#Psychological Suspense

[desdasiwrites]

– Catherine Steadman, The Family Game

[anicarissi]

It’s my first day at VCFA WCYA and I asked this guy what he’s reading and it turns out he’s got the brand-new paperback of NOBODY KNOWS BUT YOU, which just came out today. I said, “Oh, I wrote that!” but he insisted on explaining it’s a YA thriller about an intense friendship formed over a single summer at camp—a summer cut short by murder. He said the story is told in letters written by one friend to the other—letters that she never sends—interspersed with news clips, text messages, a trial transcript, and statements and social media posts. He said it’s pretty good and much cheaper now that it’s in paperback and I really should check it out if I like twist and turns and psychological suspense

I told him that sounds cool I’ll tell my friends to look for it in paperback, hardcover, or ebook. He said tell them the audiobook version is great too

Anyway, it’s always nice to meet a fan 💙🔪

[ginaraemitchell]

Book Review | Jack and I by Laury A. Egan | Highly Recommended! #PsychologicalSuspense #Thriller #MultiplePersonalityDisorder #DisassociativeIdentity #5Star #GrippingTale

Book Review | Jack and I by @LauryA.Egan @Laury.Egan | #PsychologicalSuspense #Thriller #MultiplePersonalityDisorder #DisassociativeIdentity #5Star #GrippingTale #BookReview #FosterCareAbuse #DID #Bookstagram #BookX #RecommendedReading After reviewing Laury A. Egan's previous book, I was pleased to be invited to review her newest release, Jack and I. While the story is sometimes a complex and heart-wrenching tale, it underscores the presence of good people willing to protect the innocent and the urgent need for reforms in the foster care system. There are themes of physical, sexual, and mental child abuse, rape, grooming, and sexual content. While I would typically avoid a book with these themes, I am so glad I agreed to read Jack and I. Change can never be made, nor situations like Jack's prevented, if we bury our heads in the sand. My heart goes out to young Jack, and I wish him all the best in the future.

Book Review | Jack and I by Laury A. Egan | #PsychologicalSuspense #Thriller #MultiplePersonalityDisorder #DisassociativeIdentity #5Star #GrippingTale #BookReview #FosterCareAbuse #DID #Bookstagram #BookX #RecommendedReading After reviewing Laury A. Egan’s previous book, I was pleased to be invited to review her newest release, Jack and I. While the story is sometimes a complex and…

[psychologicalthriller16]

The Teacher: A Lesson in Twisted Perception and Hidden Truths

Have you ever judged a book by its cover? We all have. Freida McFadden's "The Teacher" takes that concept, throws it into a high school blender, and hits " puree." This psychological thriller isn't your average whodunit; it's a slow burn that will have you questioning everything you think you know, right up until the shocking climax.

We meet Eve, a seemingly ordinary math teacher with a picture-perfect life. But looks can be deceiving. Caseham High, where Eve works, is still reeling from a scandal the previous year – a messy student-teacher affair with a girl named Addie at the center. Everyone seems to have an opinion on Addie: a manipulative liar who thrives on chaos. Eve, however, sees something different.

The story unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Eve and Addie, creating a fascinating dance of truth and deception. We see the school through Eve's jaded eyes, a place where passion has died and the spark of learning has dimmed. Addie, on the other hand, is a whirlwind of secrets and barely contained emotions. As their paths collide, the past and present begin to blur, forcing us to re-evaluate everything we thought we knew about the scandal.

McFadden masterfully weaves a web of doubt. Is Eve a beacon of truth in a school drowning in hypocrisy? Or is she simply another player with her own hidden agenda? Is Addie a cunning villain or a victim caught in a web of circumstance? The beauty (and frustration!) of this novel lies in the unreliable narrators. We're constantly second-guessing ourselves, unsure of who to trust.

But "The Teacher" is more than just a guessing game. It's a poignant exploration of human connection, the power of perception, and the scars left by trauma. Eve wrestles with the mundanity of her marriage, yearning for a spark that seems to have vanished. Addie, burdened by a past she desperately wants to outrun, lashes out in a desperate attempt to control the narrative. These are characters we can empathize with, even when their actions are questionable.

McFadden's prose is sharp and evocative. She paints a vivid picture of the high school halls, capturing the claustrophobic tension and simmering emotions that lurk beneath the surface. The story itself is a slow burn, but the suspense never lets up. With every turn of the page, you'll find yourself more invested, desperate to untangle the truth.

