Tag: Psychological Thriller

I have mentioned many times how much I enjoy this author’s work. Although I still think that After the Accident is the highwater mark, this book kept me turning pages.

Which, actually, was a little weird because I never really connected to any of the characters or felt immersed in the story. It was more like I was a fascinated outside observer.

I don’t know why it struck me like that.

Anyway, the author did keep me guessing and wondering who was behind what event and how their motivations may have worked into the situation. In that regard, I didn’t figure much out before it became apparent in the story.

That being said, there were some misses as well..

Some of the red herrings were good, but others seemed thrown in just to create doubt. That’s fine, but I would have liked them to have a little more depth.

For example, take Hope’s ex-boyfriend (Aki) and his new girlfriend Angel. I know why the author set them up in the story, but I think it could have been more fleshed out. A pivotal moment involving Angel, essentially at the climax of the story, almost seemed like more of an aside.

Conversely, I thought that what happened to Stephen would have much more bearing on the story. I also had to suspend disbelief a few times. It seemed very strange that in the course of everything that happened in the past (that trickled into the future) nobody ever thought to really involve the police.

Also, I thought that for all that Hope was hit with, she was WAY too trusting of people. I think I would have been super-cautious about every little thing and every person I came in contact with would be suspect. And the ending seemed very abrupt.

I guess that’s the thing for me with this book. There was a lot of untapped potential in it. I almost felt like this was an earlier book that the author wrote and returned to, because other recent books have been more put together.

I know the review seems like I didn’t like the book, but I did. And it certainly kept me guessing. I just don’t know if it was for the right reasons. Other readers may have a completely different experience with it. You should definitely pick it up and try it.

Author Bio:

Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.

He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.

This psych thriller was good in many ways, but ultimately didn’t entirely deliver on the build-up. It was still a book that had me turning pages – I read it in one sitting, which is no easy feat these days – and I would definitely recommend it.  

I could tell from the beginning (well, and the title) that the house was going to be its own character in the book. It’s a focal point for many reasons.

Carly and Mark have built quite the empire, with their home being a platform for a television show…aptly titled The Forever Home. They renovated the house Carly inherited from her mom and turned it into a business.

Mark is the face of the television show and now travels all over the country to renovate old houses. Well, that’s the cover story anyway.

As Carly finds out at her 25^th wedding anniversary party, not everything is as it seems. She’s known for several years what kind of man her husband actually is, but she is fairly blindsided by revelations at the party.

What follows is a harrowing account of what really occurred behind the scenes over the previous 25 years.

The story fully belongs to Carly. It’s from her perspective, with her opinions coloring the entire narrative. This was both impactful and telling. The reader was able to really get into her mind as she justifies both her actions and those of Mark.

And boy, does she spin the justifications.

Ostensibly, it’s because Mark has some big secret on her (that’s not a spoiler – it’s to be assumed that there are good reasons for her to put up with everything). I personally didn’t find that revelation to be as big of a deal as it maybe should have been. I actually expected it to be way worse.

Mark was…interesting. From the descriptions, I kept picturing Paul Hollywood (he’s pretty much the only British Silver Fox I could think of), but I hope my Paul wouldn’t act the way Mark did. He was truly despicable.

There are lies galore, hidden motivations, questionable characters, eerie occurrences, and red herrings…everything that makes a psych thriller great.

I think there is one area where the narrative bogs down and that is in Carly’s justifications and mental narratives. There are long, often repeated sections of Carly explaining why she stayed, why she forgave, why she continued on, why she did just about everything.

It became redundant at times, and I found myself wishing that it was written that way to build to some mind twist. Not so much.

As mentioned, there were a few red herrings, including one character who I was sure was guilty. But then I second guessed myself because it was so obvious.

The big climax isn’t as big as it could have been and was frankly a long time coming. It seemed like there were a lot of hints around it and the groundwork was laid early but then it all happened quickly. But characters do get their just desserts. So, that was good.

Probably the thing I liked most though was Carly’s consistency. Her mantra from beginning to end was that she did everything for her kids. And that certainly is the case. I appreciate that level of consistent messaging even in the face of everything else.

I would recommend the book, especially if you are a fan of descriptive internal monologues (and an evil Paul Hollywood 😊 ).

For other reviews of this author’s books: The Empty Nest, The Sister-In-Law, and First Date,

Author Bio:

Sue Watson was a journalist on national magazines and newspapers before becoming a TV producer with the BBC. 

Now a USA Today bestselling author, Sue explores the darker side of life, writing psychological thrillers with big twists.

