The Girl in the Mirror

On the day my novel The Night Swim was released back in August, the city where I live in Australia was put under the toughest lockdown in the world. So it was a wonderful escape to immerse myself in the pages of The Girl in the Mirror and travel vicariously through its characters—from the beaches of tropical northern Australia, to the translucent Andaman Sea in Thailand (one of my favorite travel destinations), all the way to the Seychelles.

But if luxurious travel alone isn't enough to make you snag this book, then let's talk about the plot. Identical twin sisters Iris and Summer are mirror images of each other, but while Iris has no marriage prospects, Summer has a gorgeous (not to mention wealthy) husband. When Summer disappears in a freak yachting accident, Iris poses as her sister by pretending that she (Iris) was the twin who had gone overboard. Why? Because their millionaire father has offered his $100 million inheritance to the first married daughter to produce an heir. And now, living as Summer, Iris is one step closer.

Throw into the mix a too-good-to-be-true husband with unexpected sexual fetishes and a missing person case on the high seas, and you have all the ingredients of a twisted and compulsively readable domestic suspense story. When reality gets you down, a jet-setting thriller is the ultimate escape, and that’s why I loved this novel.

Twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beyond what the eye can see lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of Summer’s seemingly never-ending good fortune, including her perfect husband Adam.

Called to Thailand to help her sister sail the family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris nurtures her own secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But when she unexpectedly finds herself alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes. When she makes it to land, Iris allows herself to be swept up by Adam, who assumes that she is Summer.

Iris recklessly goes along with his mistake. Not only does she finally have the golden life she’s always envied, with her sister gone, she’s one step closer to the hundred-million-dollar inheritance left by her manipulative father. All Iris has to do is be the first of his seven children to produce an heir.

Iris’s “new” life lurches between glamorous dream and paranoid nightmare. On the edge of being exposed, how far will she go to ensure no one discovers the truth?

And just what did happen to Summer on the yacht? Only Iris knows...