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Book Title: Fool Her Once (A Novel) by Joanna Elm
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 416 pages
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: CamCat Books
Release date: Feb, 2023
Content Rating: PG-13 + M. There’s adultery, language, some sexual content, and violent crime, but no explicit descriptions of the crimes.
Some killers are born. Others are made.
As a rookie tabloid reporter, Jenna Sinclair made a tragic mistake when she outed Denny Dennison, the illegitimate son of an executed serial killer. So she hid behind her marriage and motherhood. Now, decades later, betrayed by her husband and resented by her teenage daughter, Jenna decides to resurrect her career—and returns to the city she loves.
When her former lover is brutally assaulted outside Jenna’s NYC apartment building, Jenna suspects that Denny has inherited his father’s psychopath gene and is out for revenge. She knows she must track him down before he can harm his next target, her daughter.
Meanwhile, her estranged husband, Zack, fears that her investigative reporting skills will unearth his own devastating secret he’d kept buried in the past.
From New York City to the remote North Fork of Long Island and the murky waters surrounding it, Jenna rushes to uncover the terrible truth about a psychopath and realizes her own investigation may save or destroy her family.
My Review…
Fool Her Once follows Jenna who, as a rookie tabloid reporter, made a tragic mistake when she outed the illegitimate son of an executed serial killer. Decades later she suspects that he has inherited his father’s psychopath gene and is out for revenge after her former lover is brutally assaulted outside her NYC apartment building.
This story grabbed me from the start and I couldn’t put it down. The twists and turns were excellent and they keep you guessing all the way through. You have a flawed protagonist you can’t help but root for and a complex antagonist with a tragic past. It is a gripping story with lots of tension and an enjoyable plot and storyline. It is well- written with strong supporting characters and a nice twisty ending. There are many issues explored in this novel and the characters are well developed and believable. It is a stunning thriller!
Fool Her Once is a riveting multi-layered tale told in the third person perspective with alternating timelines set in the present with flashbacks to the past. It has a slow building and tension filled storyline interwoven with a dysfunctional family dynamic, flashbacks to the past, and a tangled web of secrets, lies and betrayal.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy a really good thriller.
My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Joanna Elm is an author, journalist, blogger, and attorney. Before the publication of her first two suspense novels (Scandal, Tor/Forge 1996); (Delusion, Tor/Forge/1997), she was an investigative journalist on the London Evening News on Fleet Street in the U.K. She also wrote for British magazines like Woman’s Own.
Then, she moved to New York where she worked as a writer/producer for television news and tabloid TV programs like “A Current Affair.” She was also the researcher/writer for WNEW-TV’s Emmy-award-winning documentary “Irish Eyes.” In 1980, she joined the Star as a reporter, eventually becoming the magazine’s news editor and managing editor before moving to Philadelphia as editor of the news/features section of TV Guide.
After completing her first two novels while living in South Florida, (Nelson DeMille described Scandal as “fresh, original and unpredictable”) Joanna returned to New York, enrolled in law school, graduated summa cum laude, passed the NY Bar exam, and worked as a principal law clerk for an appellate division justice in the prestigious First Department. She has been married to her husband Joe for 35 years and has one son.
connect with the author: website ~ instagram ~ twitter ~ bookbub ~ goodreads
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