Problem Child

by Victoria Helen Stone

Overview

She’s cold, calculating, and can deceive with a smile. Jane Doe is back in the Amazon Charts bestselling series—and this time she’s met her match.

After a brutal childhood, Jane Doe has been permanently wired to look after herself and only herself. Now, looking next to normal, Jane has a lover and a job. But she hasn’t lost her edge. It sharpens when she hears from her estranged family.

Jane’s deeply troubled sixteen-year-old niece, Kayla, has vanished, and no one seems to care. Neither does Jane. Until she sees a picture of Kayla and recognizes herself in the young girl’s eyes. It’s the empty stare of a sociopath.

Jane knows what vengeful and desperate things Kayla is capable of. Only Jane can help her—by being drawn into Kayla’s dark world. And no one’s more aware than Jane just how dangerous that can be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542014397
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	03/24/2020
Series:	A Jane Doe Thriller
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Victoria Helen Stone, formerly writing as USA Today bestselling novelist Victoria Dahl, is originally from the Midwest but now writes from an upstairs office high in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. After a career in romance that included the American Library Association’s prestigious Reading List Award, she turned toward the darker side of fiction and has written the critically acclaimed novels Evelyn, After; Half Past; and False Step. Her Amazon Charts bestselling thriller Jane Doe has been optioned by Sony Television. For more on the author and her work, visit www.VictoriaHelenStone.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/03/2020

Stone’s outstanding sequel to 2018’s Jane Doe finds Minneapolis attorney Jane, a sociopathic antihero, taking pleasure in destroying the career of a legal colleague who stole credit for her work; she’s also settled in a steady relationship with her sweet boyfriend, Luke. When Luke suggests they move in together, Jane is so upset she decides to leave town. The news that her 16-year-old niece, Kayla Stringer, “a spooky, cold-blooded bitch” like Jane herself, has disappeared provides her with the pretext to go to Oklahoma, where she first visits her brother, Kayla’s father, who’s indifferent to his daughter’s fate. In her search for the missing teen, she behaves in various socially unacceptable ways. Stone flips the murderous, dead-inside sociopath stereotype on its head with a successful narrator, who, though she doesn’t care for others, is practical and self-aware, showing decadent, almost inappropriate delight, for example, in delicious food. Readers will find vicarious joy in Jane’s petty vengeances and unabashed meanness to anyone who tries to take advantage of her. Stone turns some very dark material into an upbeat tale. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

…Outstanding…Readers will find vicarious joy in Jane’s petty vengeances and unabashed meanness to anyone who tries to take advantage of her. Stone turns some very dark material into an upbeat tale.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This installment is highly recommended for fans of edgier psychological fiction.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

Narrator Nicol Zanzarella turns her talents to portraying a powerful female sociopath in this new mystery audiobook. Jane Doe is a successful attorney who is well aware of her inability to read emotional cues. Though she has trained herself to appropriately respond to those around her, not even she knows how to respond when her abusive family comes calling, claiming that a niece Jane has never met has gone missing. Zanzarella does the nearly impossible and portrays Jane in a way that makes the listener care about her. Zanzarella is able to take a character who is specifically designed to be unlikable and make the listener eager to find out if she will make it out of an increasingly dangerous situation. V.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MAY 2020 - AudioFile