Reporter Joan Lurie becomes famous when her story in Manhatta exposes Globe owner Caspar Osgood as a sexual harasser. But as she returns home the night of the publication, she's attacked in her apartment. Terrified and feeling ill from a severe blow to the head, she moves to a super secure building in Manhattan, called the Refuge, to write a book that further details what she's discovered about Casper. At the Refuge, she meets her elderly neighbor, Lillian, who has lived there since it was the Magdalen Laundry and Refuge for Fallen Women in the 1940s. She becomes sucked into Lillian's stories, which often remind Joan of her own life. Meanwhile, Caspar's wife Melissa must deal with the aftermath of learning her husband is sexual predator. Soon, these women's lives will intertwine: in potentially dangerous ways.

"I'm here because four weeks ago someone tried to kill me."

This was an often confusing but incredibly intriguing book that combines the #MeToo movement with a story about wayward girls. You're never quite sure what's going on, as Joan can be an unreliable narrator (head injury + fear, anyone?), leaving one feeling very off balance for the entire book. There's a story within a story here, as Joan goes after Caspar and his transgressions, combined with Lillian's story and her past.

"What kind of person is more concerned about their hard drive than their body?"

I loved the 1940s piece, learning about Lily, the Magdalen laundry, and the Refuge when it was a home for girls. It's fascinating even while being quite sad. Joan could be a very frustrating character (just go to the doctor for your head injury and stop drinking already), but you cannot fault her reporting skills. Caspar's wife Melissa adds a certain depth to the tale, as she wrestles with what her husband has done. Telling the story from Joan and Melissa's point of view really expands what we learn. This is also an atmospheric read, with the Refuge becoming its own character, especially as we learn about its history from the 1940s on. Goodman is always excellent at setting the scene.

While I sometimes found this book frustrating, it was also a page-turner, with compelling characters and an interesting story with some great twists.

This was a good, but confusing, book. It had three storylines - a young woman writing about a man accused of sexual harassment, that man's wife, and a mystery from the 40s. I enjoyed all of the storylines, but I think the author tried to tackle too much and then wrap it up neatly, and as a result the ending is confusing and convoluted with too much going on. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because other than the ending I really enjoyed the book.

Historical fiction meets #metoo.
Joan Lurie has written a scathing article exposing the owner of a competing paper as a sexual predator. Melissa is said predators wife who is determined to make Joan pay for destroying her life. Joan has more unpublished information that she's been given a hefty advance with which to write a book. Melissa is determined to undermine Joan's progress with the hopes of maybe writing her own book first. Joan moves into a new apartment to hide away from her own attacker and write her book. Melissa moves in the same building right below Joan for easier, secret, access to Joan's files.
Parallel to that story line is the life story of Joan's new neighbor, Lillian, a ninety year old recluse with quite the story to tell. How the two story lines come together in the end is exciting and heartwarming.
Written from the alternating POV's of Joan and Melissa the story captured my interest and held it throughout. Although not necessarily a 'fast paced' novel, I still finished it in two sittings. Even though some of the scenes were a bit implausible, I was still able to enjoy the entertaining story and can recommend it.

I had planned on giving this 4 stars as it was predictable. I pretty much thought I had it all figured out and predicted what was happening until the end!! Wow! There were some twists and turns that I didn't see coming and that's what gets 5 stars. When I'm blown away. There really is a lot going on through this book. The narration alternates between Joan, the writer who releases the article about the women that Cass assaults and Melissa, Cass's wife. We also meat Lillian, who decides to share her story with Joan, and that's a wild ride! Lillian had to deal with running from the mob and protecting her brothers, herself and her best friend Rose. I thought it was very well written and worth the read.

Joan looks like a fashion writer, but for the last three years she has been secretly writing an expose about a powerful man in the newspaper world. The article has just been published and she’s been offered a book deal to tell more of the story.

There’s a lot going on in this one! Joan is physically attacked and retreats to an apartment that she thinks is safe to write her book, aptly called The Refuge. She’s injured by the attack, and this compromises her ability to read and think clearly. Joan (and this reader) weren’t quite sure what was real and what was in her head.

She is befriended by a neighbor who shares her own stories of trauma and Joan learns about the history of the building she now lives in. It used to be a Magdalen Laundry and girls were sent there when they got in trouble.

