Girl Watching You by J. A. Schneider -a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: RELEASE DATE JUNE 27, 2019

A young woman, obsessed by a man she considers a predator, climbs a fire escape and thinks she sees a murder.

Out of work actress Ava Beck, reduced to working in a West Village flower shop, starts to watch womanizing hedge funder Peter Greer, who lives near. He likes to romance his girlfriends with flowers.

Ava notices bruises on his troubled-looking date named Chloe. Concerned, she follows them after work to Chloe’s studio, second floor in the rear of a brownstone. She hears them arguing, climbs up the fire escape just as Greer angrily sees her…and plunges into a world of stunning twists, murder and madness worse than any she could have imagined.

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REVIEW: Girl Watching You begins with Ava Beck, an out of work actress, working in a flower shop. Since her sister’s death two years ago, she still finds herself going over the series of events that led up to her death. Ava knows down to her toes that it wasn’t an accident, and is doing everything she can to bring charges (that will stick) against her sister’s abusive boyfriend. Ava knew from the moment that her sister was killed who did it. Just so happens that the boyfriend was also a successful actor and had Ava blacklisted. Hence, she’s working in a flower shop, and has become a bit of a people watcher.

One person that has caught her eye is Peter Greer, who seems to change girlfriends often, and who also stops at the shop often to purchase flowers for his current flame. She notices one particular woman, whom she has seen a couple of times with Greer, has bruises and seems a bit disheveled. Although Ava’s boss has warned Ava about her “people watching” that has almost turned into stalkerish behavior, she takes it upon herself to find out exactly what is going on. While Ava is spying on Peter and the woman, she sees that things starting to get out of hand, only to have Peter see her. Or did he?

The next day, Ava discovers that the woman has been murdered. Once again, she thinks she knows who did it and sets out to “look” in on Peter. Little does Ava realize how much that decision will change the rest of her life.

Girl Watching You is a nicely written story, even though it comes across almost as a screenplay in parts of it. Ava seems a little naïve in the way she handles several issues in her life, but ended up getting her stuff together towards the last half of the book. The secondary characters are well written and it is the interactions between all of them that pulls you in. Just when you think you know who did it, Schneider twists it masterfully and leaves you guessing until almost the very end. If you’re a fan of suspense thrillers, you’ll enjoy this latest story from J.A. Schneider.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Vickie K