'WITH MY LITTLE EYE'....A STALK TO REMEMBER....

 With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson (2023)

           I'm well aware of all the books, films and TV episodes that deal with that ever popular suspense generator - celebrities endangered and driven into fear-stricken anxiety by unhinged stalkers obsessed with them.

           What can I say? I'm a sucker for all of them, and like everyone else, I demand a seriously loathsome, psychotic stalker whose surprise identity, once revealed, will stun me.......and I also would ask for a hopefully sympathetic, vulnerable celebrity victim, somebody worth fearing for and rooting for.  While authors of stalker=thrillers usually never forget to dial up the psychosis on their villains, not all of these books present a celeb you can care about. 

             Joshilyn Jackson does well enough in that department. Her bedeviled celeb Meribel Mills is cleverly conceived as no giant superstar - she's only  a mid-level working actress, carving out a career of playing secondary, but unforgettable roles in TV shows and movies, achieving a moderate amount of fame. But unfortunately, it's enough fame to attract a murderous lunatic who's sending her creepy, threatening anonymous letters right out of the stalker handbook. Hoping to avoid this loon's attention and potential proximity, Meribel accepts a series role filmed in her home town Atlanta, taking along Honor, her adopted, autistic 12 year old daughter.

               And guess who hits the road to come right after them.....to make Miribel his and his alone.

               When the terrorizing and scary letters resume in Atlanta, there's no shortage of men popping up in Meribel's life to choose from as suspects -  a mysterious heavy-set guy in a raincoat on the street,  the friendly next door neighbor in her apartment building, the bodyguard=security expert who's an ex-boyfriend she still feels for, and her Atlanta-based, now remarried ex-husband....on whom Mirbel's practiced a bit of innocent, amateur stalking herself. 

                  As I'd expect and require in a thrill-ride like this, the pages fly by quickly, leading to the finale jaw-dropping reveals and excruciating nail-biting,  encounter between Meribel and her odious tormentor.  The genuine double-whammy of an extra twist that author Jackson throws into the finale comes a little too close to far-fetched overkill, but I couldn't help but admire the sheer audacity of it.  

                  Besides, I surely don't pick up stalk-o-ramas like "With My Little Eye" for their documentary-like reality. I'm looking for nothing less than a 5 star(*****) armchair theme-park ride with loads of hairpin turns.  And this one's just the ticket. 
                  
                   
                 
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