Originally from Manchester, she now lives with her family in leafy Worcestershire where much of her day is spent writing – and procrastinating. Her hobby is eating cake while watching diet and exercise programmes from the sofa, a skill she’s perfected after many years of practice.

http://www.suewatsonbooks.com/

There is good and bad to be found in this book.

Let me get the bad out of the way first. The story takes a loooong time to get going. There are a lot of random occurrences and character mentions that seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

It’s obvious that the author is laying the groundwork for what is to come, but it takes quite a while to do so. And there are a lot of internal monologues or passages where the character is thinking something. In other words, a lot of thinking and not doing.

That all changes roughly halfway through the book when the pieces start to drop into place. At that point, you can actually see what the author was doing in the first part.

It soon becomes apparent that neither of the two main characters, Dani and Adele, are honest about who they are and how their pasts have influenced the present situation.

The author was clever in allowing the reader to see glimpses into the reality of each character, although sometimes it was so subtle that it was more “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it.”

I actually didn’t care for Dani too much. Her attitude and actions were sometimes irresponsible and frankly annoying. I had to remind myself that she was a very young mother. That was an important point.

I had a difficult time getting a feel for Adele. By the end of the book, it was obvious why that was the case. But in the reading of it, I never really got a grasp for – at least until the author wanted her to be fully understood.

There were plenty of red herrings and twists that were thrown in to distract. In that case, it was much like what was happening to Dani, so that was effective.

And at about 75%, the book really took off with non-stop action. Suffice to say that if you thought you had the main twist figured out, you probably didn’t.

In some regards the book felt unbalanced because the first half was so slow, and the second half sped right along. But in retrospect, the first part is meant to lull the reader and lay the foundation for the good stuff that happens in the second part.

Stick with this one. The payoff is definitely worth it.

Author Bio:

Victoria Jenkins lives with her husband and daughter in South Wales, where her series of crime novels featuring Detectives King and Lane is based. Her debut novel The Girls in the Water is an Amazon UK top 30 bestseller, and top 5 bestseller in the Amazon US chart.

Her first psychological thriller, The Divorce, was published in July 2019. The second, The Argument, was published December 10^th 2019 and The Accusation was published June 9th 2020. Her latest novel, The Playdate is out now.

I’m kind of in a quandary here.

On the one hand, I’ve really enjoyed this author in the past (Little Whispers). So, I was looking forward to this one.

Plus, the blurb/tagline certainly drew my attention. I mean, who wouldn’t be hooked by a woman marrying the man who killed her son?

Where I’m a bit confused is how everything was followed to the end. I really don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll try and give a spoiler-free explanation.

The set-up was very clear. The author did a great job of showing the connections between each of the characters (and there were quite a few to keep straight). But it was all well-plotted and I wasn’t confused at all.

There was also a good build up through the first part of the book. While it may seem simplistic to some readers, I thought it was smart.

The first half does not read as a thriller as such. It’s more of a matter of fact “here’s what’s going on and you better pay attention because things are going to get crazy soon” intro that sets the stage for the second half.

And that’s where it kind of fell apart for me. Not entirely, because there were some good twists, but it felt predictable, and I wasn’t really surprised by anything.

I don’t know if there was too much set-up so it seemed anticlimactic, or if there was too much to try to wrap up so nothing got the full attention that maybe it should have? It’s hard to put my finger on it.

I also thought that things that were supposed to be shocking weren’t so very much. I can’t fault the author for that though. We now live in a world where sordid and salacious soundbites are considered “news.”

We’re also programmed to accept any type of family as “realistic” and/or acceptable. While that’s fine, I think it actually took some of the teeth out of the “jaw-dropping twists” of this book.

And that’s as close as I am going to get to a spoiler.

The end seemed to drag, as if the author was trying to reach a page count – this could also be why it seemed like the second half didn’t live up to the first half. It probably would have benefitted from 50 fewer pages or so.

In spite of all of that, I did like the book and pretty much read it in one seating. If you’re looking for a quick read that doesn’t take a lot of brain power and allows you to just go along for the ride, this is a good choice.

Author Bio:

For many years, Kim sent her work out to literary agents but never made it off the slush pile. At the age of 40 she went back to Nottingham Trent University and now has an MA in Creative Writing.

Before graduating, she received five offers of representation from London literary agents which was, as Kim says, ‘a fairytale … at the end of a very long road!’

Kim is a full-time writer and lives in Nottingham with her husband, Mac.