"Misery Loves Company" by Rene Gutteridge

A grief-stricken widow, Juliet Belleno rarely leaves her house. She spends her time working on her blog, and she loves writing book reviews. Her favorite author is Patrick Reagan, and Jules is disappointed when his latest bestseller leaves her with an unfavorable impression. She shares the following thought with her readers: "Don't tell me it's terrifying. Terrify me."

When she wakes up tied to a bed with her own words scrawled across the ceiling, Jules can't believe it. Patrick Reagan has kidnapped her and intends to take her up on her challenge. Tucked away at his remote writing cabin, will the world even notice that this near-agoraphobic woman is missing?

Police officer Chris Downey, former partner of Juliet's husband, is called to investigate Jules' disappearance by her father, but his alcoholism makes him a questionable source of info at best. There's no evidence that Jules did anything besides perhaps take a trip out of town. Feeling he's failed his partner by not keeping a better eye on his widow, Chris digs into matters beyond his official capacity and begins to run into strange roadblocks which only pique his curiosity further.

As the days pass, Jules is trying to figure out the mind games Patrick is playing with her. Why is he asking her to critique the novel he's working on? Why does he have inside information on her husband's murder? What does the yet-unpublished debut author Blake Timble have to do with anything? The layers of plot kept me quickly turning pages to unravel the mystery.

If you've followed me here at my book review blog, you might know that this is not the kind of book I usually pick up. I'm not a fan of any kind of scary suspense. However, someone assured me that this story wasn't creepy, and as a reviewer myself I was highly intrigued to see the story Rene Gutteridge would weave around one of my kind, as it were. I thought it was well done! She also did a good job bringing faith into a desperate situation where neither of the main characters knew much about Jesus to start with. If you enjoy a good mystery this is one you're sure to like!