S.J. Watson, author of the novel-turned-film Before I Go to Sleep, provides yet another twisty psychological thriller with Second Life, the story of an online relationship that curdles into something sinister. Bucking the trend of recent thrillers in the Gone Girl vein, Watson's protagonist Julia is a fairly reliable and likable narrator whose lonely, intense perspective provides a valuable anchor for the reader as events begin to teeter on the edge of believability.
Watson kicks off the narrative with the murder of Julia's estranged sister, Kate, in a Paris alleyway. The police have no leads, and when Julia discovers that Kate had frequented various hook-up websites, she decides to sign up and explore the unknown (to her) realms of online sex in an attempt to dig up clues about her sister's murder. To reveal much more about the plot would subtract from the book's page-turning pleasures, but suffice it to say that an intense online relationship quickly becomes more Fatal Attraction than A Room with a View.
Second Life dabbles in a fair amount of forbidden fruit-style eroticism, even playing up the illicitness of Internet relationships in a way that might seem dated to younger readers. However, Watson succeeds so admirably in delivering the perfect combination of titillation and fear that the novel begs to be consumed in one or two tense sittings. A highly entertaining book about escapism and voyeurism, Second Life is pure, fearful fun. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books