Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Fractured, by Catherine McKenzie {ends 10/16}

John
He wants me to tell them about that morning.

I've done that before. Told the police, Detective Grey, and his sidekick, more than once. I've read over my statement enough times to memorize it, but now I have to put it away. I have to forget that this is a repeat and tell it like it's an original broadcast.

Or it will sound rehearsed.

It will sound like a tale I'm telling.

I've reviewed a few of Catherine McKenzie's books before, and they're always very good; this one was no exception. The timelines here were interesting, as well - one chapter would be from a few months previous, and the next chapter would be in present day, where something bad has happened but we don't entirely know what, just yet.

Official synopsis:

Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.

In this novel, we learn that Julie and her family had to move away from the Tacoma, WA area after her book, The Murder Game, was released, because an old law school classmate of hers started stalking her. The author of this book, Catherine McKenzie, is actually going to release The Murder Game on November 1st, as Julie Apple (Julie's maiden name), which I'm now looking forward to reading as a companion book to this one.

I liked this novel a lot, and the two different timelines worked well for it. We never really find out if The Murder Game is based on Julie's own experiences: Heather, her stalker, mentions that Julie and some other classmates used to play a game similar to what goes on in that book, and a good law school friend of Julie's is accidentally killed one night from drinking too much. When Julie and her family move to the Ohio area, though, her neighbors end up not liking her too much, and more complications ensue.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes mysteries or "whodunit" types of books, or really just anyone who enjoys a good story.

4 stars out of 5.
Click here to purchase this book.
{click here to pre-order The Murder Game, which will be released 11/1/16}

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a hardcover copy of Fractured!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Sunday, October 16th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Fractured