The Perfect Stranger: A Novel

Praise for THE PERFECT STRANGER "Miranda's eerie suspense thriller...smartly examines the slippery theme of personal identity. In a world where identities are regularly lost, stolen or sacrificed for reasons innocent and otherwise, it's not enough to wonder where Emmy has gone. We need to know who she is, if she is who she says she is—and if she exists at all." —New York Times Book Review "Fans of Gillian Flynn, Chevy Stevens, and Jennifer McMahon will devour this relentlessly paced and deftly plotted thriller... The story moves at a feverish, unfaltering pace, keeping readers just as perplexed as the characters." —Publishers Weekly "YA author Miranda, who moved into the adult market with All the Missing Girls , proves she isn’t a one-hit wonder with this exciting thriller. Its twisty tale with many layers—a little romance, great writing, and an awesome story line—will keep psychological suspense fans turning the pages." —Library Journal "Solid plot... An entertaining read." —Kirkus Reviews "An excellent second novel of psychological suspense…Highly recommended for fans of Alafair Burke, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Lutz, and for all readers who like their female characters clever and resourceful, even when their best friends become their worst nightmares.” —Booklist "Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will blow through this new thriller." —PureWow "Megan Miranda does a terrific job in this book of creating and maintaining an atmosphere of menace and uncertainty. She skillfully drip-feeds the truth about Leah’s situation, hinting at what she’s running from and slowly fitting the pieces of the puzzle together – although it’s not until well into the story that we finally discover the nature of the terrifying events that set her on the path she’s now travelling." —All About Romance "The distinct and well-defined characters add to the suspense, complete with twists and turns, and will make the reader wonder." —New York Journal of Books "Fans of Miranda’s may rejoice, and those that haven’t read her work will have to start now. This riveting psychological thriller may leave you jumping at strange noises and sleeping with the lights burning, but oh, it will be worth it!...The plot here is taut and original, but the success of the story hinges on character." — Seattle Book Mania Praise for ALL THE MISSING GIRLS ***A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** A New York Times Book Review "Editors' Choice" "This thriller’s all of your fav page-turners (think: Luckiest Girl Alive , The Girl on the Train , Gone Girl ) rolled into one." —theSkimm "Both [Gillian] Flynn’s and Miranda’s main characters also reclaim the right of female characters to be more than victim or femme fatale … All the Missing Girls is set to become one of the best books of 2016." — Los Angeles Review of Books "Extremely interesting… A novel that will probably be called Hitchcockian." — The New York Times Book Review "Are you paying attention? You'll need to be; this thriller will test your brain with its reverse chronological structure, and it's a page-turner to boot." —ELLE.COM "Intricately plotted… Ms. Miranda brings heightened suspense and a twist to this familiar scenario by telling the story, which unfolds over 15 days, in reverse chronological order." — The New York Times "Fast-paced and frightening, All the Missing Girls will teach you why it's dangerous to go into the woods alone at night." — Refinery29 " All the Missing Girls is the archetypal murder mystery, the kind it seems like everyone has been hungry for since Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins's Girl on the Train ." —Cosmopolitan.com "A new spin on a classic 'missing person' thriller, All the Missing Girls is the perfect read for thriller fans." —Bustle.com "A twisty, compulsive read—I loved it." —Ruth Ware, author of THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 "Fiendishly plotted." — Publishers Weekly , starred review "Darkly nostalgic....xa0Miranda takes a risk by telling the story backward, but it pays off with an undroppable thriller, plenty of romantic suspense, and a fresh take on the decades-old teenage-murder theme." — Booklist Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls , The Perfect Stranger , The Last House Guest , a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, and The Girl from Widow Hills . She has also written several books for young adults, including Come Find Me , Fragments of the Lost , and The Safest Lies. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter and Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Perfect Stranger CHAPTER 1 Character, Emmy called it, the quirks that came with the house: the nonexistent water pressure in the shower; the illogical layout. From the front porch, our house had large sliding glass doors that led directly to the living room and kitchen, a hallway beyond with two bedrooms and a bathroom to share. The main door was at the other end of the hall and faced the woods, like the house had been laid down with the right dimensions but the wrong orientation. Probably the nicest thing I can say about the house was that it’s mine. But even that’s not exactly true. It’s my name on the lease, my food in the refrigerator, my glass cleanser that wipes the pollen residue from the sliding glass doors. The house still belongs to someone else, though. The furniture, too. I didn’t bring much with me when I left my last place. Wasn’t much, once I got down to it, that was mine to take from the one-bedroom in the Prudential Center of Boston. Bar stools that wouldn’t fit under a standard table. Two dressers, a couch, and a bed, which would cost more to move than to replace. Sometimes I wondered if it was just my mother’s words in my head, making me see this place, and my choice to be here, as something less than. Before leaving Boston, I’d tried to spin the story for my mother, slanting this major life change as an active decision, opting to appeal to her sense of charity and decency—both for my benefit and for hers. I once heard her introduce me and my sister to her friends: “Rebecca helps the ones who can be saved, and Leah gives a voice to those who cannot.” So I imagined how she might frame this for her friends: My daughter is taking a sabbatical. To help children in need. If anyone could sell it, she could. I made it seem like my idea to begin with, not that I had latched myself on to someone else’s plan because I had nowhere else to go. Not because the longer I stood still, the more I felt the net closing in. Emmy and I had already sent in our deposit, and I’d been floating through the weeks, imagining this new version of the world waiting for me. But even then, I’d steeled myself for the call. Timed it so I knew my