Category: Thriller

‘The One’ – John Marrs

I am kicking myself for not having read this earlier. From the moment I picked it up I found myself rifling the pages, desperate to see where this was going. With a large cast of characters and over a hundred chapters I wasn’t sure how this would work…but everything is paced well, and each character is very quickly identifiable. Piecing together the details was an absorbing process.

The concept is intriguing. A test has been discovered that, in exchange for a DNA sample, gives you the identity of your Match…the person you are destined to be with. Taking the risk out of choosing love seems to appeal, and the success of the Match Your DNA app shows this. Since its inception, the app has appeared to change society. However, the premise raises some intriguing ethical issues and the book’s success depends very much on the fact that people are not always honest.

Upon starting the book I was immediately struck by how quickly I raced through the opening quarter. Learning the details of the various characters who’d signed up to the app and their motivations definitely added something to reading about their reactions and subsequent behaviour. Though the characters were all very different, I was keen to see what would happen.

Certain characters stuck out: Christopher, Mandy, Kevin and Nick. Though I won’t reveal why, their stories engaged and captivated me. Though the details are not always palatable, it was hard not to get sucked into trying to work out what would happen for each of them.

There was a point in the story – a little over halfway through – that my attention wandered a little. We were learning the details of these characters, but I was struggling to see the significance of their tales to the overall book. It felt as if we were going to have to be given a reason for these very different stories to be threaded together. It took a while, but we got there…and certainly made me review some of the interactions.

So, given all these positives, why not five stars? It’s hard to explain without giving away details of the plot. However, Ellie’s story hadn’t captured my attention sufficiently to really engage me by the time key information came out later. The moral ambiguity surrounding Ellie in the closing stages rather concerned me. There’s also a part of me that thinks relationships don’t come with hard and fast guarantees, and anyone so desperate to seek such affirmation is trying to ignore their personal responsibility for their choices and the way they impact on others. Perhaps on a different day this would have got five stars from me, and it’s certainly a read I’d recommend highly.

 

‘The Obsession’ – Jesse Q. Sutanto

I cannot even begin to imagine where the author will take this story in book two, but I found myself surprisingly captivated by Dee who is (without a doubt) the real focus of our story.
The story is told from two points of view – of Logan, a star lacrosse player, and Dee, a new student at the school. From the beginning my senses were tingling in overdrive at Logan and his earnest creepiness. Nobody seemed suspicious of him, but his internal monologue as he talks about a past student and his relationship with her gives off very worrying vibes. When he sees Dee across the school site, he is convinced they are destined to be together and so begins his one-sided pursuit of this quiet young girl who is definitely not what she first appears.
Dee has her own secrets. Some of which are more serious than others, and some of which certainly took me rather by surprise. What we know from very early on is that Dee is suffering at the hands of her abusive stepfather…but as he’s a policeman she and her mum believe they’re on their own.
Splitting between the two views means some of the plot details are not revealed quite as quickly as you might like. Logan is convinced he has the upper hand in his relationship with Dee, and I can’t begin to imagine how terrifying it would be to find yourself faced with a stalker who’s under the delusion that you are as committed to the relationship as he is. However, we also learn pretty early on that Dee has a resolve to her that is positively scary.
Reading this became a tense cat and mouse style chase, where we knew someone would come out of this badly but we genuinely don’t know who it will be. We know we haven’t seen the end of this setting/characters, and I am very curious to see how things develop as they leave the safety of high school.

 

‘What Beauty There Is’ – Cory Anderson

The tale of Jack and Ava is bleak, but you can’t help but fall under their spell.
Each of them knows what it’s like to have a secret. They’ve spent years learning to hide the reality of who they are. They each know how others judge them because of their family.

Jack’s father is in prison for his involvement in crime. His mother has given up, and when Jack finds her hanged in her room, he vows not to let his younger brother down. He buries his mother, then sets about trying to do whatever he can to find the money his father is rumoured to have hidden and look after his brother.

Unfortunately, his father’s ex partner (who also happens to be Ava’s dad) and others are determined to get their hands on the money. Jack is at risk and he has to trust someone who has the capacity to hurt him greatly.

We follow the boys as they search for a way to escape what looks inevitable. We see the growing closeness between Jack and Ava, and we see our two main characters forced to make difficult choices as they determine how they want to live life for themselves.

