Just finished this debut novel and wow! It was excellent. This book is about Becca who while visiting her mother who suffers from early onset of Alzheimers is told by her mother that she isn't her daughter - that she took her! Becca doesn't know what to believe. A series of events happens making Becca question if her whole life has been a lie. This book is very well written, has great characters and grabbed my attention and held it the entire time I was reading. I highly recommend that you add it to your TBR list when it publishes.. Thank you to NetGalley and Hera Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ( )

Familiar Strangers by Jackie Walsh

Digging in the dirt and digging for dirt...that is pretty much what anchors this story of a woman who seems a bit lost while she deals with the slow death her mother faces dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease. It wasn’t easy liking Rebecca due to the choices she made throughout the story – choices that to me were destructive but also perhaps a cry for help. There is not enough about her life “before” to really know why she is in the jobs she has or why she has made the questionable choices she has made. She has an ill mother, aging father, brother and pregnant sister-in-law but no real friends or goals or aspirations that I could ascertain.

When she is approached by the police about a missing woman she wonders why. She wonders even more when the woman turns up dead and the police are still asking questions. The mystery of who Katie Collins is and why someone would want to kill her is what Rebecca begins to focus on. The question of motivation and all the rest is eventually sussed out but in the end Rebecca still remains a bit of an amorphous character to me and I wonder just what she will choose to do with her life in the future.

What I liked:
* Not really knowing till near the end who the killer was
* The plotting and pace
* The feeling of mystery and darkness
* Jeff – although I am not sure why he became involved in helping Rebecca

What I didn’t like: What I was supposed not to like...and that is as it should be

What I wondered about at the end:
* Rebecca – would have liked to know her better
* Where both Rebecca’s and Katie’s mothers were and why they were such lax parents
* And...a few other things

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley, Hera and BOTSB for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars ( )