#BlogTour ‘Perfect Strangers’ by Araminta Hall

About the book…

From the author of  comes an enthralling, irresistible novel of psychological suspense about three women and the destructive power of buried secrets.

When Nancy Hennessy is murdered, she leaves behind two best friends, an adoring husband and daughter, and a secret lover whose identity she took to the grave. Nancy was gorgeous, wealthy, and cherished by those who knew her—from the outside, her life was perfect. But as the investigation into her death flounders and her friends Eleanor and Mary wrestle with their grief, dark details surface that reveal how little they knew their friend, each other, and maybe even themselves.

A gripping, immersive novel about impossible expectations and secrets that fester and become lethal, Imperfect Women unfolds through the perspectives of three fascinating women. Their enduring, complex friendship is the knot the reader must untangle to answer the question Who killed Nancy?

Imperfect Women explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises we make that alter our lives irrevocably. With the wickedly sharp insights and finely tuned suspense that has drawn comparisons to Patricia Highsmith and Paula Hawkins, Araminta Hall returns with another page-turning, thought-provoking tour de force.

Published on 8th July by Orion, I am so stoked to be a part of the accompanying Compulsive Readers Tour for ‘Perfect Strangers’ by Araminta Hall (a.k.a Imperfect Women)

”Nancy looked like she was close to tears.’I know, but do you know how hard it is to hang on to that when you’re actually doing it?When you’re bombarded with women ‘having it all’ , as they like to say, rushing to a meeting in a smart suit with a baby on their hip. Domesticity has never been valued.’ ”

On the surface, this appears to be a ‘whodunnit’ as Nancy, mother and wife goes missing and is subsequently found dead of blunt force trauma, her phone missing and her purse emptied.

Her friends of almost 30 years, Eleanor and Mary, are who we get to know Nancy through, being as she dies right at the start of the book. Having meet initially at university, each of them has re-examined why they are where they are, right now, and where they have deviated from that path since leaving uni.

Each has had success in their own fields, even if Nancy does not realise this, as a mother and a wife she has held her household together. The above quote relates to her lashing out to Eleanor at the seeming injustice of the way she is expected to behave by both the family she has created, and society in general.

Her placing a lack of value on what she has achieved really hits home in the context of her having an affair, about which Eleanor knows but Mary, and Nancy’s husband, do not. Eleanor’s initial irritation at having been confided in about this makes her feel complicit in this state of affairs and leaves her angry and unhappy. The subsequent conflicting feelings after her shocking death really hit home as a result, and forces  both women to look back at their relationships with Nancy, and their relationships with each other.

How far removed are they from the women that they were at the start of their friendship?

How much of this has to do with the way that Nancy has died and how they react to this?

It’s an engaging and moving character study of modern womanhood and the way that we pile pressure on ourselves to meet impossible standards set by a patriarchal agenda.

And even if you know a person for decades, how well do you really know them?

Is it a reflection that you expect to see when you look at your friends, or are you seeing the real them?

There is so much to think about, pull apart and reflect about as you read ‘Perfect Strangers’ and find yourself questioning not only how self aware you are, but also how social constructs create friendships, as well as estranging them.

Highly recommended to readers who love complex, multi layered investigations into the human condition.

About the author…

Araminta Hall began her career in journalism as a staff writer on teen magazine Bliss, becoming Health and Beauty editor of New Woman. On her way, she wrote regular features for the Mirror’s Saturday supplement and ghost-wrote the super-model Caprice’s column.

Links-https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter @Tr4cyF3nt0n @orionbooks @AramintaHall