Having really enjoyed reading The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, their talent is confirmed here with this hugely intense, compelling and addictive An Anonymous Girl, which moves in a rather different direction. This is a story set in New York City, of deception, betrayal, obsession, jealousy, where we are given two different protagonists, the naive and vulnerable 28 year old Jessica Farris and the clinical and detached psychiatrist Dr Lydia Shields, an academic at NYU. Jessica is a freelance make up artist who visits her clients at home, she is struggling financially, not to mention she has a younger sister, Becky, with special needs that require financial support for the help she needs. When she sees the opportunity to get on to a research study that pays, she has no compunctions about lying her way on to it, despite the irony of the topic. It is seeking women between the ages of 18-32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality with anonymity guaranteed.

Subject to a confidentiality agreement, Jessica, as subject 52, embarks on the study at Hunter Hall, answering demanding personal questions on a computer screen, guided to be truthful. After the sessions, Jessica is asked to get further involved for further lucrative financial rewards. Jessica trusts Dr Shields with her secrets and has no problem with continuing with the study. However, Jessica's new assignments are out of the classroom and venturing into strange and disturbing territory. Jessica's paranoia levels begin to rise as she finds herself in the hands of a controlling Lydia, who has a estranged husband, Thomas, and is operating from her own hidden agenda. The slow reveals in this twisted, character driven and fast paced story of secrets and lies are expertly done by the authors.

This is a wonderfully thought provoking read, it will have you pondering over the moral and ethical dilemmas posed within it with its great character studies. This novel with its unreliable narrators is a salutary lesson for all of us in not blindingly trusting any professional, not everyone is worthy of trust. A brilliantly entertaining and creepy read from authors that are establishing themselves as must read storytellers. Many thanks to Panmacmillan for an ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen and Pan MacMillan for my arc of An Anonymous Girl.
I read The Wife Between Us last year and it left me reeling. It was so incredibly shocking and thrilling that I could not resist reading the second novel by these authors.
An Anonymous Girl is similar in style, in that it is a thriller with shocking twists but different in the storyline. Jess is an MUA with a disabled sister and a family trying to scrape it together. In other words, she needs money badly, so when she finds out about a psychological study about ethics and morals, which is prepared to pay $500 just for the answer a few questions, she can't resist.

But soon the study becomes more than that as the mysterious Dr Shields begins asking Jess to do more and more for the sake of the study. Jess is told what to wear, where to go and how to act in a series of experiments which bend the moral code. Jess begins to realise that not all is as it seems and she has been caught in the middle of a web of deceit and jealousy and an obsession that won't let go.

I found this book to be a very quick read mainly because I couldn't put it down. I turned the pages until I got to the end because I just had to know what happened. I really liked Jess as a character and empathised with her situation, Dr Shields made a fantastic villain. I think to write a convincing female villain in a story shows real skill and it was very well done. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this thriller writer duo.