*3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this thriller by Erica Spindler, my first taste of her writing. Officer Miranda Rader is called to the scene of the grisly murder of a college professor. Clues implicating Miranda herself in the crime soon start popping up and she wonders just who is trying to frame her. Can she trust anyone?

There is an interesting backstory that slowly unfolds which ties all the threads together to make for a fascinating page turner. Highly recommend for summer vacation reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this new thriller. I am looking forward to reading more of her books.

Miranda Rader once was known as Randi the problem teen. Rejected by her family after a brush with the law, Randi’s life seemed to then be heading down all the wrong roads. Fortunately, the time spent in youth detention becomes the making of her.

Now a police officer serving in a town nearby to her childhood home, Miranda now feels that her life is evolving exactly how she wants it to. It all derails when her colleagues make a connection between the crime scenes of two murders; the first being the visceral slaying of a local man and the second the shooting of a police officer on the same force as herself. Miranda herself can objectively see that she is the common denominator between the two. The first murder victim was Miranda’s abductor from so many years ago. The second victim was the officer instrumental in her juvenile arrest.

Wounded by the lack of support from her police chief and colleagues, Miranda finds herself on suspension and not knowing who to trust. It is the memory of the other girl tied up in the woods, the one who the police didn’t believe existed, that haunts her still.

THE OTHER GIRL has a noticeable lag in the first few chapters but picks up welcome pace as Miranda becomes more isolated from her colleagues. Her job, which has always been her saviour, being taken away from her, is a huge blow. There is a small cast in this novel so you don’t have many characters to cast your suspicious eyes over; this serves well to sharp focus on those close to Miranda who may be saying all the right things whilst thinking the complete opposite.

There is a small romantic sub plot that doesn’t take away from the action and as the walls close in on Miranda, the novel takes on extra threads where she reunites with her estranged family and re-discovers more of what really happened to her in the past.

THE OTHER GIRL is a fast beach or plane ride diversion that will distract and entertain those readers who don’t need too much of an investment into a complicated plot. There has been good character development work put into this book and by the novel’s end, we feel that we have come to know the characters well and understand their motivations.

4.5 stars (rounded to 4 stars)

My first Erica Spindler book was Justice for Sara. I read it 4 years ago and thought it was great. What took me so long to get back to this author? The answer baffles me. All I know is that as much as I loved that one, this standalone novel is even better!

The story centers around Detective Miranda (Randi) Rader (is that a great name or what??) and her partner Jake Billings. The scene is Louisiana. The crime is a gruesome killing of a local college professor, who happens to be the son of the president of the same college. Miranda and Jake are assigned the case. There are many pretzel-worthy twists to this story, none of which you are going to hear about from me. Just know that my head was spinning from all my mind changes as to how this was going to play out.

There are flashbacks to an event that changed the life of our protagonist when she was 15 years old. These are well done, totally nonintrusive, and do not break the flow of the story. We are introduced to an appropriate number of side characters; some deplorable, some very likeable. There is some romance, but it does not dominate the story. The writing style flows easily; the dialogue is realistic. The character of Miranda is very well done, a strong point of the book. We get a good feel for her motivations and actions. She has issues and no matter how hard she has worked to overcome them, they still come back to haunt her and to some extent control her. I also want to mention how much I liked her relationship with bar owner/bartender Summer. I really connected with Miranda and am sorry this is not the first book of a series. The ending is well done, and an epilogue is included—something that always pleases me (I’m an epilogueaholic).

I was absorbed by this tale and motored through it in a little over 2 days, very fast for me. I am now craving more Erica Spindler. The majority of her books are rated above 4.00, and she does not appear to have lost readers over the years. Good harbingers. I highly recommend The Other Girl to readers looking for a nifty police procedural combined with a big dose of heart.

Thank you Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press, and Ms. Erica Spindler for an advanced copy of this novel. The opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Two murders, 15 years apart, with one thing in common. The detective investigating the second one was involved in the first. Can Miranda Rader solve both crimes and clear her name?

The Other Girl

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Other Girl but wow, I really enjoyed it! This book very quickly draws you in and takes a hold of you until the end! I loved the strong female characters, I loved being taken on a roller coaster ride and I loved the suspense!

This was my first Erica Spindler book so I'll be keeping an eye out for her in the future! 4 stars.

Just the sort of book you want to curl up on the sofa with and read without interruption. Thoroughly enjoyable with realistic characters. One chance meeting changes the course of a girl's life but the crime that happened in her childhood is going to raise its head and demand attention.

Randi is a young girl from a small town in Louisiana but from the wrong side of the tracks. She is rebellious and makes the wrong choices. Never more so than on the night she is offered a ride from a man and a woman in a car which leads her to fear for her life and abandon the ‘other girl’. But the police brand her a liar and refuse to help her, however one officer influences her to change her life.