There’s also another viewpoint presented, the wife of the newspaper tycoon that Joan has written about and she’s not happy about the article at all!

This was a quick read, but I think the author took on too much with this one and the story got too complicated and was not believable at times.

Joan Lurie is a young journalist who has just written an expose about a wealthy and powerful newspaper tycoon- who is a sexual predator. The night the story goes live, she is attacked on her way into her apartment. Suffering from a serious concussion, Joan struggles with her fears of who did this to her. Melissa Osgood is the wife of the man Joan outed. She decides that she is going to prove her husband's innocence by stealing all of Joan's notes and do some of her own investigative reporting. The results are worse than she or Joan could know.
This thrilling novel is told from the alternating view points of Joan and Melissa and is filled with twists and turns. You won't be able to put it down once you start reading.

The Stranger Behind You by Carol Goodman

Joan Lurie is the author of a article exposing a famous newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. She has so much more information that didn't make the article that she plans to write a book to expose even more that she knows. When she is attacked and possibly raped, she is more determined than ever to not be silenced. But the attack leaves her with severe vision, balance, and memory problems and terrified of being attacked again.

It's obvious that Joan needs medical attention immediately but she refuses to seek help. Instead she plugs along, doing research on foot and by computer, handicapped by the symptoms of her head injury. Little does she know that she has more than one enemy, including Melissa, the wife of the newspaper tycoon, who blames Joan for all the problems that befall her family after the expose. An interesting distraction to the bad things going on in Joan's life is her 96 year old neighbor who has her own long story of abuse by men. Could what happened to this woman 80 years ago have some connection to what is happening now?

I felt like the story got bogged down by too many improbable things. It's hard to get past the fact that Joan never seeks help for her severe vision and neurological problems which hamper all areas of her life. On the other hand, angry Melissa is able to accomplish unlikely things due to luck and abilities that are hard to believe. Then there is Lillian, who seems more than a little odd and who takes up so much of the book with her long drawn out story. I know others liked this story much more than I did but it was too much of a stretch for me, in so many ways.

Thank you to William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scene of the Crime for an advanced copy of this book. This is my honest review. I am surprised how much I liked this book. It didn’t start out that way for me. I hated Melissa and the underhanded way she tried to protect her husband and punish Joan for writing an article that destroyed the lives of her family. But about halfway through this book, the story becomes exciting and we find that the multiple story lines of the monstrous ways that men take advantage of women and how women are deceived by the men they trust come together and we find out that there is more to the story than we originally believed. The end of the book was once of the best endings I have ever read and I feel tied together everything nicely. Very well written and a quick read. I am looking forward to read more by this author.

I loved Goodman’s novel last year, The Sea of Lost Girls, and I love this one even more. It’s very of the moment, as it involves a powerful newspaper magnate who has been sexually harassing his female employees. Like last year’s novel, Goodman’s concern is the shame the women feel for something that is not their fault. She expands these horizons, making the book specific (an element in every successful novel, to my mind, is specificity) by tying the shame element to her two main characters as well.

The book is told in alternating narratives. One narrative comes from Joan, the reporter who breaks the story; the other comes from Melissa, the wife and ultimately widow (shades of Jeffrey Epstein) of the accused man, who has left his widow not only covered in shame, but more or less broke.

Joan, who returns to her apartment after a night of celebrating her big story, is attacked. While a book deal gives her the financial means to move out of her sketchy apartment and into a much nicer building, one with excellent security, it also leaves her both afraid to leave her new place and unable to work on the book that’s garnered her a windfall.

I admit to some resistance to the storyline when I first cracked the book open, as I sometimes think using a news item that’s so of the moment will ultimately date a book, but this one was so compelling, and such a nuanced character study of the two women at the center of the story. And unfortunately, sexual assault is always with us, as is the male entitlement that is grist for Goodman’s mill.

Goodman also has a touch of the gothic to her storytelling. The building where the two women end up, The Refuge, sits atop a cliff with deadly rocks below. In the past it was the home of an infamous Magdalen laundry type operation, where the women who stayed were not in a refuge, but in more or less a prison. The ghosts of these long-gone women seem to haunt the place.

