'The Hand That Feeds You', by A.J. Rich

The Hand That Feeds You, A.J. Rich (3.0)

This book has an interesting genesis: two authors (Amy Hempel, Jill Ciment) got together to write a story their recently deceased friend had envisioned. She was the non-fiction writer, Katherine Russell Rich. Their take on her somewhat autobiographical tale is this book – by the pseudonym, A. J. Rich. The story revolves around a researcher who comes home to find her fiancée dead in her apartment, allegedly mauled by her 3 dogs. As she copes with his death and tries to understand how something so dreadful could happen, she realizes that her fiancée is not who he portrayed himself. He had played a long running ruse on her, with very dangerous consequences. Apparently Katherine Rich had also been conned by a boyfriend, though escaping the situation before any such tragedy occurred. The story is very fast paced, as the reader tries to uncover what really happened and why. I was disappointed in some scenes of gratuitous sex jarringly thrown into the book – I read later that the authors were told that ‘sex sells’ in fiction. Unfortunately I also figured out the big surprise before the climax of the book – which is always rather disappointing. Luckily I read this book very quickly so the disappointment was short-lived.