Phantom

De: Helen Power, Eunice Wong

Narrado por: Rachel Fulginiti

Would you sell your hand for a million dollars?

Regan "Roz" Osbourne is broke. Her ex-boyfriend won't take no for an answer, and no one is taking her artwork seriously. So when a mysterious stranger offers her a million dollars and safety from her unstable ex in exchange for her left hand, she can't afford to refuse.

Immediately following the amputation, she's racked with insufferable phantom limb pain. Desperate for relief, she enrolls in an experimental drug trial. But this drug has a peculiar side effect—she develops a psychic connection to her missing limb. She soon discovers that Chicago's long-dormant Phantom Strangler is now wearing her hand and is using it . . . to kill.

©2023 Helen Power (P)2023 CamCat Books

Such an enjoyable scifi/thriller

I love the cover for this one, and I really enjoyed The Ghosts of Thorwald Place, so I wanted to get into this one ASAP.

I was interested in this novel right off the bat. The blurb sounds much more like a scifi thriller than a horror, but I figured we’d still get elements of darkness. Would you sell your hand for a million dollars? I have to be honest, I thought “it wouldn’t be that bad” more than once. You’d still have a hand to use! And you’d have $1,000,000! What could go wrong?

Let me tell you, it wouldn’t be all sunshines and daisies. Regan thought like me and then she started suffering from intense pains. Pains in her hand…that was no longer there. While that phenomenon is real, the author takes it and gives it a more scifi spin. It’s dark and eerie, and has so many what-ifs attached to it that it will make you sick.

I really enjoyed the doubled meaning of phantom, as the novel also features a serial killer on the loose known as the Phantom Strangler. Now I did guess the twist VERY early on, but that didn’t suck the fun out of it for me, because even as someone that reads (and even writes) mysteries, I am seldom right somehow. So the verification kept it going for me.

Personally a 4/5*! Well written and a very enjoyable unlikable liked main character, in a kind of Jessica Jones-y way.

Even better than her first novel

I thought the author's first novel was great. This one is even better. The flawed protagonist, the well hidden villain, and the complex plot all combine for a thrilling listen. The narrators also do a great job.