Fool Her Once
These reviews just posted:
“This story grabbed me from the start and I couldn’t put it down. The twists and turns were excellent and they keep you guessing all the way through… There are many issues explored in this novel and the characters are well developed and believable. It is a stunning thriller!” Diane Elizabeth/Goodreads.com
“This book is the first novel that I have read from Joanna Elm, but I love her writing style and the realistic elements she adds to her characters and her scenes… None of Elm’s characters are perfect. Each one has issues, flaws, and secrets. The novel offers some realistic elements of human nature for readers to consider as the book progresses…” Angela/bookcornernewsandreviews.com
” A skillfully and cleverly written crime thriller that had my eyes and mind glued to the pages…The chapters expertly go from past to present and the ending was not one I was expecting at all but I truly loved it and it all made sense. A first rate crime thriller that I recommend all crime lovers read.” Leanne/Goodreads.com
“The story had me hooked from the first page. I was already in love with the book from the blurb and I’m glad the book lived up to it… The author does a wonderful job of giving out just enough information while withholding other information to spring on you later. I didn’t want to put this book down at night because I wanted to find out what happened next!” Sheri/My Reading Getaway
“In typical noir fashion, the characters are flawed, real, and many times unlikeable, but so very memorable. This book would make a wonderful book club choice, as there are so many debatable choices, repercussions for actions, and thoughts of “what if.” I recommend Fool Her Once to all lovers of intense psychological thrillers, well-told tales, and literary fiction.” Gina Rae Mitchell
Excerpt
Fool Her Once was released on March 1, 2022 in hardcover, e-book and audio book. It is now available as a trade paperback from all major book retailers as well as your favorite independent bookstore. You can also of course purchase it in any version online.
You can read a seven-chapter excerpt from my latest thriller here in the Amazon “Look Inside” feature.
And/or you can check out all my Goodreads reviews here.
And check out the accolades and reviews below.
Accolades For Fool Her Once
A Publishers Weekly “notable” mystery/thriller pick for Spring 2022:
Palm Beach Book Festival‘s 2022 Best Thriller
Reviews & Blurbs for Fool Her Once
[A] well-constructed mystery… Elm provides some nice misdirection and loads the plot with liars and murky, shifting motives… Readers will be satisfied —Publishers Weekly
Fool Her Once, a psychological thriller … takes twist-and-turn to a dizzying level as characters continually reveal new aspects of themselves or are found to be hiding facts about their pasts… What also recommends it is its setting, the North Fork from Cutchogue to Orient to Robins Island and the waterways in between. It’s obvious the author knows the area well, and loves it. — Joan Baum, Southampton Press, The Express News Group
Elm returns with a captivating psychological thriller […] Rachel Fulginiti’s precise narration complements the story’s building suspense […] Share widely with listeners looking for well-crafted and compelling mysteries —Library Journal
Deadly secrets from the past catch up with a tabloid reporter in this fascinating thriller from former tabloid journalist Joanna Elm. Full of stunning twists and surprises, and you won’t see the ending coming. Read it! —R.G. Belsky, award-winning author of It’s News To Me (Book#5 in the Clare Carlson mystery series)
This terrific thriller mixes blood and ink and cuts right from the veins of Elm’s days as a gritty Fleet Street investigative reporter on the London Evening News and as a writer/producer for America’s top tabloid TV show, A Current Affair, back in its sensational heyday… Finely-tuned with great pace and suspense, Elm puts all of herself into her gutsy heroine, rookie tabloid reporter Jenna Sinclair, who outed Denny Dennison, the illegitimate son of a serial killer… In this riveting stunner, which I couldn’t put down, Elm takes us on a wild ride from New York City to remote parts of coastal Long Island and to Florida —Barry Levine, author of The Spider and All the President’s Women is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated veteran investigative reporter and editor, and Huffington Post “Game Changer” award winner.
Joanna Elm has masterfully crafted a stunning thriller that has it all: a beautifully flawed protagonist who we can’t help but root for; a complex antagonist with a tragic past; a setting alive with vivid details, and a gripping story with cascading tension that explodes in the well-earned climax. Well done, Elm—Gregory Lee Renz, author of Beneath The Flames.
Shame that my Cape Cod friend, the author, Mary Higgins Clark, isn’t alive to share a ladies lunch with Joanna Elm and me. Mary would have loved Joanna…loved ‘Jenna,’ the heroine at the helm of her prose; the way her writing intricately weaves lovers, both former and present, in such a way that any one of them could be suspect for murder. There are many suspense novels out there about unstable women, but ‘Jenna’ is NOT one of them. Fool Her Once, perhaps…fool her twice, not so nice…and then some. — Lois Cahall, #1 bestselling author, Plan C: Just In Case; Founder, The Palm Beach Book Festival.
Joanna Elm’s Fool Her Once is an expertly crafted crime thriller that grabs the reader from the start and doesn’t let go. Jenna Sinclair, an investigative journalist whose marriage is in tatters, finds herself being sucked into a perilous situation because of a serial killer story she wrote decades prior… Elm masterfully unwinds the plot, letting readers in on the truth gradually until they realize the mortal danger that Jenna faces, even before Jenna herself comprehends the shocking truth. Fans of crime thrillers will love Fool Her Once.– Susan Ouellette, award-winning author, The Wayward Spy, The Wayward Assassin.
One of the books I most looked forward to reading this year and it didn’t disappoint!! Joanna Elm has crafted a real gem here – one that will remind you of the joy in reading. From the tense slow-burn beginning, through that jaw-dropping twist in the middle (seriously still picking mine up off the floor) right until the terrifying conclusion. Joanna demonstrates her firm grasp on the art of writing and never fails to entertain. It may be light on action but this is something the genre demands. True psychological thrillers toy with your mind to keep you turning those pages, and Fool Her Once certainly does that. — Eldon Farrell, author of The Last Goodbye, Primeval (with co-author, Connor Farrell.)
Best antagonist I’ve read in so long and wonderful settings — Rachel Fulginiti, narrator of Fool Her Once audiobook.
OTHER BOOKS by Joanna Elm
Scandal, published by Tor/Forge in 1996, as an original paperback, was Joanna Elm’s first mystery thriller.
“Fresh, original and unpredictable” – Nelson DeMille, bestselling author.
“Elm [… ] has a vivid writing style and solid narrative ability” – Publishers Weekly.
Delusion, was published in hardcover,by Tor/Forge in 1997. The paperback edition was published in 1998.
Delusion is available for kindle at http://amazon.com/dp/0812564804
“The plot’s the thing here as Elm hurls one curveball after another.” – Publishers Weekly
“Grabs hold and doesn’t let go until the final page is turned.” – Robert K. Tanenbaum, bestselling author
“A classy book by a classy writer.”- William Heffernan, author of The Dinosaur Club.
Both Scandal and Delusion are translated into Japanese.