A pair of doppelgängers. A pack of lies.
The idea is simple, vain, exciting. Tap the app, upload a picture of yourself, find your lookalike. Set up a meeting to see whether you have anything else in common. When Ella and Jem meet, the physical resemblance is uncanny, but their lives couldn’t be more different. One is from a tiny island in a deprived Northern community – pretty much the back of beyond – where she has no job, no boyfriend, limited prospects. The other is a London socialite, an aspiring actress living in a multimillion-pound mansion. By all appearances, she’s living a charmed life, but she’s got some serious sh*t to run away from. Both of them have. Can either hide in her double’s skin? And at what cost? Will it solve any of the problems, or merely compound them? This is an all-too-believable, twisty, compelling story that will leave you reeling.
I was really intrigued by the premise for “Dead Ringer” and Nicola Martin has written a genuinely compelling thriller here, featuring two engaging and divisive female characters who may look the same but have very different lives…
I’m not sure I’d even download an app that could find my lookalike and I’m absolutely positive I’d not go and meet them, but that’s what Jem and Ella do. Ella lives a quiet life, Jem is vibrant and seemingly has it all but of course looks can be deceiving…
An entanglement of lives, A sense of entitlement, those two themes run through the narrative and it is less predictable than you might think, as the story twists and turns it’s way to an emotional confrontation and a cleverly woven conclusion.
Overall thoroughly enjoyable and really well written and plotted. Recommended for psych thriller fans.
You can purchase Dead Ringer (Contraband) Here.
Happy Reading!
