Although I had chosen to set off without checking out the synopsis, Her Every Fear gave me the impression that it falls under a tired concept in suspense in which a woman goes to inhabit a strange, new place (I mean, come on: look at the cover and the title); a couple of chapters later, I discovered I was right. My excitement waned a little. This is, after all, a work written by Peter Swanson, also author of the highly acclaimed (by my friends, at least) novel The Kind Worth Killing, which, by the way, has been sitting in my to-read list for a long time now. Despite the setback, this novel proved to be at the very least entertaining in a way that propels the reader to finish it at once to see how things would meet at the end. Not that there was much guessing that needed to be done, because even before the backstories were narrated, I had known who had done it; and known that the protagonist would either kill him, get him killed, or have him arrested (typical endings for hero-killer stories, but with Her Every Fear I was certain that the former was more likely; otherwise we'd have a sequel, and judging by the lack of attention it has received, I doubt it). The only thing left for guesswork was The Why--the murderer's motive for the murder. It was what kept me reading, and when finally given away, it blew my mind. I'm not supposed to be sexualizing people's relationships, especially fictional, for fear that someone would accuse me of being weird, but between you and me, Corbin and Henry is a thing. XD I half-expected a scene where Henry would make a pass at Corbin, and the latter, bearing high regards for the former, would succumb. It never happened, much to my disappointment. Hahaha. Three stars because I think the style of narration (excessive flashbacks that I believe could have been more effective had they been taken in a different aspect; say, as the first part of the story with aliases, instead of scattering the characters' memories all over the story line) ruined whatever potential Her Every Fear had (for me, anyway). I'm a strong believer of this creative writing rule: If you are writing too much background of the story, you are writing the wrong story. It's like enjoying a walk along the aisles of a department store, only to be interrupted by salespersons explaining why you should buy this and buy that. I'm perfectly capable of doing that, thank you very much.