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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"...One shares Susanne's belief that she must try to carry the deception off. Whether she will succeed keeps the reader, peering over Susanne's shoulder at all the traps, turning the pages of this remarkable book."—The Independent (UK)

Praise for Petra Hammesfahr's The Sinner:

"The Sinner is best psychological suspense novel I have read all year."—Daily Telegraph

"Dubbed Germany's answer to Patricia Highsmith, Hammesfahr should win new fans with this novel."Publishers Weekly

"Demonstrates why she is one of Germany's bestselling writers of crime and psychological thrillers. It's grim, delves deep into the human psyche, and keeps you gripped."The Times (London)

Nadia and Susanne look uncannily alike, but one of the women is seriously rich and the other is destitute. When Nadia asks Susanne to spend the weekend with her husband so that she can sneak off with a lover, how can Susanne refuse the outrageous payment on offer? Nadia and her husband barely speak to each other and he will be working most of the weekend. Easy money, or so it seems.

One Friday afternoon Susanne drives Nadia's Alfa to her beautiful suburban villa with its indoor pool and glass doors opening onto the sloping lawn. This first stay is followed by others, as an apparently harmless game becomes a deadly web of lies.

Petra Hammesfahr, born in 1951, has not had an easy life: she left school at thirteen and became pregnant by an alcoholic husband at seventeen. She published her first novel when she was forty and has since written over twenty crime and suspense novels. Petra also writes scripts for television and film. She has won numerous literary prizes, including the Crime Prize of Wiesbaden and the Rhineland Literary Prize.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 22, 2010
      A twin-swapping scheme propels this exceptional suspense novel from German bestseller Hammesfahr (The Sinner
      ). After meeting Susanne Lasko, a desperate, unemployed divorcée, by chance, Nadia Trenkler, a stylish Berlin investment counselor, hires Susanne, whom she closely resembles, to spend the weekend with her husband, with whom she barely interacts and who will be busy with his own work, so she can conduct an out-of-town affair. Of course, a lot more is going on than Susanne realizes. For one thing, Marcus Zurkeulen, a shady investor Nadia has been tricking, wants the money she stole from him. When the devious Nadia disappears, Susanne continues the deception with scary results. Hammesfahr does a superb job portraying Susanne's fearful descent into another woman's life. Full of clever and disturbing twists, this dark delight will please Patricia Highsmith fans.

    • Booklist

      May 1, 2010
      Unemployed and reduced to stealing from her mothers savings, Susanne is desperate for a job, and when her best hope ends in rejection, she thinks all is lost. But that same day, she runs into a woman, Nadia, who uncannily resembles her in every way, except that she has all the money Susanne so desperately needs. Nadia contacts Susanne, and the lonely woman accepts Nadias offers of coffee and secondhand clothes; later, when Nadia asks her to spend a weekend with her husband so Nadia can be with her lover, Susanne cant refuse the generous amount of money Nadia offers. One weekend soons turns into another as the lies and deception multiply. Gripping, fast paced, and laced with an impending sense of doom, the novel proves once again that German author Hammesfahr (The Sinner, 2008) is a master of the psychological thriller. Those who read The Sinner will be thrilled with another high-quality offering; those new to Hammesfahr will soon understand her popularity in Germany.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

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