If you're looking for a psychological thriller that will stay with you long after you finish the last page, "The Teacher" is a must-read. It's a story that will make you question your own perceptions and remind you that sometimes, the most shocking truths are the ones we refuse to see

The #MeToo Twist That Makes You Rethink Everything

Freida McFadden isn't afraid to tackle tough subjects, and "The Teacher" is no exception. The novel throws a #MeToo curveball that adds another layer of complexity to the narrative. Without giving away spoilers, let's just say that the lines between victim and villain become hopelessly blurred. This isn't a clear-cut case of good versus evil. It's a messy situation where everyone is playing a part, and the truth is far from black and white.

This twist is more than just a plot device; it forces us to confront our own biases. Have we been too quick to judge Addie? Have we overlooked the possibility that there's more to the story than the school gossip? McFadden masterfully compels us to re-evaluate the situation through a more nuanced lens.

A Story That Stays With You

But "The Teacher" isn't just about the suspense and the shocking reveals. It's a story that stays with you long after you finish the last page. Eve and Addie are complex characters who stay with you. You can't help but feel a pang of sympathy for Eve, trapped in a loveless marriage and yearning for something more. Addie, with her hidden pain and desperate need for control, is both infuriating and pitiable.

McFadden doesn't shy away from exploring the emotional fallout of the scandal. We see how it's affected Eve's relationship with her husband, Nate. We witness the lasting damage it's inflicted on Addie. It's a sobering reminder of the ripple effects of trauma and the importance of communication and understanding.

Ultimately, "The Teacher" is a story about the human condition. It's about the masks we wear, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we'll go to protect ourselves. It's a story that will make you think, feel, and question everything you thought you knew. So, grab a copy, settle in, and prepare to be surprised. You won't be disappointed

[therealimintobooks]

#BlogTour ~ Blindspot by Maggie Smith @partnersincr1me

Blindspot by Maggie Smith April 29 – May 24, 2024 Virtual Book Tour Synopsis: From the author of the award-winning Truth and Other Lies comes a gripping suspense novel about an ambitious prosecutor on the hunt for her sadistic stalker . . . only to be framed for murder when he turns up dead. Rachel Matthews is used to stress—from the cutthroat world of the district attorney’s office to her…

[fictionfromafar]

The Guests By Agnes Ravatn

The Guests

By Agnes Ravatn

Translated by Rosie Hedger

Orenda Books

Publication Date: 18 January 2024

A new novel by Agnes Ravatn is always an event to celebrate, even in a cold and windy January. I remember coming across her English language debut, The Bird Tribunal some years back and discovered it was such a memorably atmospheric and beautifully written novel which really was a standout. While Nordic Noir can often be unfairly categorised between the police procedural and the more violent thriller, authors such as Ravatn show there is so much more to the subgenre. Undoubtedly both Nordic and Noir, her books could simplistically be described as psychological suspense novels, although even than definition does not really capture the quality of her work.

The Guests is Ravatn's third novel translated by Rosie Hedger and like her debut and The Seven Doors, it is a standalone novel which focuses on married mother of two Karin and her husband Kai. The couple have taken the opportunity of a week's holiday together in the fjords. As the story develops, the reasons behind this opportunity become clear as do the conflicts within Karin's own mind towards this trip.

Karin, our narrator, is quite a self absorbed individual and to be honest a bit of an inverted snob. While she completed a law degree, her career since has not taken the direction that she wanted it to do making her frequently envious of others. While she reveals that she holds particular values for example in the raising of her children, whom it must be said don't often appear in her thoughts, her reluctance for them to spend time online (for example) is not matched by her own actions. Staying in the holiday home of a rich associate on a remote peninsula, there is little to occupy Karen's thoughts other than make comparisons between the life that she normally leads, and to the owners of the luxurious abode.

Karin does rise from her own introspection for a while and takes a walk along the shoreside from their temporary home. Those other residents of the peninsula have lives far removed from that of her own. When a chance encounter leads to a short exchange with a neighbour whom she believes she would never see again, Karin makes a comment which will later land her in trouble - or at least make her have to save face (God forbid).

Before long Karin and a reluctant Kai find themselves performing a role to others, but can they do it convincingly and how would this actions eventually play out?

