She Treads Softly: The Stranger Inside

Monday, August 4, 2025

The Stranger Inside

The Stranger Inside by Amanda Cassidy
8/7/25; 308 pages
Canelo

The Stranger Inside by Amanda Cassidy is a highly recommended crime thriller. Set disbelief aside and enjoy this lightning-fast paced thriller.

Midwife Ciara Duffy needs to make a quick trip to the store. It is pouring rain, her husband Morgan is out of town, and Sally, her 9-year-old daughter, has a friend there for a sleep over. Rather than getting the girls all dressed to go out in the rain she sets up the video monitor to watch them, knowing it will be a very quick trip. Then, when she is leaving the store, she sees a stranger behind the girls. She rushes home, checks the whole house, but finds no sign that anyone was there, other than a broken pot in the bathroom.

The evening goes on, with Ciara still on edge. She gets the girls to bed, makes sure everything is locked up, and finally goes to sleep. Then, in the middle of the night she hears a noise, she gets up to check, finds nothing, gets back in bed and realizes someone is in the bed. Ciara turns on the lights and sees it is her husband, dead, with a knife in his chest. Ciara is arrested and charged with murder. Ciara knows she is innocent, but she also has a secret. Soon it becomes clear that she needs to escape to uncover the truth herself.

This is a very entertaining, compelling thriller. As mentioned, you need to set disbelief aside as well as accept incredible coincidences, and and just go where the plot takes you. The chapters are short which keeps the pace fast. The action is non-stop so the pages will fly by as one twist after another occurs, followed by one new clue after another. When things go wrong here, it just continues and the tension rises. Once you start reading it will be hard to put it down.

Ciara is a tenacious, intelligent character whose emotions are running high, and for good reason, throughout the novel. Her big secret is revealed through her memories as the narrative unfolds, but her secret isn't the only one. The Stranger Inside is a great choice for those who enjoy action-packed, fast-paced thrillers. Thanks to Canelo for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.