Book Review | Follow Me by Kathleen Barber

Follow Me is a new thriller from Kathleen Barber.

From the author of Are You Sleeping—soon to be an Apple TV series—comes a cautionary tale of oversharing in the social media age for fans of Jessica Knoll and Caroline Kepnes’s You.

Everyone wants new followers…until they follow you home.

Audrey Miller has an enviable new job at the Smithsonian, a body by reformer Pilates, an apartment door with a broken lock, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to bear witness to it all. Having just moved to Washington, DC, Audrey busies herself impressing her new boss, interacting with her online fan base, and staving off a creepy upstairs neighbor with the help of the only two people she knows in town: an ex-boyfriend she can’t stay away from and a sorority sister with a high-powered job and a mysterious past.

But Audrey’s faulty door may be the least of her security concerns. Unbeknownst to her, her move has brought her within striking distance of someone who’s obsessively followed her social media presence for years—from her first WordPress blog to her most recent Instagram Story. No longer content to simply follow her carefully curated life from a distance, he consults the dark web for advice on how to make Audrey his and his alone. In his quest to win her heart, nothing is off-limits—and nothing is private.

Kathleen Barber’s electrifying new thriller will have you scrambling to cover your webcam and digital footprints.

Follow Me includes an introduction by the author regarding cyber stalking. The thought of someone watching you through your computer is terrifying. Kathleen Barber set the stage for what kind of stalking can take place in the digital age. Cover your webcams, folks.

The main character in Follow Me is a famous Instagrammer with over 1 million followers. As far as I can tell, Audrey is famous for just being on Instagram. What she does and what she posts sounds pretty average to me, but in the world of Follow Me, she's Instagram famous.

In the beginning of Follow Me, Audrey moves to Washington, DC to take a museum job as the social media manager. Her best friend, her ex-boyfriend, and her internet stalker all live in DC so that makes for a hot bed of conflict for Audrey.

The chapters are told through the alternating viewpoints of Audrey, her best friend Cat, and her stalker "Him". I really liked this setup and change of perspective. It kept the pace moving, and since everyone had secrets from Audrey, I enjoyed all of the perspectives.

Unfortunately, I had trouble believing most of Follow Me. Why was Audrey *that* famous? Why was every man *that* obsessed with her? How did the personality traits of "him" even co-exist in the same person?

That being said, I enjoyed the writing, and I enjoyed reading Follow Me. I have a copy of Barber's Truth Be Told, and I'm looking forward to picking that one up next.

⭐⭐⭐★★

Review copy provided by publisher

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Book Review | The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

The Tenant is a Scandinavian mystery novel by Katrine Engberg.

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous.

But Esther’s role in this twisted scenario is not quite as clear as it first seems. Is she the culprit—or just another victim, trapped in a twisted game of vengeance? Anette and Jeppe must dig more deeply into the two women’s pasts to discover the identity of the brutal puppet-master pulling the strings in this electrifying literary thriller.

Many thanks to Scout Press for sending me The Tenant. The Tenant was a bestseller in Denmark, and I always get excited by bestsellers that have been translated into English.

Based on the blurbs and the synopsis, I expected there to be more suspense. I think The Tenant will be a great fit for folks who love mysteries, crime, and police procedurals.

I enjoyed all of the characters in The Tenant and the unfolding mystery. There was an older lady who was writing in her retirement, and I loved her. I also loved that all of the characters were flawed in different ways. It was interesting to experience the book through alternating view points between these different characters.

I enjoyed the writing in The Tenant as well. The English translation was written by Tara Chace, and I thought it was great. I especially loved the opening scene which did a great job of hooking me for the rest of The Tenant. I did find it a little hard to believe the sexy scenes were written by a woman, though.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Tenant. The Tenant is Katrine Engberg's debut novel and the beginning of a new series (which is already three books out in Denmark). I hope we get English translations for the rest of the series because I would happily read more from her.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Review copy provided by the publisher

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