In Another Light – ARC Book Review

The death of a look-alike stranger leads a grieving woman down a troubling path in this riveting novel by A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Poison Garden.

Three years ago mortuary cosmetologist Phoebe Glassman lost her husband in a tragic accident. No longer the hopeful wife and mother she once was, Phoebe is disappearing into her grief and into the quietude of her job—restoring to the dead the illusion of life. Then the body of a woman named Pauline Steele arrives in the mortuary, and for Phoebe, everything changes.

Pauline is unmistakably Phoebe’s mirror image and bears an alarmingly familiar tattoo. Even more startling is that among Pauline’s effects is a faded photograph of Phoebe. Aided by an eccentric colleague, her curiosity sparked, Phoebe investigates her doppelgänger’s life and death—and uncovers surprising clues to a shared past.

Phoebe’s emotional journey soon leads to shocking revelations about those closest to her…and even herself. When she’s driven to the brink, how much of what she discovers can she trust?

No. of pages:- 251 pages

Date published:- will be published on October 5th 2021

Publisher:- Lake Union

Genre:- Thriller/ Women’s Fiction

Rating:- 4/5 stars

This book was actually surprisingly good!

Phoebe was a former mortuary cosmetologist and lost both her husband and child in a car accident. Now years later, she comes back to the mortuary and finds the dead corpse a mirror image of her own. The dead woman’s name was Pauline and soon Phoebe becomes embroiled in finding deeper secrets as she finds a picture of herself in the dead woman’s purse.

This was actually interesting from start to finish. You could totally understand the series of emotions and frustrations the main protagonist, Phoebe is going through and how when each of the secrets are revealed she was determined to find more truth. There was some sort of an air of suspense in the book as well, particularly, the story gets interesting when Phoebe finds a child who looks exactly like a carbon copy of her deceased daughter Ava. She learns some dark secrets about her husband and so as a reader, you are literally hooked into the story, wanting to know what has really happened? Are her husband and daughter still alive? Or is it just Phoebe is imagining this whole scenario? What is Pauline doing with her picture in her purse? So in other words, the author did a good job keeping the reader at the edge of the seat.

The characters are somewhat likable–as I mentioned earlier, I could feel Phoebe wanting to know the answers. The writing was really great and this is my first time reading a book from this author and I am looking forward to read more books form this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.