Review By Gabrielle
A wild ride right from page one, Woman on the Edge will leave your heart pounding.
Favourite Quote:
She clutches a sleeping baby to her chest with one arm. She knows she has my attention now. She presses up against me, and my purse bangs into my side. Then she digs sharp nails into my bare wrist.
“Please, take my baby.”
Goodreads Synopsis:
A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.”
She places her child in your arms. She says your name.
Then she jumps…
In a split second, Morgan Kincaid’s life changes forever. She’s on her way home from work when a mother begs her to take her baby, then places the infant in her arms. Before Morgan can stop her, the distraught mother jumps in front of an oncoming train.
Morgan has never seen this woman before, and she can’t understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life. She also can’t understand how this woman knew her name.
The police take Morgan in for questioning. She soon learns that the woman who jumped was Nicole Markham, prominent CEO of the athletic brand Breathe. She also learns that no witness can corroborate her version of events, which means she’s just become a murder suspect.
To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically retraces the last days of Nicole’s life. Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia or was she in danger? When strange things start happening to Morgan, she suddenly realizes she might be in danger, too.
I absolutely loved the premise of this book. While I love thrillers and mysteries, it can be hard to come up with something truly original in the world’s bestselling genre and Samantha has done just that. It’s hard to believe this is her debut.
The construction of this book is really interesting and surprising. I was expecting to read the whole story from the point of view of Morgan, but Samantha chose to go in another direction, alternating between Morgan and Nicole’s perspectives. This was a masterful choice that I have no doubt was hard to achieve, a testament to the utter skill of Samantha’s writing. How she could tell both women’s stories while holding back enough information to keep us in suspense must have been a delicate balance to accomplish. And yet she did.
The pace of this book is relentless. I recommend ensuring you have nothing else scheduled when you pick this one up, as you won’t be able to put it down. Samantha doesn’t give the reader even a moment to pause and breathe, right from the very first sentence. This is why I love this genre so much, there is nothing better to me than the feeling of being completely consumed by a story.
A magnificent debut from Samantha M. Bailey. I already can’t wait to read what she writes next.
