Audiobook Review: How Can I Help You | Laura Sims

Laura Sims’ novel How Can I Help You is one of the most strangely, twisted, delightful books I’ve read lately! I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, and I was pleasantly surprised! A former nurse has reinvented her life as a librarian in a small, sleepy town library. When an aspiring novelist joins the library staff, the two begin a game of cat and mouse. But who is the cat and who is the mouse?

About the Book | How Can I Help You

Characters

Margo was originally a nurse named Jane who ran from her last position mid-shift when they caught her doing something she shouldn’t. Her former friend who turned her in was Donna. She now works as a librarian in a small library in Carlyle, Illinois under her new name. The other library staff include Yvonne (the Director), Liz, and Nasrin.

Patricia is the new reference librarian. She’s an aspiring novelist who has tried to stop writing after failing to get her novel published. Her boyfriend is Dan and he still lives in Chicago. Patricia feels Dan didn’t really support her writing nor her decision to accept the library job in Carlyle.

Plot

A razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.

No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.

That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.

Taut and compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature and the dangerous pull of artistic obsession. (Synoposis from Goodreads)

Audiobook

While the text version of this book would be great (I started in text and switched to audio)—the audiobook really brought it to life. The book is told from the POV of both Margo and Patricia, and the audiobook uses a narrator for each character. Carlotta Brentan and Maggi-Meg Reed both deliver expert performances and brought their characters to life.

Book Review | How Can I Help You

Jane was a nurse who was beloved by her colleagues and patients. Until they started to catch on to a suspicious number of deaths while Jane was on staff. A number that can’t quite be ignored… When her friend Donna is the one who comes in on Jane with a patient and sounds the alarm, Jane not only feels betrayed, she knows it’s time to go. So, she leaves, driving in her car, shedding her blond hair for brunette, and settles in a sleepy town where she becomes someone completely new. She becomes Margo, the librarian.

Margo (originally Jane, but she goes by Margo for the story of the book) is one of the most delightful characters I’ve read in ages. Margo is so strange, devious, and damaged. Throughout the book we get glimpses of Margo’s past as Jane, from her childhood where a fire destroyed her home and parents, to her time as a nurse being “asked” to leave the hospital for a new one until finally her friend gets her in the act and she’s forced to leave.

Margo is a tall, imposing figure. She wears her hair tied back in a bun now. She’s adopted her librarian personal fully. She’s spent two years at the library, in fact, without incident. She finds a strange joy interacting with “Friday Guy”—a man who watches racy adult entertainment on the library computers on Fridays until Margo goes over to reprimand him. He is part of Margo’s routine. The other librarians are in awe of how Margo handles him, because none of them want to deal with him.

When a new reference librarian is hired, Jane is fascinated by her. She reminds Jane of her former friend, Donna. Donna was the one who Jane feels most betrayed by. Jane liked Donna so much that she let a few things slip, and Donna was the one who eventually caught her and turned her in. The new reference librarian Patricia (pronounced, as we are reminded regularly, Puh-tree-see-ah) looks nothing like Donna. Patricia is tall, beautiful, and young with raven-colored hair, smart glasses, and dressing mostly in black. She recently graduated with her masters in Library Sciences in Chicago and accepted this job after failing to get her novel published.

Margo senses something in Patricia the moment she meets her. She’s Donna but she’s not Donna. Patricia is clearly out of her element in the library, despite her degree. Nothing about the reality of the job is similar to what she was taught. Meanwhile Patricia spends her time trying to separate herself from her failed attempt at being a writer and to avoid her boyfriend she left behind in Chicago, who she felt was smothering her and didn’t really support her writing when she tried it.

When Patricia walks in on Margo in a strange position with a patron on the floor of the bathroom—a patron who has died—she isn’t sure what to make of what she saw. Yet when the police question her about the incident, she keeps what she saw to herself. The incident made Patricia feel inspired for the first time in a while, and she quickly captures what she saw in story format in a notebook. As the weeks go on, Patricia can’t help but feel fascinated by Margo, and continues to write stories inspired by her in her notebook.

Meanwhile Margo is equally fascinated by Patricia. The entire book is told in alternating perspectives, as both women observe the other. Patricia is inspired by the character she has created based on Margo the librarian. Meanwhile Margo feels that Patricia might be her chance to have a friend again, if only she can figure out what Margo is always writing in her notebook. The two circle one another, and a game of cat and mouse kicks off. But who is watching whom and who is going to win this battle they don’t know they are both engaged in?

This book was so delightfully fun. Margo is a true sociopath and her perspective was so funny. She is such a strange woman. She believes she is helping. She’s addicted to “helping” others, but she tries to manage her life by staying busy. She loves taking baths. She rarely drinks alcohol. She thrives when she is confronted by someone who needs her help.

Patricia took me awhile to figure out as well. I loved that she was a writer and was struggling between doing the right thing ethically and keeping her inspiration close to her. I was never sure what Patricia would do and to what lengths she would go.

This book flew by. I can’t wait to read more by Laura Sims!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Penguin Random House for the ARC and audiobook copies of How Can I Help You. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Laura Sims

Laura Sims is the author of the new novel, HOW CAN I HELP YOU, called “a brilliant slice of psychological suspense” by Publishers Weekly and listed as “Most Anticipated” by The Millions, Book Riot, Town & Country and more. It was also a LibraryReads Top Ten Pick of July, an Amazon Editors’ Pick of the Month, a Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week, and one of CrimeReads’ 10 Best Books of July. Sims’s first novel, LOOKER, was chosen as a “Best Book” by Vogue, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire UK, and more, and is now in development for television by eOne and Emily Mortimer’s King Bee Productions. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays and poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Conjunctions, and Electric Lit. She and her family live in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a reference librarian and hosts the library’s lecture series.