relationships. A tragedy, the unspeakable. Edie leaves town for good, and runs away to London.

“At first I used to see Heather everywhere. Connor too, of course. From the corner of my eye I’d catch a glimpse of one, or the other of them, and there’d be that sharp, cold lurch that would leave me sick and shaken long after I’d realized that it had been an illusion; just a stranger with similar hair or the same way of walking.

Whenever it happened I’d go somewhere busy and lose myself among the crowds, roaming the southeast London streets until I’d reassured myself that all that was very far away and long ago. A small West Midlands town a million miles from here. And the doorbell rings and rings as I’d always known it would one day.

Because there she is (Heather) standing on her doorstep, staring at her (Edie). There, after all this time, is Heather. And she had imagined this, dreamed of this, dreaded this, so many hundreds of times for so many years that the reality is both surreal and anticlimactic. They stand in silence, two thirty-three-year-old versions of the girls we'd once been."

It all goes back to the Wrexham Quarry. Edie still dreams about Heather. Night after night her sleeping mind replays what happened between them in Fremton. She sees all of them at the quarry. Heather, Connor, Niall, Rabbitt, Boyo, Tully and the others.

The night Edie left for good, memories slamming into her one after another; the confusion, panic, the awful, terrifying screams as everything had spiraled out of control. Sometimes she imagined it was all a mistake. Whatever it is that Heather wants from her now, nothing can change that.

 

Here in her flat, seventeen years vanish, meaningless compared to the unforgettable horror of that night. The memories slam her. She was staring into the face she once hoped never to see again for the rest of her life.

What does Heather want from Edie? Why now? The fear.Payback is a bitch.

“The people who remain a part of us, those people who have hurt us very deeply or whom we have hurt, never letting us go, not entirely.”

Creepy, chilling, spine-tingling After seventeen years without a word from Heather, Edie is 33 years old, a single mom, a waitress living in southeast London. Heather shows up and does not mention the past, and slowly interjects herself into Edie's life and her daughter, Maya. When will the ball drop. What is she waiting for? Does she lower her guard?

With many red herrings, innovative clever writing, and lots of twists, and turns; the author keeps readers in suspense guessing throughout. Which is the victim and the villain? The roof scene was outstanding! You will be holding your breath to the very last word, to find out who and how the bomb will drop.

The big mystery (yes, it is huge): What went down at the quarry all those years ago? What will happen now? Read it to find out. You will not be sorry.

WATCHING EDIE is Superb! An addictive tale of deceit and obsession. Move this one to the top of your list. This twisted tale definitely should be compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. I liked it, even more.

2016 Top Psychological Thriller List (movie worthy). For fans of Mary Kubica, Laura Lippman, Chevy Stevens, Paula Treick DeBoard, and Paula Daly. Watch out, the past never dies.

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