Jane Doe (A Jane Doe Thriller)

"My cat appears and rubs her cheek against me in approval. She understands exactly. The kill is fun, but toying with your prey is really the best part."

Jane Doe is the first book in the Jane Doe series by best-selling American author, Victoria Helen Stone (also writing as Victoria Dahl). This attractive attorney has departed Kuala Lumpur, taking leave from her prestigious position for an American import/export company, to return to Minneapolis. Jane is now living in a rundown apartment in a poor part of town and working as a low-paid data-entry clerk.

A middle manager at the same Minnestoa insurance company, Steven Hepsworth is blissfully unaware that he is Jane's target. Jane describes how she will insinuate her way into Steven's life, (the pursuit will be his idea) and take from him everything he holds dear. Jane is a psychopath and, once she has him properly hooked, Steven will feel her wrath. Jane's best (and only real) friend is dead, and Steven has to pay.

While she's busy setting Steven up for his fall: "Maybe I'll destroy his family. Maybe I'll set him up for embezzlement. Maybe I'll kill him. I'll find what's most important to him and then I'll take it away", she runs into Luke, a friend from college, and decides some short-term sex will relieve the frustrations that selfish, belittling Steven elicits in her as she bides her time and bites her tongue. But with Luke, she connects. Could she be a real person?

Jane understands she is a sociopath, analyses her own behaviour and reactions, knows no guilt or empathy, but does deeply miss her friend. It's truly fascinating to watch Jane in action as she lays her trap. She clearly knows how to play a man, how to take advantage of his insecurities, and Stone paints Steven as sufficiently sanctimonious and toxic that the reader will likely be cheering Jane on. Jane is deliciously wicked and her inner monologue is often blackly funny. More of this brilliantly dark protagonist will be most welcome.