Book review: Thrilling mystery is a must read

Amanda Cassidy crafts a tense, atmospheric narrative in 'The Stranger Inside', with plenty of moral ambiguity and a constant undercurrent of dread

Amanda Cassidy’s skilful writing makes ‘The Stranger Inside’ a safe recommendation for readers. Picture: Gareth Chaney

• The Stranger Inside 
• Amanda Cassidy 
• Canelo Crime, €10.99

What would you do if you were imprisoned for a heinous crime you did not commit? Would you accept your fate — or risk everything on an impossible escape?

That is the question at the heart of Amanda Cassidy’s gripping new thriller, The Stranger Inside.

Ciara Duffy, a midwife and mother to young Sally, never expects her life to unravel so violently.

One rainy evening in Dublin, she dashes out for groceries, leaving her daughter and her friend Evie watching TV. 

She checks the iParent app — a type of live baby monitor — and sees the girls safely on the couch. But suddenly, a shadowy figure appears behind them.

Ciara’s heart almost leaps out of her chest. She races home, terrified, but when she arrives, the house is silent, there is no sign of an intruder. 

The girls are unharmed and insist they have been alone the whole time. But Ciara knows what she saw ... doesn’t she?

Too shaken to tell anyone, she knocks back some wine and collapses into bed, where her thoughts begin to spiral. 

Her husband Morgan flew to London that morning under the excuse of job hunting, but Ciara doesn’t buy it. 

Recently their marriage has been on the verge of collapse, with Morgan growing colder each day.

Reminiscing about the good times they had together, Ciara drifts into a heavy sleep, only to jolt awake in the middle of the night. 

She sleepily tiptoes around the house in a worrying search for anything out of place, but all seems fine. 

She climbs back into bed... and finds Morgan’s lifeless body beside her. He has been stabbed through the heart.

It isn’t long before gardaí swarm the neighbourhood and Ciara’s home becomes a crime scene.

She insists that an intruder is responsible, but there is no sign of forced entry and no evidence to support her far-fetched story. 

Before she even understands what is happening, she finds herself locked up behind steel bars.

As the daughter of a police chief, Ciara knows how the justice system works, and how unforgiving it can be. 

She has committed an unforgivable, psychotic crime according to the media, and inside her cold cell, no one will listen to her pleas.

“The longer she stayed in Logan, the angrier Ciara seemed to feel about the inequalities she saw every day. What she had realised was that most of the women in there had never really had a chance.

“Most were born into poverty, crime accepted as a way of life for some. And the tiered system that existed in the outside world had only stretched that gap further.”

Then comes devastating news: Sally is gravely ill. Desperate to reach her daughter, Ciara knows she must escape. 

If no one else will uncover the truth about what really happened to Morgan, she’ll do it herself. No prison wall is high enough to keep her, a desperate mother, from her dying daughter.

The Stranger Inside is a raw, emotional thriller that explores how quickly a life can collapse, and what a mother will do to protect her child.

Amanda Cassidy crafts a tense, atmospheric narrative with plenty of moral ambiguity and a constant undercurrent of dread. 

She also does not shy away from the inequalities that occur within a prison’s concrete walls and offers an unflinching look at the often flawed system.

What makes the novel stand out isn’t just the twists but the emotional depth at its core. 

Ciara’s confusion, fear, and maternal determination feel painfully real as the lines begin to blur.

Thanks to her skilful writing, it is easy to recommend Cassidy’s newest novel as a must read this year for thriller fans.

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