Creep

Jennifer Hillier is a suspense author that I can trust for a twisty, dark, and engaging read. After loving some of her previous books, I decided to dive into her backlist and read her debut, Creep.

Creep is a psychological thriller with an erotic vibe that follows Dr. Sheila Tao, a psychology professor who is engaged to be married, has a secret she'd rather keep quiet and an affair with a student that goes sour and threatens all that she holds dear.

The story feels a bit like you're watching a movie and despite its erotic and dark themes, the book isn't gory or sexually explicit. Readers witness the investigation into Sheila's disappearance as well as Sheila's perspective as she's held captive. There's tension but not to the extent that I've come to expect in her more recent books and the story, at times, feels a bit drawn out and implausible but Hillier turns things on its head with a great twist that I didn't see coming.

While I had an earworm of Radiohead's song Creep stuck in my head for days afterwards, I'm glad I finally got a chance to read this book. It is an impressive debut from an author who has quickly become one of my favourite Canadian thriller authors. I look forward to reading the second book, Freak which is already on my kindle so I can see where Hillier takes this story next. 

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Jennifer Hillier

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Series: 1st book in Creep series

Type and Source: eBook, personal copy

Publisher: Gallery Books

First Published: January 1, 2011

Book Description from GoodReads: Pulsing with the dark obsession of Radiohead’s song “Creep,” this taut thriller—Jennifer Hillier’s superb debut—rockets from its seductive opening to a heartpounding climax not easily forgotten.

If he can’t have her . . .

Dr. Sheila Tao is a professor of psychology. An expert in human behavior. And when she began an affair with sexy, charming graduate student Ethan Wolfe, she knew she was playing with fire. Consumed by lust when they were together, riddled with guilt when they weren’t, she knows the three-month fling with her teaching assistant has to end. After all, she’s finally engaged to a kind and loving investment banker who adores her, and she’s taking control of her life. But when she attempts to end the affair, Ethan Wolfe won’t let her walk away.

. . . no one else can.

Ethan has plans for Sheila, plans that involve posting a sex video that would surely get her fired and destroy her prestigious career. Plans to make her pay for rejecting him. And as she attempts to counter his every threatening move without her colleagues or her fiancé discovering her most intimate secrets, a shattering crime rocks Puget Sound State University: a female student, a star athlete, is found stabbed to death. Someone is raising the stakes of violence, sex, and blackmail . . . and before she knows it, Sheila is caught in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with the lover she couldn’t resist—who is now the monster who won’t let her go.