The Promise by Emily Shiner is a psych thriller that shows a lot of…well, promise.
The concept is different. I won’t go into details because it is a fairly intricate plot. Any little mention is a spoiler.
The story is told from three points of view: Scott, Erin, and Kathleen. Scott and Erin are married. Kathleen is…an outsider. Sort of.
Honestly, it is a bunch of connections and relationships that are difficult to explain without giving anything away but make perfect sense in the context of the plot.
There is a lot to unpack within all of it as well. To name a few issues, there are shades of gaslighting, Munchausen by Proxy, controlling, stalking, and true psychosis. Ms. Shiner certainly threw a lot at this.
I guess that could be a good definition for a psych thriller though, right?
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09RGRQ4L3/
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RGRQ4L3
It is a linear plot, so there isn’t any jumping around to confuse times or places. What does occur, however, is that since there are alternating viewpoints, the reader often gets the same action from another character’s point of view.
It definitely gives more detail and allows the reader to get a deeper understanding of character motivations, but it also gets repetitive at times.
My only other thing about this psych thriller is that the big reveal appears fairly early in the story. That’s not really a spoiler, I don’t think. I mean, there is still plenty of book left. The author keeps some decent twists for the last few chapters.
But a lot of the “who and why” isn’t there. And that is usually something that makes for a more interesting story.
Regardless, I read and enjoyed The Secret Wife by the author, and The Promise does enough to make me want to read more from Emily Shiner.
Instagram: authoremilyshiner/
Author Bio
Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author but first served her time as a banker and a teacher. After a lifetime of devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.