Miranda Rader is now a respected police officer in the same town, and the officer that aided her years ago is now her Chief. When she and her partner are called to investigate the death of a college professor things become complicated. The murder is grisly and when she discovers a paper clipping in his desk she is catapulted back to that fateful evening.

The juxtaposition of the two timelines is not unique but it works very well. We slowly discover exactly what happened to Randi and how it affected her and the investigation seems to suggest that Miranda is implicated and has more to hide.

What a thoroughly satisfying read. A well-constructed plot with a few twists and turns (which I didn’t guess) and characterisation that is spot-on. I read on with an uncomfortable feeling about the police department and concern about Miranda.

If you like a good police-procedural you will like this, but I think it is a bit more than just that.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Awesome! A captivating read from start to finish. The plot was clear and concise, a real pleasure to read.

This is the first time I've read Erica Spindler but it won't be the last. This is a well-crafted, suspenseful murder mystery that keeps you eagerly turning page after page. And it's full of surprises.

29 year old Miranda works as a detective in the police department in the same town where she grew up as a wayward and troubled child. The Chief of Police is her mentor and her partner, Jake, is a hunk. Sounds like a good life, huh? But Miranda is haunted. By a traumatic experience from her teenage years, by estranged family members who never seemed to be there for her, and by her own difficulty trusting even her closest friends.

She's assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a much-admired college professor, the son of the college president. And it appears the investigation is connected to Miranda's own past.

I don't want to say more so the experience of reading this novel isn't spoiled. But as Miranda pursues the investigation, perplexing questions surface about the victim and his past, about long-buried family secrets, and even about Miranda's beliefs about her own past. A very fast read, ideal for lovers of mysteries everywhere.

Quick read, I wish it was fleshed out a little more but I enjoyed it. It sort of read like the first book in a series.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

‘Your job is to find a killer, not to vilify the victim.’

Officer Miranda Rader has worked hard to establish herself as a valued and respected member of the Hammond PD in Louisiana. Miranda grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, but made a choice not to stay there. The past is history, or so Miranda thought. But when she and her partner are called to a murder scene it isn’t just the gruesome scene that concerns her. Why would a popular college professor have a faded newspaper clipping about a terrible night in Miranda’s past? And why has he been murdered in such a brutal way?

When another man is murdered, Miranda is even more concerned. Clint Wheeler was the policeman who took her statement on that terrible night some fifteen years earlier. Could it just be a coincidence? Miranda‘s fingerprints are found at the scene of the first murder, and her every action is being scrutinised.

‘You need to figure out who is doing this to you.’

Miranda needs to try to work out what is going on. In the meantime, her past is rushing in and threatens to overwhelm her. Family members with whom she has had no contact want to meet with her. Her friend Summer is ill, and Miranda is worried about her.

Is Miranda being set up? By whom, and why?

Ms Spindler held my attention in this fast-paced novel. The story shifts between past and present, keeping me busy trying to work out some of the connections. I did work out some aspects out before they were revealed, but not all. A couple of aspects of the story didn’t work for me, but the pace of the novel kept me reading. This is a good rainy day read, and I’d happily add another of Ms Spindler’s novels to my reading list.

Note: My thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Other Girl is the latest story from Erica Spindler. Ms Spindler weaves events from 14 years ago with the present and delivers a fast paced read. The Other Girl has characters that immediately feel like friends. I was given an early copy to review.

Thanks netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It had great characters, especially the main character Randi/Miranda Rader. A girl from the wrong side of the tracks, who saved herself from a bad family situation and worked hard to become a local police officer. This book kept me reading late into the night and guessing until the second last chapter. Unfortunately I figured out the ending a bit early so the end of the book fizzled for me. I would recommend this book as a great beach read.

I have mixed feelings about this book, I enjoyed it overall, but I felt like the characters could have used more development. I also felt like things moved a little too quickly at the end. It went from you knowing nothing, to the entire thing wrapping up in a relatively short amount of time. Overall, I enjoyed the plot, and it was a quick easy beach read

The Other Girl, she always thinks of her as "the other girl"...there was two of them that night. Twisting and turning we follow a murder case as Miranda tries to figure out who killed a prominent man's son. It's a story of a cover up, betrayal, surprises. This book twists and turned keeping the reader engaged in the story line for the length of the book. I received this book for free in an exchange for an honest review. Thanks Net Galley, Erica Spindler and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I really like the writing style and how everything comes together. Miranda's life is so well written. I read most of this book in one go. I had to find out what happened. I so wanted Miranda to get the justice she deserved. I am so glad she was able to find peace. There are other books on the market with similar plot ideas. This one is well worth reading. It takes what is at times a heartbreaking story and turns it into a hard to put down book which portrays the characters beautifully.

