Faber&Faber, London 2017

The American author Peter Swanson published his debut novel “The Girl with a Clock for a heart” in 2014 and it seems to have been a success. So this is his third book, a psycho thriller with the young English girl Kate Priddy, who is tentatively trying to cope with a traumatic experience. When her distant American cousin Corbin suggests an apartment swap, she seizes the opportunity to make a new start and enrolls in an art college in New York.

When she moves into her cousin´s spacious flat there, the girl next door is found brutally murdered. For Kate, who has had a near death experience with a brutal lover herself, this is a terrible shock. She hardly dares to leave the flat and is haunted by nightmares. Then she gets friendly with Alan, a neighbour in the opposite part of the building.

Swanson changes his narrative perspective and tells the story from Alan´s point of view, then from Corbin´s until finally the true murderer is caught. The end is hardly surprising and a bit disappointing, as well.