Tag Archives: thriller

Review: Stillhouse Lake

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Stillhouse Lake
by Rachel Caine
5 stars

Stillhouse Lake is my first read by Rachel Caine and the best thriller I read in 2017. It is one I couldn’t put down and stayed up late to finish. It pulls you in from the first chapter with a very gruesome scene. The story follows the life of Gina Royal after her life is turned upside down when her husband, Melvin Royal’s, secret life as a serial killer is exposed. The killings happened right in her own garage, and much to the public and law enforcement’s disbelief, Gina really had no idea. Gina flees with her two children and changes her name to Gwen Proctor, going to great lengths to protect her children from internet trolls wanting revenge on Gwen and her children. The lengths people go to on the internet is downright nasty in this book. Gwen thinks they are safe and may have found a permanent home at Stillhouse Lake, when a body of a young woman shows up in the lake by their house, killed in the same style that Melvin used. Because of this Gwen and the kids’ real identities are discovered and Gwen is the prime suspect. This prompts Gwen to question their safety. Does Melvin know where they are? Have the internet trolls found them? The novel has a great, although terrifying, ending that also is a cliffhanger. The second book is just as good and was released this month!

 

Read-alikes

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box

Killing Season by Faye Kellerman

Most Wanted by Lisa Scottoline

Review: Genuine Fraud

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Genuine Fraud
by E. Lockhart
4 stars

Teen author E. Lockhart is known for her suspenseful twists, thrilling plots, and often unreliable narrators.  I still get the feels when I think about her best-selling 2014 novel, We Were Liars. It was fast-paced, unpredictable, and heartbreaking.  Her newest teen novel, Genuine Fraud, is most of these things. The novel starts out with an obviously unreliable narrator, Jule, lounging in a Mexican resort. Unobservant readers might not realize that the story starts out with Chapter 18 as the plot moves backwards in time. Step by step you discover more about Jule, her seemingly glamorous life, her perfect best friend, and the boy she regrets leaving behind.

I had a little trouble connecting with Jule. Her character was a little lacking, and I’m still left wondering about her motivation and upbringing. Because of this I didn’t feel the heartbreak and grief I experienced when reading We Were Liars. However, I was still captivated by the story, pulled along by Lockhart’s twists and turns, and of course blown away by the mystery’s big reveal. I totally didn’t see that coming!

Read-alikes

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

This is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

Review: The Secrets She Keeps

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The Secrets She Keeps
by Michael Robotham
4 stars

This is my first read by Robotham, and it didn’t disappoint.  Creepy, psychological suspense, but not overly scary.  I stayed up much later than I wanted to reading this book.  This book makes me think of how many of us look at others on social media thinking, “Their life is so perfect.  They have it all.”  But we really don’t know.  As someone popular once said, we are only seeing their “highlight reel.”

The story switches between Meghan and Agatha’s point of view.  Both are pregnant and due around the same time.  Both have very different lives.  Meghan is happily married with two beautiful children and writes a mommy blog.  Agatha works in a supermarket and the baby’s daddy is away at sea not returning her calls.  Meghan and Agatha do not know each other, but Agatha knows a LOT about Meghan’s life.   She knows her schedule, her children’s names, just a lot of detailed information.  She makes it her life’s mission to meet Meghan and become friends with her.   Only Meghan’s life is not all it seems to be; she has secrets.  Agatha also has secrets of her own.

When I read the first few chapters I thought it would be a certain type of book, then as I got further into the book there was a twist.  This book was full of mind games and kept me guessing.  The characters were very well written with a lot of depth.  Some parts were sad and it shed a lot of light on mental illness.   I’m looking forward to reading more by Robotham.

Read-alikes

Copycat by Kimberla Lawson Roby

I See You by Clare Mackintosh

Watching Edie by Camilla Way

Review: Behind Closed Doors

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Behind Closed Doors
by B.A. Paris
4 stars

This debut psychological thriller by B.A Paris was dark and depressing, but the underlying story of the novel which alternates between the past and present is intense. Grace and Jack are the perfect couple. Jack is handsome and is a successful attorney and he loves Grace’s sister, Millie, who has Downs Syndrome. Grace is the perfect homemaker, gardener and together they are charming and witty in their gorgeous home. Grace and Jack are also the guardians of Millie who is going to come live with them when she turns 18. They quickly wed within three months’ time and after their honeymoon they become inseparable. Grace is never without Jack. Some might wonder. Why is she so thin? Why do their windows have high security metal shutters? Paris ensures compulsive page-turning until each character is unveiled, ending in a satisfying reveal. This book stirred some deep emotions in me and long after finishing the book, I found myself wondering how I would handled things if I was in Grace’s shoes.

 

Read-alikes

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Expats by Chris Pavone

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Review: Mr. Mercedes

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Mr. Mercedes
by Stephen King
5 stars

For someone who doesn’t like books or movies that give me nightmares, there is always a sense of danger in choosing a Stephen King book. And most of the members of the Primetime Book Club were also a little hesitant to embrace Mr. Mercedes as our next title.  And yet there’s no denying that King’s writing is brilliant, and that he pulls us into a fascinating, and sometimes horrifying battle between good and evil in each of his books. I had a hard time putting this one down.

Mr. Mercedes begins with job seekers gathering in the pre-dawn hours for a job fair. It isn’t much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn’t get too attached to any of them. After all, this is a book about a serial killer. It is in this opening scene that we meet Brady, aka The Mercedes Killer. He lives with his alcoholic mother and spends his time planning his next victim’s gruesome death. His two part time jobs as an on-call IT support person and as an ice-cream truck driver are strategic so that he will be able to invisibly surveil his victims as he plans his crimes. (I might or might not have run inside the house and drawn the blinds the next time I heard an ice-cream truck!)

Next we meet Bill Hodges, a recently retired detective. Retirement isn’t sitting well with Hodges, who finds himself watching way too much TV and drifting through his days. But when he receives a goading letter from Brady, he finds himself waking up and ready for a battle with a killer he has always wanted to catch. As Hodges begins to correspond with the Mercedes Killer, he enlists the help of a couple of unlikely partners and the pace of the book really picks up.

Brady’s final, well-thought-out plot to kill as many people as possible is unthinkable – and yet as you ride along inside the head of a serial killer, you’ve been seeing the strands of it come together all the way through the book.  It is unnerving. Mr. Mercedes might not give you nightmares, but it will get inside your head. The good news is that you are also seeing the story through the eyes of Detective Hodges, and you are rooting for him.

While this is not my favorite Stephen King book, it is in my top three. The Stand and 11/22/63 are my top two, and I’d definitely recommend any of these three to all types of readers. But before you sit down to read any of them, clear your calendar and get a nice cup of tea handy. You aren’t going anywhere for a while!

Read-alikes

Winter Prey by John Sandford

The Devil’s Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver

Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline