Questionable memories, terror and suspicion colonize The Devil You Know by Elisabeth De Mariaffi, like maggots colonizing a corpse.
First-time novelist De Mariaffi hits it out of the park with this smart, scary thriller that’ll have you checking under your bed every night.
With a chilling plot and eerie details, De Mariaffi hooks the reader into the world of violence against girls and women, and doesn’t let go till the end.
The star of the novel is Evie Jones, a rookie reporter with the Toronto Free Press, who’s been tasked with covering the crime beat.
That wouldn’t be so unusual if it weren’t for the fact that it’s 1993 and the city is petrified by a serial rapist/murderer. Sitting outside Paul Bernardo’s house, waiting to see what the guys in the white moon suits come out with, could set anyone’s imagination off. But when you’re 21 and living on your own for the first time, well….that kind of horror is an invitation to fear.
A by-product of her work at the newspaper, Evie begins to obsess about her childhood friend Lianne Gagnon’s murder at age 11 by a man named Robert Cameron, who was never caught.
The more Evie digs into Lianne’s unsolved murder, the creepier the story gets, and the wilder her imagination becomes. She reaches the point where she thinks she sees a man out on her fire escape looking in her window.
Is he real, or is he imagined?
And if the guy’s real, is it Lianne’s killer coming after Evie?
With each new piece of information Evie uncovers, her anxiety ramps up.
Evie’s close friend David tries to temper her anxiety but she’s having none of it, and risks her own safety going after the man she thinks is the killer.
Despite her erratic behavior, David’s devotion to Evie is unwavering and it kills him to see her so obsessed.
Replaying scary scenarios over and over, Evie psychs herself out to the point of getting physically sick with anxiety. Evie’s father says: “Look at what you do for a living….Your job is the anxiety machine. You’re mainlining fear.”
Multiple identities, false memories, murders and countless coincidences add up to a superbly written thriller.
You may be terrified reading it, but you’ll love every second of it!
For other popular reading suggestions check out Richmond Public Library’s Web site at www.yourlibrary.ca/goodbooks.
Shelley Civkin is the communications officer at the Richmond Public Library.
