Alice had a rough start in life. She grew up watching her dad beat on her mom until one day, he was “mugged” in an alley. Alice is pretty sure her anxiety-riddled mother had something to do with it but decided to leave well enough alone.

So she lives her life as low-key as she can. She works as a cleaning lady at a high-profile hotel until she finds herself jobless and with an NDA check for $500,000 after an “incident” at work that she can’t talk about. If she just hadn’t gone into that man’s hotel room alone…

So she goes to the bar every day from 9-5 because she can’t tell her mother that she was let go for being assaulted. It’s at that bar, while she’s drinking her gin, that Alice meets Taylor.

Taylor is bubbly, outgoing, and wild – everything Alice is not. She wears sparkly dresses and high-heeled shoes, and she attracts the attention of everyone around her. And for these reasons, Alice feels drawn to Taylor in a way she’s never felt before.

Taylor’s comforting and open nature puts Alice at ease while still being on edge. Why would she be so enchanted by a stranger? But Taylor is the first person Alice tells about “the incident.” Taylor encourages Alice to deposit the money at the bank. Alice deserves that money after what Weston Chambers, the hotel’s hot-shot guest, did and how the hotel tossed her aside.

Alice is to depressed as Taylor is to rage.

Taylor takes Alice on a whirlwind adventure into letting go and discovering her own confidence.

Then Taylor says it: “We should kill him.”

Alice adamantly rejects the idea of murdering her attacker. But when Weston Chambers is found dead in his hotel room, Taylor has disappeared without a trace along with the half of a million dollars in Alice’s bank account, and Alice is left without an alibi… no one had even met Taylor. Did she actually exist? Or did Alice do the unthinkable and can’t remember?

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The best friends are the ones we can call at 2am and say, “I’ve got a problem.” They’ll grab their shovel and help us bury the body.

But to have that kind of connection with someone you just met? Marissa Finch seamlessly takes meeting someone like Taylor and makes an immediate relationship believable, but I wanted to go out and meet my own Taylor. Well, till I read a little more.

I loved how Taylor brought Alice out of her comfort zone and pushed her to find her strength. Her character development was progressive, even though situations forced her to make decisions at the drop of a hat.

And then I wondered, like Alice, did Taylor even exist at all?

We get two stories. One from Alice’s perspective and a second from the perspective of a young girl growing up between foster homes, abuse, and neglect. This unknown girl has several aliases, and we don’t know how she fits into the story until it’s almost over.

Marissa does an amazing job of giving both points of view in their own voice. I think that’s something many authors have a hard time accomplishing, and for that alone, I’d give this book 3/5 stars.

But it doesn’t stop there. Marissa crafts the story so well that the biggest surprise isn’t revealed to us until the last couple of chapters. Just when you think you have it all figured out, you’re looped back in with a million questions.

By the time I got to the last page, I was ready to find more Marissa Finch books.

I recommend this book to:

• Fans of Karin Slaughter
• Anyone who enjoyed Unmissing (read my review here)
• Fans of suspense thriller with a detective/investigative angle

You can find A Friend Like That by Marissa Finch on Amazon