‘If She Dies’ by Erik Therme

Synopsis

How far would you go to right a wrong?

Nine months ago, Tess’s five-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. The driver, Brady Becker, was sentenced to two years in prison. It didn’t make Tess’s pain go away.

Brady also has a daughter: A twelve-year-old named Eve who walks to Chandler Middle School every day. Tess knows this because she’s been watching Eve for the last three weeks. It isn’t fair that Brady’s daughter gets to live, while Tess’s daughter does not.

When Eve goes missing, all eyes turn to Tess, who doesn’t have an alibi. But Tess isn’t guilty.

Or so she believes.

My Review

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of Erik’s books now.  I haven’t quite caught up with everything that he has written but I am getting there.  I read the synopsis for ‘If She Dies’ and it certainly sounded like the sort of book I have come to expect from Erik- a chilling psychological thriller that will keep the reader guessing.    Well ‘If She Dies’ was certainly that and so much more.  I really enjoyed reading ‘If She Dies’ but more about that in a bit.

The synopsis for ‘If She Dies’ was enough to grab my attention and as soon as I started to read, that was it.  I had an inkling that nothing else would get done for the rest of the day and I was spot on.  The characters intrigued me and if I am honest, I didn’t trust any of them.  I guess I might be too suspicious of me and that I have been reading too much crime fiction as I suspect everybody and believe nobody.  So to satisfy my own curiosity as to who had done what and why I had to keep reading.  I became so wrapped up in the story that I found it increasingly difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time.  I just had to keep those pages turning.  Then all too quickly I reached the end of the story and I had to say goodbye to the characters.

‘If She Dies’ is really well written but I think that to be true of Erik’s books in general.  He certainly knows how to grab your attention from the start and draw you into what proves to be a compelling read, with more twists and turns to the story that you know what to do with.  The story hit the ground running and maintained a steady pace throughout.  I became so tuned into the story that I was even holding my breath when I reached a particularly tense part of the story.  I found ‘If She Dies’ to be a tense and dramatic story, which kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

In short, I really enjoyed reading ‘If She Dies’ and I would recommend it other readers.  I will certainly be reading more of Erik’s work in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.