The Stranger She Knew: the most shocking and twisty mystery thriller for 2020, shortlisted for the Paul Torday Prize

I have just finished reading The Stranger she Knew by Rosalind Stopps and from the beginning I was hooked.It tells the story of May an intelligent vibrant woman who after a stroke has lost her ability to speak and also affected her arm and leg movements.She is in a nursing home, a place she refers to as the 'gravy boat' because of its constant smell of heated up food, but May isn't like all these 'other old people', she's into rock music and left-wing politics. She's read Proust and she's far too young to singalong to white cliffs of Dover.The story alternates between the present and the past when May is a newly wed mother. We soon discover that married life isn't the fairy-tale promised. We watch her inner struggle to do the right thing for her and her child, her indecision is heart-breaking but totally believable.In the present day we hear May's thoughts as she evaluates her life and feel her frustration as she tries to communicate with those around her but can only manage a series of spits and growls which are often miscontrued as anger. Her inability to make herself understood is agonising and becomes particularly poignant and chilling when a new resident shows up in the room opposite her - there is something familiar about him but who is he? Why does May feel so uneasy whenever he is around? There is a sense of menace throughtout and it kept me interested until the last page.

This was an original story and the descriptions of gaslighting were truly horrific but the ending fell rather flat for me. I felt it would have worked better as an exploration of toxic relationships rather than a thriller.

I was really enjoying this book . It was well paced and had you wondering about the outcome all the way through. I thought the ending was terrible. A real let down.

Loved reading this book, kept you waiting right to the end

Very different. Started out not sure that I would enjoy it but in the end couldn't put it down!

So disappointed with the ending!! Didn’t make sense at all.

Was sad, was waiting for it to get better, it got worse!

I didn't expect this to be my 'thing', but I was hooked from the start and finished it in little more than two days, because it was truly unputdownable. Beautifully written and really quite scary in places. And I didn't see the twist, right up to the last word on the last page. A brilliant book. More from this excellent writer please!