The Intruder by Daniel Hurst is a psych thriller that left me a little confused. While there are the requisite moments of suspense and more than a few twists and turns, it also felt predictable at times.
Now, that is a definite “grain of salt” statement. If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know that I read a lot of psych thrillers. And I also like trying to guess where the author is going to see how close I can get.
While it is fun for me, it also sometimes means that I guess pretty much everything before it happens, which takes some of the “thriller” out of the psych thriller.
Someone who does not read a lot of psych thrillers may have a completely different experience than I did.
The author scatters quite a few “oh wow” moments throughout the story, and just when you think you understand where everything is going, he’ll have another one for you.
Taking my guesses out of the picture, I will say that it did seem like there were two different stories. I would expect a book titled The Intruder to focus mainly on that. However, the author goes in a completely different direction at one point, and the focus switches.
The overall message of public perception being different from private reality is very clear. The age-old question of “how well do you ever really know someone” is definitely addressed.
Side note: that’s another weird thing about the book. One character is on top of things and never misses a tick. Except for the most obvious thing that they should have seen from a mile away.
I suppose that can be chalked up to not wanting to believe something bad about someone you care about? Still, I think the character, if as astute as described, would have noticed.
At any rate, The Intruder by Daniel Hurst is the type of psych thriller that most readers will probably enjoy immensely.
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