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  • The Opposite of Murder by Sophie Hannah book cover
  • The Opposite of Murder by Sophie Hannah book cover
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The Opposite of Murder

by Sophie Hannah

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A confession before the crime

$18.54 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Author recognition

    New York Times bestselling author

    The metadata identifies Sophie Hannah as a New York Times bestselling author.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A confession before the crime

Jemma Stelling goes to the police before anything has happened, afraid she may kill her stepmother. Then news arrives that her stepmother has been murdered in the manner Jemma described. That collision between a stated fear and a matching crime gives the mystery its central puzzle: Jemma has an alibi, yet her account seems to connect her to the killing. The setup turns on the gap between what a person says they might do and what the evidence appears to show. Framed as a police procedural, the book centers on questions of motive, opportunity, and whether Jemma’s confession is an attempt to prevent violence—or part of something more calculated.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers who enjoy police-procedural mysteries.
  • Readers interested in puzzles built around an apparent alibi and suspicious foreknowledge.
  • Readers looking for a crime story centered on a conflicted suspect.

Themes

Confession and responsibilityMotive and opportunitySuspicion and innocence

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

The perfect alibi. The perfect motive. The perfect lie?

Jemma Stelling walks into a police station and confesses--not to a murder she's committed, but to the one she's terrified she might. Jemma can't stop herself from thinking about murdering her stepmother, Marianne Upton. The only way to stop herself might be to confess before she snaps and does the unthinkable.

But while Jemma is still giving her statement, a call comes in: Marianne has just been found stabbed to death, killed in exactly the way Jemma described. Suddenly, the woman desperate to prevent a murder has an unshakeable alibi... and a disturbingly accurate description of the crime she couldn't have committed. Is Jemma an innocent bystander? Or a brilliant, cold-blooded killer who planned everything down to the minute?

In The Opposite of Murder, New York Times bestselling author Sophie Hannah unveils another mind-bending mystery--an impossible puzzle guaranteed to hold readers spellbound to the very end.

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