The Guests is a smooth, clear and absorbing read. Indeed while reading it, I did wonder if my compulsion to keep reading suggested a similarity to Karin and her obsessive thoughts. I found the story has a lot to say about human perceptions as our narrator encounters challenges to her preconceptions and contradictions to her opinions yet it is never clearly apparent if these could ever change her viewpoints. Like a case study of people from different backgrounds, Kai and some of the area's other residents also gradually reveal there are secrets, knowledge and acquaintances which had not been anticipated. There is a large degree of humour to the novel, at the expense of the characters and also an undercurrent of high stakes being raised as the story develops. It is one that I found very absorbing and comes highly recommended.

Many thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inclusion on the blog tour and Orenda Books for an advance copy of The Guests. Please check out the other reviews of this book on the blog tour as shown below.

It started with a lie… Married couple Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives, and reluctantly accept an offer to stay in a luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords. Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, however, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and in a less-than-friendly meeting with their new neighbours, Karin tells a little white lie… Against the backdrop of the glistening water and within the claustrophobic walls of the ultra-modern house, Karin’s insecurities blossom, and her lie grows ever bigger, entangling her and her husband in a nightmare spiral of deceits with absolutely no means of escape…

ABOUT AGNES RAVATN

Agnes Ravatn is a Norwegian author and columnist. She made her literary début with the novel Week 53 in 2007. Since then she has written a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections, including Standing, Popular Reading and Operation Self-discipline, in which she recounts her experience with social-media addiction. Her debut thriller, The Bird Tribunal, won the cultural radio P2’s listener’s prize in addition to The Youth’s Critic’s Prize, and was made into a successful play in Oslo in 2015. The English translation, published by Orenda Books in 2016, was a WHSmith Fresh Talent Pick, winner of a PEN Translation Award, a BBC Radio Four ‘Book at Bedtime’ and shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the 2017 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. Critically acclaimed The Seven Doors was published in 2020. Agnes lives with her family in the Norwegian countryside.

[splatland]

BOOK REVIEW: FEAR DREAMS (Detective Kerri Blasco Book 1) by J. A. Schneider

Liddy Barron is recovering from a nasty hit-and-run accident in which she suffered a compound fracture and a head injury that leaves her with gaps in her memory and recurrent nightmares. One of the main lapses she endures is the recollection of the accident itself and why she ran so heedlessly out into traffic that night. Her husband, Paul, is a neuroscientist who is working at the University…

[nicole1066]

A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne

This hypnotic novel tells the story of a house, Mortmain House, located in the Welsh Marches, and the people whose lives intersect with its sad history. Mortmain, means “dead hand,” because the house was protected from taxation for its so-called charitable purposes. The house served as a workhouse and orphanage before it fell into disrepair. When Melissa Anderson gives birth to conjoined twins…

[bound4escape]

Book Review & Giveaway: Deadly Tides by Mary Keliikoa

Genre: Police Procedural, Psychological SuspensePublished by: Level Best BooksPublication Date: October 2023Number of Pages: 299ISBN: 9781685122799 (ISBN10: 1685122795)Series: Misty Pines Mystery, #2Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads A missing surf legend. Waterlogged clues. Can he trust his gut instincts to end the wave of murder? Sheriff Jax Turner is learning to…

[seyisandra009]

Tales of Five Lies: A Spellbinding Mystery and Gripping Thriller

"Tales of Five Lies" is a gripping novella that takes you on a suspenseful journey filled with secrets, deception, and a relentless pursuit of the truth.

1479, in Eisleben, Germany, a wealthy merchant, saw a ten-year-old boy in a frozen field on a foggy night. That event changed his life. 543 years later, Christine White, a beautiful, rich but naïve stay-at-home parent in Huntsville, Alabama, witnesses a brutal crime. That night, her life changed forever. 543 years apart. The same connection. Christine is fighting a battle to save her life from…

[ginaraemitchell]

The Psychologist's Shadow: A simmering, slow-burn suspense by Laury A. Egan | Author Essay on  Erotomania ~ Excerpt | #Thriller @iReadBookTours @EganLaury

The Psychologist's Shadow: A simmering, slow-burn suspense by Laury A. Egan | Author Essay on  Erotomania ~ Excerpt | #Thriller @iReadBookTours @EganLaury The Psychologist's Shadow is a simmering literary suspense and a portrait of a compassionate, introspective therapist who finds herself in a dangerous struggle. As tension accumulates, the reader gains insights during sessions and through the stalker's journal entries, which serve as discordant counterpoints. Who is the shadow lover? An acquaintance, a shopkeeper, an old boyfriend, or a client?

