By Peter Swanson
Goodreads Synopsis
“Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full-blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.
Soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.
When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves–until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment and accidentally learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? What about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jet-lagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself, so how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met?” (Goodreads)
My Take
Character Connection 
Swanson has a knack for writing well-layered characters. What I loved about this book in particular is that we get to read the story from multiple perspectives. The plot continues to drive forward with each character’s version of events without re-hashing what we’ve already learned.
Twisty-Turns
I loved that this story slowly unraveled itself along the way. While there was no major twist, we slowly gained knowledge about what was occurring and that led to the overall suspenseful nature of the book. Also, while there are definitely action-packed scenes – the overall feeling I had while reading was expectant discomfort or anxiousness at what was going to be revealed on the next page or in the remaining chapters. I found this perfectly aligned with the characters as well since our main protagonist, Kate suffers from an extreme anxiety disorder.
Psych-Links
Can someone be a psychopath-attractor? That is the question we are left with at the end of this book – along with the open-ended closing that leaves us wondering if a sequel could be around the corner. Swanson weaves in an incredible amount of probable disorders without wasting time identifying or defining what each character is dealing with. To mention a few that I (with my non-existent Psy.D. degree) diagnosed: PTS, Major Anxiety Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder, and Erotomania Delusions with a broad-sprinkling of psychopathy. Let’s just say that dear old Sigmund would have had a field day with these characters.
Cine-ability
Yes, please. The multiple-perspectives, continent-bouncing, flash-back having, character-driven nature of this story would be wonderful to see on the big screen. The book gave me similar vibes to The Invisible Man (2020) which I loved! Put this fantastic story with some amazing actors and you’ve got yourself a blockbuster. I’ve taken the liberty of casting this myself:
The Merry Murderino’s Overall Rating
Average Goodreads rating is 3.77; which I can only imagine comes from people who don’t enjoy psychological thrillers 🙂 I read my first Peter Swanson book in 2019 (see below) and ever since have tried to read everything he puts out. Her Every Fear is a backlist title, first published in 2017 and reading this one solidified Swanson as one of my favorite authors. His ability to weave amazing characters with intense psychopathology is an incredible talent and I, for one, will be a fan for life (or until he kills my favorite character) 😉
Wanna read this book? Get it from Amazon right HERE
The Merry Murderino 
2 thoughts on “Her Every Fear”