The perfect stranger

How it reads

The perfect stranger is thriller (psychological thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a small town setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are secrets, identity and friendship. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.