Joan also becomes involved with a mysterious elderly neighbor, Lillian, who tells Joan in fits and starts her story of being a young woman in the 40’s and the trauma and shame she endured. Joan, who is good at drawing out a story from someone, gets more detail from Lillian than she bargained for, as well as helping Joan herself to realize how a traumatic event imprints on your brain. She relives the night of her own assault again and again, and it’s what renders her almost unable to function.

The story is told in such a propulsive manner, illuminating the lives and thought processes of the two women as they inevitably draw closer to one another. Goodman has layered her character study on top of an excellent thriller. The gothic, atmospheric touches only serve to make the book more memorable and harder to forget after you turn the last page. This is one of the reads of the year.

Three years of research and countless interviews was what it took for Joan to expose the biggest sexual predator in the New York City publishing industry. Now being offered at six figure book deal, Joan is flying high, but not everyone is happy for her. Shortly after her story goes live, the guilty part commits suicide but did he really.

This book was all over the place. First with #metoo and then with secrets of the building. I think if it would have stuck with one story that would have made this more interesting. Instead it lagged.

I devoured this compulsively readable novel about a writer who suffers a trauma immediately after publishing the biggest story of her lifetime and then her world starts to unravel. Unreliable narrators, creepy dudes who get what’s coming to them, a nearly believable redemption arc, and a relevant historical backstory - what could make it better? There ARE actually things that make it better, but anything else I add I feel would be too close to spoiler territory. This is the perfect novel if you are looking for a book to break you out of a reading slump – it’s hard to put down yet is complex enough to satisfy your inner English teacher. Perhaps a bit heavy on the serendipitous happenings – but that’s all part of what makes a good story, right?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a mystery but took in the world of publishing and gave us a taste of that world. The main publisher played the field while being married with grown children. His wife was a society climber and had not worked for many years. The main character had exposed the publisher. An interesting and fun read.

I absolutely loved this mystery novel telling the story of three remarkable women whose lives interject following an attack on one of them, which leads her to choose a secluded lifestyle in a truly one of a kind building. A dark and moving story!

When I first started this book, I did as I often do and made early assumptions as to who is the bad guy/girl and their agenda. Little did I know that this author had a talent for fleshing out the characters so that your impression of characters changes as the story progresses. For the most part, I was very wrong in my initial assessment. Things took a surprising turn and I loved every minute of it.

The Stranger Behind You is a very entertaining mystery thriller that keeps you turning the pages. It tells of 2 storylines that are similar and interconnect. It’s a twisty story about Joan Lurie, a newspaper reporter turned author who exposes Casper Osgood, a sexual predator who just happens to be the owner of one of the big newspapers. She goes to live in a building called The Refuge with its high security for her own safety. The Refuge used to be a Magdalen Laundry in Manhattan. I had never heard of the Magdalen Laundries before so this was interesting to me. I love it when I learn something from my reading. There’s a character by the name of Lillian that makes the story a bit chilling as she’s very old and has supposedly been living in The Refuge for over 70 years. It isn’t until the end where the author has done a wonderful job of bringing the 2 storylines together, that everything falls into place and makes perfect sense. I really enjoyed this book and I’m sure everyone who reads it will too. I’d like to thank the Scene of the Crime Early Reads program and NetGalley for the arc to read, review and enjoy. This was a twisty, chilling read and one I would definitely recommend. I’m going to rate this at 4.5 stars!

When Joan Lurie, writer for The Manhatta, finds out Casper Owsgood, the powerful man at the top of The Global, has sexually assaulted women for years, she does what she does best; exposes him to the world. The article is released and a night of celebrating Joan taking down "the monster" begins. Joan arrives home feeling successful and buzzed to an unexpected guest. Joan wakes up in a pool of her own blood; disoriented and scared of what might have happened to her.

Goodman knows how to keep you from putting this book down. The author combines thriller and mystery with the #MeToo movement bringing you into the lives of what powerful men will do to keep their secrets safe.

