Review Mister Tender's Girl by Carter Wilson

Kerry Hammond is here to tell us about the latest book that kept her up reading into the small hours.

Mr. Tender’s Girl is the sixth thriller by author CarterWilson and was just released on February 13 by Sourcebooks Landmark Publishers. Each of Wilson’s books are standalone thrillers and several have won awards, both national and international.

In Mister Tender’s Girl we meet Alice, who at the age of fourteen was brutally stabbed by two neighbor girls, the Glassin twins. The twins were obsessed with the character in a graphic novel, Mister Tender, and told the police that they stabbed Alice to please him because he promised them fame. Mister Tender was as charming as he was devious. He worked as a bartender and when he would chat people up he had a way of convincing them to do things they might not normally do. He was an instigator, and Alice paid the price. The sad twist to the whole thing is that Mister Tender was created by Alice’s father.

Now, a decade later, Alice is a continent away from that park in England where she was stabbed. She has changed her last name and tried to move on. But near the anniversary of her stabbing, she learns that someone is still watching her, and they know everything about her. They know her past and they also know her every move in the present. She has two options: she can be the victim again, or she can fight and figure out who is stalking her and why.

The book is full of one twist after another and I read it in two sittings (the second keeping me up way past my bedtime). Wilson’s ability to create strange and intriguing storylines is amazing. I found this one to be very Stephen King-esque and it had me gripped from page one. I’m sure naming his main character Alice was no coincidence. Mister Tender’s Alice was certainly down a rabbit hole, but her world wasn't quite as surreal. For her it was very real and very dangerous.

I’m always amazed when a book or movie contains an embedded story, song, or play that is written for plot. Harry Potter and his friends read The Tales of Beedle the Bard and that eventually came out as a book. I’m secretly hoping that the Mister Tender graphic novel is someday put to print.

For those who like to see great books hit the big and small screen, the author’s website says that the book is under option for a TV series.