The Perfect Date
Julia Crouch
332 pages
Bookouture
published October 6, 2023
About the book
I thought I’d found the one… But then I found him dead.
The last time I saw Harry, he was smiling at me over a candlelit table. It felt like I’d known him forever. I sipped my wine, and let myself hope for a second perfect date.
But this morning, out on a bright sunny walk, my rescue dog starts barking. I follow to see what he’s found. That’s when I see Harry’s body. His handsome face is cold and still. I back away, trembling.
It should be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But it’s happened to me before.
The last two men I dated are dead.
I can’t tell the police I knew them both. I’d be their number one suspect.
But I need answers. Am I going mad, or is this my fault? And if I don’t find out who is doing this, will I be next?
A totally unputdownable psychological thriller that will keep you gripped and gasping till the very last page. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn.
My Review
I know dating can be rough, but wow what poor Caz goes through in this one. She finds a guy dead that she met and dated from a dating app. If that isn’t traumatizing enough, she’s housesitting for a while as a break from life and that owner/friend appears to be missing. Eek! I’m glad I am not friends with her. Due to a mysterious event in her past, she is not wanting to contact the police with all the weirdness in her life. And there are either really weird things happening or many coincidences.
Because of the tone of the writing, I wasn’t feeling very sympathetic for Caz, but I was terribly interested in finding out if my guess of what was happening was correct. I jumped right onto something that felt off for me and while I had the correct suspect, I was so far off in my reason why. But isn’t that what makes a good thriller?
At times I was reading and other times I was listening to this one and really liked Sarah Durham’s narration of the story. She kept me engaged and still focused on the story.
It’s a little bit of a cat and mouse game as the villain sends her notes and has her surveilled. There are multiple men in her life that are advising her and I couldn’t decide who was helping her and who was in it for themselves. It really was a enjoyable read to see if Caz would find the man of her dreams or maybe end up six feet under.
About the author
Julia started off as a theatre director and playwright. While her children were growing up, she swerved into graphic design. After writing and illustrating two children’s books for an MA, she discovered that her great love was writing prose. The picture books were deemed too dark for publication, so, to save the children, she turned instead to writing for adults. Her first book, Cuckoo, was published in 2011, and she has been writing what she calls her Domestic Noir novels ever since. She also writes for TV and teaches on the Crime Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. She has three grown up children and lives in Brighton with her husband and two cats, Keith and Sandra.
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