The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Prior to receiving a copy of this book, I had been hearing so much buzz about it, almost entirely favorable.
I definitely wanted to get on board the hype-train, because in my life FOMO is a very real thing. If I see friends reading and enjoying something, I want it.
I was super excited to check it out and see if I would love it as much as everyone else seemed to.
Y’all, I’m so happy to report, the hype is real with this one. I found it absolutely gripping from the very first pages. It was so intriguing and it actually felt different to me than other recent Psychological Thrillers.
I’m not knocking other Psychological Thrillers, it’s one of my favorite subgenres, but this one just had a unique feel to it that’s hard for me to explain.
In this story, we meet Tate, who at the very beginning of the story is arrested for murder after a woman plunged to her death from the rooftop of the building Tate works in.
We have police interviews, attorney-client consultations, flashbacks, all of these different components weaving together beautifully to build-out this narrative.
I loved watching the truth be revealed. As a Reader, you initially have no idea what is going on. You’re getting a lot of the presentation of events from Tate, but how trustworthy is she? What is her motive and what is she hiding?
I’ve said it a million times, I am such a sucker for an unreliable narrator and Tate definitely fits the bill. Additionally, the pace with which Mancini reveals the truth at the heart of this story is exceptional.
There was a little bit of a lull for me somewhere around the 60% point, where some of the explorations of the issue this story mainly tackles got a bit, for my taste, repetitive and heavy-handed, but that is purely personal taste.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the structure of this story, the character development and the constantly compelling story arc.
This is the first that I have read from Ruth Mancini, but I cannot wait to read more. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who enjoys an intense, twisted, thought-provoking and engaging Psychological Thriller.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Harper Paperbacks, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
I had such a fun time reading this and have been thinking about it ever since. This was a great way to kick off a new year of reading!