Wow, so many twists and turns. Joan Lurie is writing the story of her career exposing a sexual predator at a famous newspaper while working for his competitor Simon Wallace in the style section. Simon and Casper were old college roommates who fell out. It is rumored that Caspar Osgood has fired many women who don't follow through on his sexual advances and Joan is investigating the women's stories. The news breaks and Joan is violently attacked and stalked. She is befriended by an old lady on her apartment floor named Lillian who proceeds to tell Joan the history of the Refuge where she lives and her life back in the 40's. Joan's injuries to her head has her questioning all that she does and sees. Was a good story and you could see where the author was taking the reader until you go down the rabbit hole and back out again.

Joan Lurie is a reporter who exposed a newspaper tycoon's [sexual] predatory lifestyle. On the eve of her article's publication, she celebrated with her friends only to be attacked in her home. She decided to move to a highly secured apartment in Manhattan called The Refuge and began to write more about her expose.
At the Refuge, she met a frail 96 year old woman named LIllian who has been living in the building since the 40s.The old woman has a story to tell that reflects what happened to Joan. This made her more eager to dig through what the rich and powerful holds to silence the ones suppressed.
Another woman is also looking for answers and vengeance. The wife of the tycoon whom Joan wrote about. Melissa will do anything she could to clear up their name. They said that your strongest ally is your spouse. Melissa stands on the truth that she doesn't know anything about what her husband did... but is she turning a blind eye or what she just stated is the truth?

The book was written from two perspectives. The expose writer and the grieving wife. Their POVs are weaved flawlessly each chapter. There are a lot of #MeToo happening and at first I was like "okaayyy here we go again." But, I find the story appealing. The two women are very determined to find the truth in two different ends. The book reminds me of The Whisper Network (no spoilers lol).
Now, the only problem I have with this book is that there are areas specially the Joan and Lillian part that can be quite obscure and I lacked interest mid-part. Whenever I read a thriller novel I tend to read fast because I want to know what happens next. But for this one, I want to read it fast because I want to get this over with.

Will I recommend this? Yeah, I would especially to those who like the #MeToo theme. I still enjoyed it despite the pacing and even though I was quite underwhelmed.

Carol Goodman is an author whom I have followed for a number of years. This current novel was a fast paced thriller, a bit different than many of her earlier books that had more of a Gothic theme and were often based in educational settings. I honestly preferred some of her earlier works over this one, largely because this one seemed to cover so many different angles. It was hard to keep details straight at times and I found myself going back in the book to reread sections and conversations and sometimes still could not “connect the dots”. I guessed some of the ending midway through but it was still a story that continued to capture my interest. I think I would have rated this a 4 star except for the confusing areas and far-fetched actions of certain characters, particularly Melissa’s over the top efforts initially trying to avenge her husband’s downfall and death. Plus, It was amazing how it was so easy to obtain access to the main character’s apartment even after changing the locks!

All in all, I did enjoy the book and will continue to read future works by this author.

I really had a problem with this book. The plot was all over the place and at times implausible. I couldn't figure out what direction the book was going: a #MeToo story, a historical mystery, the impact of infidelity, a stalker thriller or something else entirely. I put it down more than once to let my brain catch up to the story line.

Told from the POV of Joan, a style writer and sometimes investigative reporter, and Melissa the wife of a powerful publishing magnet, the story opens with Joan's article exposing Melissa's husband for sexually exploiting several women. Then there's Melissa's reaction to the incontrovertible facts: she decides to take revenge on Joan for exposing her husband's insupportable actions! After her husband takes his own life, Melissa discovers he has been borrowing against their investments to the point that she is reduced to selling her mansion and possessions. Instead of trying to find out why her husband ruined their finances, she decides to take revenge on Joan for ruining her lifestyle. While apartment hunting, she just happens to find out there is an apartment open in Joan's building and, having gained access to Joan's apartment (don't ask how, it's too much of a long shot to be plausible), just also happens to have a device capable of copying Joan's computer hard drive. That's just the beginning of some of the many actions I found hard to digest.

I think this could have been a good, suspenseful book had the author not taken so many different directions and had too many instances where the reader had to suspend belief. Early on, Joan suffers a concussion and despite the frightening symptoms, chooses not to go to a hospital. I just couldn't get over that. There was one story line involving a 40-year-old mystery that was interesting. Unfortunately, I figured out early on that the source of the story was somewhat suspect. All in all, a promising book that could have been so much better.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The publication date is July 6, 2021.