Tag: Psychological Thriller

The Resort by Sue Watson is a psych thriller that has some Agatha Christie elements and is mostly a good read.

I’ll explain that in a bit.

I liked the setup of a luxury hotel on an island. Not being familiar with the area, however, I wasn’t sure if I believed how “tropical” it could be. It sometimes feels like the descriptions stick between “old school glamour” and tropical.

I also liked the whodunit aspect of the plot. In an isolated place, there are theoretically a finite number of suspects, so anyone could have been the culprit for the horrible events.

This feeling was especially strong when the police announced that nobody was going to be able to leave the island. You could almost feel the gate come down around the resort.

However, there were a couple of things that could have been a bit better.

Because the author focuses on the three couples, for the most part, the reader doesn’t get the feeling that anyone else is actually a suspect. So, that seems like a wasted opportunity. Suspicion of one employee seems to dissipate and go unresolved.

There are also a lot of inner monologues of characters thinking about things (sometimes to the point of tedium) and then later explaining that something happened.

I would have preferred there to be more action. The important events should take place “in time” where we can see them happening – not just read about them. This happens a few times, and it is a little disappointing. It also makes the characters slightly boring.

Also, noting whose perspective we are reading from would be helpful. It just felt muddied. And don’t get me started on the investigation by the police. (Ugh).

All that being said, I did guess a few of the twists. But, I did not catch one of the main whodunits, so the author did surprise me on that one.

The Resort has good bones. I didn’t get a lot of “psych” from the psych thriller, but there is a tension that builds throughout. I still like this author and will continue to look forward to her books.

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.

Nicole Trope has become one of my favorite psych thriller authors. I know that I’m going to get a solid story that will probably keep me guessing. His Other Wife is a great example of what she does so well.

I like it when a psych thriller starts out with a scene that actually occurs somewhere later in the story. It makes me actively read, looking for that scene, or for clues that might lead up to that scene.

It is an effective storytelling device because it builds tension, and this author uses it perfectly.

I could tell from the very beginning that there was more to Charlotte than meets the eye. She was too perfect. And anyone that “understanding” usually isn’t.

Sarah, on the other hand, is instantly a sympathetic character. Any mom will be able to relate to her instincts to protect her child at any cost. Coupled with grief, it is easy to see how that could wreak havoc on one’s mental health.

Frankly, I found Gideon to be an idiot and a catalyst for all that happens in the book. If he loved Sarah as much as he said he did (and this is not a spoiler) he wouldn’t have moved on so quickly or easily. Just sayin’.

And then there is Charlotte’s mother, Carol. I have mentioned before how I sometimes get flashed of other characters that I am reminded of, especially when they are vivid.

For me, every time Carol appeared in the book, I pictured the grandmother from Kindergarten Cop. You know, the bad guy’s mom who was constantly telling him what to do? Perfectly dressed, perfect hair, very proper…but a sociopath.

Yeah, got that vibe from Carol.

As for the plot, I did guess part of “psych” part of the psych thriller. I just “had a feeling.” But the author went deeper with it than I expected, so there were aspects that surprised me, which isn’t easy to do.

I particularly liked the endings. And yes, that’s plural, because even though it wraps up in a single epilogue, there are a few different endings to be found. It was actually one of the most satisfying epilogues in recent memory.

If you’re looking for a solid psych thriller for a beach read, pick up His Other Wife. Or, actually, any other Nicole Trope book, like The Stepchild.

About the author

Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature.

The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.

The Boyfriend by Kerry Wilkinson feels like a bit of a departure from past psych thriller stories.

There is a lot of character-building and introspection from Jodie. The story is solely hers. As such, the reader only experiences things from her perspective. Period.

This is good and bad.

It is good because the reader gets to really deep dive into Jodie’s frame of mind and how she deals with everything. But it’s bad because it makes a lot of things one-dimensional. At times it also slows down the action.

You can read the plot points in the blurb and other reviews. Suffice to say that after Jodie’s dad dies, she is left with the responsibility of cleaning out his house. In the process, she finds something that brings past events in her life into question.

It’s a great premise, and it does deliver in many ways. There are plenty of suspects for each of the events, and as Jodie looks at people with a side-eye, so does the reader. The author definitely keeps the reader guessing.

However, there are also characters and events that have promise but lack follow through. Jodie’s mom is kind of a non-entity, conflict with the sister-in-law starts strong but fizzles, and her supposed best friend is just kind of…meh.

And then there is Jodie’s son, Owen. I don’t even know where to start with him. He plays a major part in the story. But it is all odd, really.

Because however you think the story is going to end, you are absolutely wrong. I guarantee it. Not only is the culprit of the main event not who you think, but the author saves one last gigantic “What the heck” moment that will probably drop your jaw to the floor.

Honestly, I am not quite sure of the purpose of it. It doesn’t exactly fit with the rest of the story, and almost seems like it’s gratuitous.

In fact, overall, it feels like this is an early attempt at writing because more recent books have been much more evenly plotted.

Regardless, I still enjoy Kerry Wilkinson’s writing, and The Boyfriend is a good psych thriller if solely for the shock factor.

Check out my review of The Perfect Daughter for a link to other books by Kerry, or type “Kerry Wilkinson” into the search bar! 🙂

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.

Hoo boy, is there a lot to unpack in The Daughters, a chilling psych thriller from Julia Crouch.

I’m not even sure where to start.

I guess I should have had an inkling about the mental states of both Sara and Lucy from the very first chapter. But the author does a great job of not giving away too much. Just enough to make the reader question backstory.

And there is a lot of backstory.

As always, you can get the gist of it from the blurb but suffice to say that Sara and Lucy’s mom allegedly committed suicide years prior. And that is questionable for more than a few reasons.

Actually, as I am writing this, I realize that none of the characters are particularly trustworthy in their perspectives. Sara is bitter. Lucy is a broken toy. And Carys is too good to be true.

In fact, Carys got on my nerves from the beginning. I’m not sure if that is the author’s intent, but she truly was too much of a do-gooder to believe that she didn’t have ulterior motives about…well, anything.

I’m not telling you if my instinct was right, but let’s just say that it is a good psych thriller partially because of how her true character is revealed.

Additionally, however, she was difficult to root for because it just felt like she was more caricature than character. Like she was too good for anything. Again, I think that is by design. But I was totally with Sara not liking her.

I really felt for Sara and Lucy, especially the latter. She is obviously so damaged for some reason (that is revealed in the book) that it is easy to see how past traumas can affect present mental health. So, there is another “psych” angle to the psych thriller.

Given recent events in the real world, this is something that truly struck home with me.

But this isn’t about that.

I liked how the author made me question pretty much everyone’s perspectives and I liked being off-balance as to who was trustworthy. The reveals come about at just the right time in the book. The plot progresses at a good pace.

I actually stayed up late reading this one. And that rarely happens.

I enjoyed The New Mother by Julia Crouch, and The Daughters is another good psych thriller that should go on your list.

Author Bio:

Julia started off as a theatre director and playwright. While her children were growing up, she swerved into graphic design. After writing and illustrating two children’s books for an MA, she discovered that her great love was writing prose. The picture books were deemed too dark for publication, so, to save the children, she turned instead to writing for adults. Her first book, Cuckoo, was published in 2011, and she has been writing what she calls her Domestic Noir novels ever since. She also writes for TV and teaches on the Crime Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. She has three grown up children and lives in Brighton with her husband and two cats, Keith and Sandra.