When Charlie fleetingly sees her husband’s photo on a dating app, she was devastated. But that was nothing compared to what would happen in the following days. . .

Charlie is living an almost perfect outward life. She married well, she’s beautiful, her husband adores her. But when Charlie sees a man who is the spitting image of her husband Oliver on a dating app, her heart stops. She is sure she must be seeing things. Her friend had been the one swiping on the app. Surely, she would’ve noticed if it was Charlie’s husband? But Charlie is sure it was him. She recognised the photo – she’d TAKEN the photo. On their honeymoon together. Suddenly everything that Charlie thought she knew about her life and her husband has changed.

Trying desperately to brush it off and go back to her regular life, Charlie can’t help but notice when other signs of betrayal start appearing. Work emergencies, business trips. Charlies can’t stand it any longer. She does the only thing she can think of, the only thing that will prove her right. She joins up to the dating app. To catch her husband in the act.

But Charlie soon discovers that infidelity is the least of her problems. Nothing could have prepared her for what one photograph on a dating app would bring. Nothing is as it seems and nobody is who she thinks they are…

Pip Drysdale is a brilliant storyteller. The pacing of this The Strangers We Know is perfect! Be prepared to be taken on a complete rollercoaster of twists and turns you never see coming, as you try to figure out what is happening, and who is who. It is cleverly told, with the narrator pointing out important moments to remember. But even with these moments highlighted, you don’t realise their overall importance until much later in the book, when everything clicks into place.

I read this in one sitting. You simply can’t put the book down until you know what happened and all loose ends have been tied up. This book is the fictionalised version of some of our worst fears, playing out in a perfect movie in our heads. If this isn’t turned into a film, I will be very surprised, as the brilliant pacing, the plot twists and the tight dialogue are made for screen.

Pip Drysdale has a long career ahead of her, and I will be eagerly awaiting every new book she releases. The Strangers We Know is simply phenomenal.

Buy a copy of The Strangers We Know here

About the author

Pip Drysdale is a writer, actor and musician who grew up in Africa and Australia. At 20 she moved to New York to study acting, worked in indie films and off-off Broadway theatre, started writing songs and made four records. After graduating with a BA in English, Pip moved to London where she dated some interesting men and played shows across Europe.