I Loved the suspense in this book of who done what, when and why! "It sucks you right in like a fishing pole does a fish with its hook, line and sinker just dangling its bait of tid bits the entire way through this Great Mystery! As it weaves its way back as forth Into the past and back to the present. Taking you back to what happened 10 years back and who might have done something or did it happen at all? Regardless someone is dead now and it is a gruesome murder and we jump into who would have done that and will it happen again, was the person murdered a victim that everyone loved or is Everyone lying and afraid to tell the truth, surely not everyone lies do they? Well it sure enough keeps you guessing long into the book, until the very last chapter, you are still guessing about everyone's hands into who did what, then or now! No stone left unturned is always a good motto to go by and this fits perfect for past and future!

So Miranda Rader is a detective in her home town police force. A town that's not always been so nice to her, she was a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, trailer park, no good dad that left, just ran out on her family, her mom, her three brothers and her and that hurt, but he was a bad man but they needed so much, they were left destitute! Her childhood was made rough from bad decisions on her mom and dads part and her own doing and even her older brothers that only cared for themselves and drugs, it was unbearable at times and as a teen she rebelled against her mother, against it all! She thought her mom didn't do anything right especially the night she got in trouble and sent off to juvie for 6 months! Her mind thought about one thing doing everything her mom said not to do and to just get out of that trailer!

So 10 yrs later she is called to a horrific murder scene, one that is just horrific in nature, they soon fall into the thinking it is a woman. Later her partner questions why they chief is doing things and then it comes up that her fingerprints are found at the scene with all the evidence, she knows she didn't do anything wrong, she is a by the book cop and so is her partner whom has become emotionally attached to her, and she is starting to like that idea. He backed her side of the quick story she makes up so she isn't taken off the case. She doesn't know why he did that as she didn't ask him to! She starts figuring out so many things seem to line up to that night she ended up going to juvie for 6 months 10 years ago, the night nobody believed her and she was labeled a liar. She left a girl in the woods tied and screaming, she went for help yet they didn't believe her and by the time they decided to look into her claims Hours Later of course nothing was there. She had stole some pot from one of her brothers friends that they had sent to pick her up when they were suppose to do it and she was none to happy about it! And when he cant keep his hands off she yells and he throws her out of his truck, but she had forgotten that it was in her pocket when she fagged the first car and was so very happy when they flicked on the blue an red lights and she begged the cop to help the girl, to help her find and was just trying to get herself out of trouble by concocting a wild story...for years she thought herself that maybe she dreamed it!

But now she knows it happened and someone's out for revenge and now her job is in jeopardy as well and when a second body is found by Miranda with the words Liar across his taped mouth things get real crazy!!!

I loved the pretense of this story, how the entire story is told! It starts into the back story when she is Randi and then into the present with her a seasoned police officer with a lot of people depending on her and believing how well she has done to get away from her past stigma and then it would continue to give us some glimpses of the past within the present and you were never confused

Erica Spindler excelled in writing this book! Ive never read her work before but it grabbed my attention within the first page and I was flipping the pages as quick as I could to find out more what, why and who the hell what and when, who could Miranda trust and who she couldn't and just when you thought you had it guessed she throw another wrench in the story! I loved the back and forth of past and present and how it affected her life now as it did then! She thought she had grown older wiser and away from that drama that she could even at times wonder did it happen or was it some crazy drug. This story quickly becomes who can you trust pretty quick and its people Miranda has been around since she left all that behind! But her mom gets real sick, her brother call from an unknown number and she wont call back for awhile, they hadn't even believed in her so why should she care...because she better care quickly or she might just be the next victim But wait a minute is she the one pulling our strings??

This book will have you guessing till the end. I thought I had it figured out but still had some surprises I didn't expect. Its got great character build up and that makes you wonder your choices ALL through the book, and some points you are life and who did what for why??? and you want to throttle people you may have yourself befriended and trusted with everything when truly you should have never even turned you back once on them! She did a great job on the shock value!

Bravo Erica Spindler! I thank you for a Great book and I would love to thank you and your publisher St Martins Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read my first book by Erica Spindler just for my unbiased honest review! It is an excellent book and I would tell everyone that Loves a Great Mystery to grab this one, you stay sucked in till the last page!

Very good book. A real page turner I looked forward to every evening when the day was done, so I could keep reading. Miranda is an interesting character, despite all that has happened to her in the past she still values and believes in herself. She isn't a victim nor is she afraid to examine her own faults and forgive. Great mystery!

A new author for me....enjoyed this story....very much!!!

Miranda Rader is a solid citizen and an honest cop, in spite of her disreputable family and wild history. But when a college professor is found murdered and a newspaper clipping of an incident in Miranda's past is found with him, all of her hard work starts to unravel. Soon Miranda is fighting to prove her own innocence when she is implicated in the murder. Spindler creates and interesting and resourceful character in Miranda and the plot is engaging and unpredictable. We are reminded that even as adults, the children we were still dwell inside of us. Very good read.