Book Review: Every Step She Takes by Kelley Armstrong

Every Step She Takes
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication: Doubleday Canada (June 30, 2020)

Description: Genevieve has secrets that no one knows. In Rome she can be whoever she wants to be. Her neighbors aren’t nosy; her Italian is passable; the shopkeepers and restaurant owners now see her as a local, and they let her be. It’s exactly what she wants.

One morning, after getting groceries, she returns to her 500-year-old Trastevere apartment. She climbs to the very top of the staircase, the steps narrowing the higher she goes. When she gets to her door, she puts down her bags and pushes the key into the lock . . .

. . . and the door swings open.

It’s unlocked. Sometimes she doesn’t lock it because Rome is pretty safe. But Genevieve knows she locked the door this morning. She has no doubt.

What if someone is in her apartment, waiting for her: She should leave, call the police. But she doesn’t. Instead, she goes in.

The apartment is empty, and exactly as she left it . . . except for the box on her kitchen table. A box that definitely wasn’t there this morning. A box postmarked from New York City. A box that is addressed to “Lucy Callahan.”

A name she hasn’t used in ten years.

My Thoughts: This standalone thriller by Kelley Armstrong is a real page turner. Genevieve Callahan is on the run from something. She has spent the last few years in Italy where she is building a new life. She teaches music and plays in a number of musical groups. She has a great boyfriend named Marco but she isn't ready to commit to him. Life is happy and satisfying.

But that all changes when a package is delivered to her apartment that indicates that someone knows about her past. The past where she was accused of sleeping with a married movie star Colt Gordon. The online furor painted her as the villain of the piece and hounded her almost to the point of suicide. 

What happened was pretty simple. Lucy, as she was known then, got a job as the summer music tutor for Colt Gordon and Isabella Morales' children. She took the job because she admired Isabella who has a career as a star of telenovellas before she married Colt. Lucy looked up to her as a hero. She wasn't interested in Colt and, in fact, didn't even recognize his name when a music professor of hers at Julliard proposed her for the job.

But Colt was going through a mid-life crisis. At his anniversary party, he plied her with champagne and took her to a neighbor's hot tub where he came on to her. A mistimed photo by a paparazzi made her seem like a home wrecker. She wrote a letter of apology to Isabella and received a letter filled with vitriol in return.

Now, fourteen years later, Isabella wants to meet and offers her a paid vacation to New York to talk with her. Seems Isabella wants to tell the real story of what happened all those years ago. Genevieve doesn't want to bring all those horrible memories back but says she'll think about it. When she goes to Isabella's hotel the next morning, she finds her dead with the police knocking on the door.

She panics and goes on the run. She knows she's being framed for killing Isobella and doesn't want to trust the police and bring on all the new publicity. She has no one she can trust. The lawyer her mother steers her to has set up with the police and reporters to turn her in. When she gets a text from someone using the name PCTracy who offers to help, she thinks it is someone connected to the lawyer. She doesn't trust him but she needs his help.

But someone wants her frightened or dead and they aren't going to stop harassing her. 

This was an excellent and fast-paced story. I couldn't put it down! I loved Gen and totally understood why she felt she couldn't go to the police. Her sense of helplessness and total confusion about who would want to do that to her came through well.

I completely recommend this to anyone who likes a good thriller. 

Favorite Quote:

She nods. "Circe tempting Odysseus, while Penelope keeps the home fires burning. Never mind that Odysseus chose to stay with Circe for a year -- and she was only one of many women he slept with on his way home. We are all Circe or Penelope. Whore or Madonna. Never Odysseus. Never the hero of the tale."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.