The Psychologist’s Shadow: A simmering, slow-burn suspense by Laury A. Egan | Author Essay on  Erotomania ~ Excerpt | #Thriller @iReadBookTours @EganLaury A book blog tour from iRead Book Tours. Thank you to the author, publisher, & Lauren at iRead for providing me with the information for this tour. Book Details “…a ‘I-read-it-in-two-days’ book. Egan creates a gifted analyst and gripping case…

[danielleurbansblog]

Review: The Girls Who Disappeared

Synopsis: A journalist’s life is threatened when she investigates the truth about a mysterious car crash that happened twenty years earlier in this gripping thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9 and Just Like the Other Girls. A car accident. Three missing girls. A twenty-year mystery. A woman on the verge of discovering the truth . . . In a rural…

[therealimintobooks]

#bookreviewtour ~ Sunny's Secrets by Robin Jay @TheKEYmovies @pumpupyourbook

Devastated by the loss of her husband and keenly aware of the fragile nature of life, Sunny, a nurse, is approached by a mysterious Indian doctor with a secretive spiritual method for transferring Life Force Energy between two people. She accepts his intriguing offer to join his elite and clandestine team.   Title: Sunny’s Secrets Author: Robin Jay Publication Date: July 6, 2023 Pages:…

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Who to Believe by Edwin Hill

Brilliant, well-crafted, riveting read ~ drew me in, grabbed hold, and wouldn’t let me go ~

What I liked:

* Superb story telling

* The plot, pacing, and setting

* Multiple – seven – viewpoints all sharing new elements that build the suspense

* That characters are more than they appear to be on the surface

* Thinking about what it might have been like to have been any one of the characters in this story and deciding which one, if any, I could most relate to or might find myself willing to call friend

* Thinking about what would have motivated the murders and what would create a person willing to kill someone – or more than one person

* The few more sane characters that helped balance out those who were less so

* The dark, twisted, deviousness of the story and just how brilliant it truly was

* That it made me think and care and really hope that at least the teenagers might come out okay in the future

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to like

* Thinking about evil, murder, and the way some can appear so “good” but have rather rotten centers

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

In this twisting domestic suspense thriller from the acclaimed author of The Secrets We Share , the aftermath of a murder in a quiet New England coastal town reveals a web of dark secrets . . . Monreith, Massachusetts, was once a small community of whalers and farmers. These days it’s a well-to-do town filled with commuters drawn to its rugged coastline and country roads. A peaceful, predictable place—until popular restaurateur Laurel Thibodeau is found brutally murdered in her own home. Suspicion naturally falls on Laurel’s husband, Simon, who had gambling debts that only her life insurance policy could fix. But there are other rumors too . . . Among the group of six friends gathered for Alice Stone’s fortieth birthday, theories abound concerning Laurel’s death. Max Barbosa, police chief, has heard plenty of them, as has his longtime friend, Unitarian minister Georgia Fitzhugh. Local psychiatrist Farley Drake is privy to even more, gleaning snippets of gossip and information from his patients while closely guarding his own past. But maybe everyone in Monreith has something to hide. Because before this late-summer evening has come to a close, one of these six will be dead.  And as jealousy, revenge, adultery, and greed converge, the question becomes not who among these friends might be capable of such a thing, but—who isn’t?

[adventuresinthirtysomething]

How I Spent My Summer (I Have A Book Deal!!!!)

How I Spent My Summer (I Have A Book Deal!!!!)

When I started this blog back in 2012, it was because I wanted to write. And though it’s been a while since I’ve written a post (March of this year – time flies!) I have been writing. A lot. And I’ll be writing a lot more. And editing. A lot. And smiling . . . also a lot. Because while success doesn’t happen overnight, hard work does pay off. Earlier this year, I signed a five-book deal with UK…

[splatland]

BOOK REVIEW: THE NORTH WOODS by Douglass Hoover

A phone call late at the night turns Wyatt’s ordered world upside down. A former Marine who served in combat, Wyatt has traded in his uniform for the hallowed halls of academia. The late-night call comes from Thomas Sigmund (Siggy), one of the guys Wyatt served with overseas. Siggy has overdosed and is calling to say goodbye. He hangs up not revealing his whereabouts. A panicked Wyatt calls…