You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pakkanen
A few ingredients go into a good thriller. You need at least one point of view character, preferably more, and one or more of those has to be an unreliable source of information. There’s got to be a scheme and a death and a girl/woman/wife on a train or in a window or caught in the middle of someone else’s perfect murder.
You Are Not Alone (St. Martin’s Press) is the third thriller from writing partners Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen and it features all of these winning elements. It follows Shay, a left-brained young woman whose life is dictated by numbers and stats, who never takes risks and has just two friends: a roommate who will never reciprocate her romantic feelings and a first time mom who’s busy with her new baby.
When Shay witnesses a woman commit suicide on a subway platform, she’s drawn into the world of Cassandra and Jane, a pair of glamorous sisters who turn Shay into their project. But their meeting is hardly chance, and as rational and pragmatic as Shay usually is, she has to admit that the coincidences keep adding up.
I read You Are Not Alone the same way I consumed Hendricks and Pekkanen’s first two novels: in an afternoon and into the evening because I couldn’t put it down. While a lot of thrillers save their big reveals for the end, these ones sprinkle in smaller twists and red herrings throughout that’ll keep you guessing.
In addition to Shay and the two sisters, there’s an ensemble cast of women operating in the shadows like the Birds of Prey in Carrie Bradshaw’s NYC. Though I would have liked to learn more about some of these characters, Hendricks and Pekkanen smartly keep a tight focus on Shay and to a lesser extent Cassandra and Jane.
Unlike the conflicted unreliable narrators who’ve typically helmed thrillers in recent years, Shay is remarkably earnest and really, truly just a bystander in the events that sweep her into darkness. She’s also Hendricks and Pekkanen’s most likable protagonist yet, which helps amplify the tension. Her chapters open with a statistic or bit of data, from the vacancy rate of NYC apartments – 3.63% – to the chances of getting away with murder – 40% in the United States, 15% in New York.
Though seasoned mystery and thriller readers will guess the main twist early on, there’s such an artfulness to how we arrive, breathlessly, at the final set piece that the journey is ultimately more worthwhile than any surprise ending.
Hendricks and Pekkanen’s first two novels have already been optioned for film and TV, and if this one gets the same treatment, it’s going to be a thrill to see it play out on screen. Until then, pick up a copy – you won’t put it down till it’s over.
You Are Not Alone is available for purchase.
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