mother would be on her way to her standing coffee date with The Girls. Practiced my narrative, preemptively preparing counterpoints: I quit my job, and I’m leaving Boston. I’m going to teach high school, already have a position lined up. Western Pennsylvania. You know there are whole areas of the country right here in America that are in need, right? No, I won’t be alone. Remember Emmy? My roommate while I was interning after college? She’s coming with me. The first thing my mother said was: “I don’t remember any Emmy.” As if this were the most important fact. But that was how she worked, picking at the details until the foundation finally gave, from nowhere. And yet her method of inquiry was also how we knew we had a secure base, that we weren’t basing our plans on a dream that would inevitably crumble under pressure. I moved the phone to my other shoulder. “I lived with her after college.” A pause, but I could hear her thoughts in the silence: You mean after you didn’t get the job you thought you’d have after graduation, took an unpaid internship instead, and had no place to live? “I thought you were staying with . . . what was her name again? The girl with the red hair? Your roommate from college?” “Paige,” I said, picturing not only her but Aaron, as I always did. “And that was just for a little while.” “I see,” she said slowly. “I’m not asking for your permission, Ma.” Except I kind of was. She knew it. I knew it. “Come home, Leah. Come home and let’s talk about it.” Her guidance had kept my sister and me on a high-achieving track since middle school. She had used her own missteps in life to protect us. She had raised two independently successful daughters. A status I now seemed to be putting in jeopardy. “So, what,” she said, changing the angle of approach, “you just walked in one day and quit?” “Yes,” I said. “And you’re doing this why?” I closed my eyes and imagined for a moment that we were different people who could say things like Because I’m in trouble, so much trouble, before straightening my spine and giving her my speech. “Because I want to make a difference. Not just take facts and report them. I’m not doing anything at the paper but stroking my own ego. There’s a shortage of teachers, Mom. I could really make an impact.” “Yes, but in western Pennsylvania?” The way she said it told me everything I needed to know. When Emmy suggested it, western Pennsylvania seemed like a different version of the world I knew, with a different version of myself—which, at the time, was exactly what I needed. But my mother’s world was in the shape of a horseshoe. It stretched from New York City to Boston, swooping up all of Massachusetts inside the arch (but bypassing Connecticut entirely). She was the epicenter in western Massachusetts, and she’d successfully sent a daughter to the edge of each arch, and the world was right and complete. Any place else, in contrast, would be seen as a varying degree of failure. My family was really only one generation out from a life that looked like this: a rental house with shitty plumbing, a roommate out of necessity, a town with a forgettable name, a job but no career. When my father left us, I wasn’t really old enough to appreciate the impact. But I knew there existed a time when we were unprepared and at the whim of the generosity of those around us. Those were the limbo years—the ones she never talked about, a time she now pretends never existed. To her, this probably sounded a lot like sliding backward. “Great teachers are needed everywhere,” I said. She paused, then seemed to concede with a slow and drawn-out “Yes.” I hung up, vindicated, then felt the twinge. She was not conceding. Great teachers are needed everywhere, yes, but you are not that. She didn’t mean it as an insult, exactly. My sister and I were both valedictorians, both National Merit Scholars, both early admissions to the college of our respective choice. It wasn’t unreasonable that she would question this decision—especially coming out of thin air. I quit, I had told her. This was not a lie, but a technicality—the truth being that it was the safest option, for both the paper and me. The truth was, I had no job in the only thing I’d trained in, no foreseeable one, and no chance of one. The truth was I was glad she had given me the blandest name, the type of name I’d hated growing up. A girl who could blend in and never stand out. A name in a roster anywhere. EMMY’S CAR STILL WASN’T back when I was ready to leave for school. This was not too unusual. She worked the night shift, and she’d been seeing some guy named Jim—who sounded, on the phone, like he had smoke perpetually coating his lungs. I thought he wasn’t nearly good enough for Emmy; that she was sliding backward in some intangible way, like me. But I cut her some slack because I understood how it could be out here, how the calm could instead feel like an absence—and that sometimes you just wanted someone to see you. Other than weekends, we could miss each other for days at a time. But it was Thursday, and I needed to pay the rent. She usually left me money on the table, underneath the painted stone garden gnome that she’d found and used as a centerpiece. I lifted the gnome by his red hat just to double-check, revealing nothing but a few stray crumbs. Her lateness on the rent was also not too unusual. I left her a sticky note beside the corded phone, our designated spot. I wrote RENT DUE in large print, stuck it on the wood-paneled wall. She’d taken all the other notes from earlier in the week—the SEE ELECTRIC BILL, the MICROWAVE BROKEN, the MICROWAVE FIXED. I opened the sliding doors, hit the lights at the entrance, rummaged in my bag for my car keys—and realized I’d forgotten my cell. A gust of wind came in through the door as I turned around, and I watched the yellow slip of paper—RENT DUE—flutter down and slip behind the wood stand where we stacked the mail. I crouched down and saw the accumulated mess underneath. A pile of sticky notes. CALL JIM right side up but half covered by another square. A few others, facedown. Not taken by Emmy after all but lost between the wall and the furniture during the passing weeks. Emmy didn’t have a cell because her old one was still with her ex, on his phone plan, and she didn’t want an easy way for him to trace her. The idea of not owning a cell phone left me feeling almost naked, but she said it was nice not to be at anyone’s beck and call. It had seemed so Emmy at the time—quirky and endearing—but now seemed both irrational and selfish. I left the notes on the kitchen table instead. Propped them up against the garden gnome. Tried to think of how many days it had been since I’d last seen her. I added another note: CALL ME. Decided to throw out the rest, so it wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. Read more