The Stranger Game - Hardcover

"Beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the invisible ties that bind us-even to strangers." —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Engrossing.... Those with a taste for the offbeat will find this well worth reading." —Publishers Weekly

"A phenomenal mystery novel filled with action and a story line that makes you think about human interaction." —The Oklahoman

“A game of following random strangers, shared in a magazine article, becomes a worldwide cult and ends up getting people killed. (Go figure.) Each “following” is a vignette in itself, adding irresistible color — you can understand how the game could be addictive. But there’s also a melancholy undercurrent about alienation. If you like James Sallis (I do) you’ll enjoy the philosophical asides.” —The News & Observer

"This is Patricia Highsmith-style suspense, edgy and a little dreamy, with a sense of uncertainty lurking everywhere." —Booklist

"The Stranger Game is a sharp-toothed commentary on the ways in which ‘following’ can foster a pretense of intimacy between strangers, and how the falsity of this intimacy—its utter lack of substance—often creates a perilous hunger for more: more access, more communion, more knowledge. It's also a fun, moody, twisty thriller, with a sun-touched, West Coast vibe...as much Joan Didion as Patricia Highsmith.” —Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins

“‘Following’ gets a whole new meaning in Peter Gadol’s stylish psychological thriller set in the future of the day-after-tomorrow. A moody, increasingly dangerous house of mirrors where the rules morph as his players become more obsessed with ‘the stranger game.’” —Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander and The Revolution of Marina M.

“The Stranger Game is a gripping and nuanced novel that asks whom we trust and why. It is about being an insider and an outsider, about being watched and, finally being truly seen." —Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and No One is Here Except All of Us

“Imagine a metaphysical thriller inspired by Patrick Modiano and illustrated by Giorgio Di Chirico and you’ll have an idea of this enigmatic novel, The Stranger Game.” —Edmund White

“The ingenious conceit of Peter Gadol's novel—to literalize our obsession with on-line following—yields a psychological thriller that brilliantly exposes the state-of-the-culture, one in which we have traded authentic emotional connection for a virtual one whose implications for the soul are troubling. Like the best of Highsmith and Hitchcock rolled into one, The Stranger Game is a compulsively absorbing and thought-provoking triumph.” —Marisa Silver, author of Little Nothing and Mary Coin

“If you've ever spent time people watching, or if you yourself have ever felt watched or followed, you'll see yourself in Peter Gadol's The Stranger Game--and it will unnerve you. This is the perfect novel for a world in which real human connection is so elusive." —Will Allison, author of Long Drive Home