I can’t begin to understand the background of either of these two, but their grit and determination was admirable. I’m curious to know more about the sheriff who ultimately helps them out, and the ending certainly implies we’re not done with this story yet.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

 

‘The Last House on Needless Street’ – Catriona Ward

Immediate response on finishing…wow! Not at all what I expected when I picked it up. Wrong-footed, completely, but I like that. Fascinating subject, encouraging me to feel empathy for characters I was resistant to feel positively towards. Hard to review without giving details away…highly recommended.
I’d seen some cracking reviews of The Last House on Needless Street, and there is a definite buzz developing about this book. Sometimes, that puts pressure on a book to live up to your expectations…but in this case, I think it surpassed all thoughts I had about it.
We’re told little about the story. It’s a story about a serial killer, with part of the story narrated by Olivia who happens to be a cat. Olivia lives with Ted, a man who harbours secrets and who happens to live near a lake where a young girl disappeared years earlier. The young girl’s sister, Dee, is convinced that someone knows more about her sister’s disappearance than was revealed at the time. Thanks to her own investigations, she ends up moving next door to Ted, who she thinks is key to discovering the truth.
From the opening pages it’s clear we’re dealing with some characters who are keeping secrets. I was convinced that we were dealing with something quite straightforward…and I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Within a short space of time I found myself captivated by what I was reading. At times, I found myself second-guessing events and desperate for answers as things didn’t go as I expected. As the story developed and we learned further details I found myself developing a highly emotional reaction. It was all too apparent that things were not at all as they seemed.
I really did not expect to have such a sensitive portrayal of such a dark and disturbing subject. This was masterfully presented, and informative in a way that cannot be underestimated. As soon as I’d finished I found myself wishing desperately to be in the enviable position of starting the book again with no idea of what I was about to encounter. I’m insanely jealous of everyone who gets to pick this up for the first time, and I can’t wait to discuss this with others.

 

‘Last One to Die’ – Cynthia Murphy

When Niamh heads to London for a summer drama programme she could not have imagined the events that she’d get caught up in.

Upon her arrival at the rather grotty hostel she’s due to stay in, a young woman asks if she’ll swap rooms. Niamh does. Later that night the girl in her original room is killed. On her first day, a student tries to befriend her. That night, she’s attacked. And so begins a pattern of accidents/attacks…their one common strand is that the girls all look like Niamh.

Naturally, this is a creepy situation. Unlike most, Niamh doesn’t head home the moment these weird things happen – instead, she tries to get on with her course and the work placement at a Victorian museum.

Without giving anything away, what Niamh uncovers is a story that started a long time ago. In the cold light of day, it’s all preposterous…but you can (with a little will) overlook this as you’re reading.

Focusing on Niamh’s perspective means we don’t get to join all the dots quite in time. Some elements really do stretch the bounds of credibility, and our resolution felt like a bit of a damp squib after a bold start.

 

‘The Last Girl’ – Goldy Moldavsky

Thanks to the publishers for granting me access to this via NetGalley prior to its scheduled April 2021 release.

The Last Girl is a must-read for horror fans…a lovingly crafted homage to movies that revel in gore, jump-scares and violence. Even readers like myself (who can only read horror stories during the day and who can conjure up threats from the merest hint of shadows and strange noises) will find themselves sucked into this story.

Even knowing the rules doesn’t always help. Sometimes you are up against something for which it’s hard to be prepared.

Our story focuses on new girl Rachel who’s started at an exclusive school where her mum teaches. She is not naturally sociable, and the trauma of killing a masked invader to her old home is something Rachel does not want to share with anyone. She is befriended by Saundra who is desperate to fill her in on the school gossip, but then Rachel finds herself part of a secret club.

Like Fight Club, the rules around this club are tight. Members cannot associate with one another, and nobody should talk about it. The Mary Shelley Club has a seemingly innocent aim, to gather and share a love of horror movies. Another aspect of the Club is the challenge that each member faces…to scare someone.
Initially, like Rachel, we see the Club as harmless – but there are signs that’s not the case. Before long we have a decidedly more dangerous scenario, and the question is whether Rachel will survive this experience.

Not to be taken too seriously, and not something you’d ever want to experience in reality, but self-aware enough to feel the author was having just as much fun writing it as I did reading it.

 

‘The Project’ – Courtney Summers

The Project certainly encouraged me to think about some of the issues within, but it wasn’t quite the story I expected and I felt rather ambiguous about the ending.
Our story focuses on one group and their charismatic leader. Many outside the group regard it as a cult, and our main character Lo is one of those people. Working for a respected journalist, Lo dreams of writing an expose about the group, and getting answers to the questions she has about her sister.

I found it odd that the story begins from the viewpoint of Bea (the older sister) and how she became linked to Lev and the group. We see her as a teen dealing with the deaths of her parents and the aftermath of the crash that claimed their lives. It’s not really a surprise to learn that not long after Bea left to live in the group.

We then switch focus to Lo and her watching as she witnesses a suicide. Hard by any standards, but very odd to learn that the young man who killed him self recognised her and was linked to The Project. It’s not surprising that
Lo is then determined to find a way to expose Lev and what the group practises.
While it was interesting to see how the group operated and the subtle ways in which they exerted their beliefs on others, I found myself surprised that so few would challenge them or be prepared to counter their claims.

I felt uncomfortable watching Lo get sucked into what was evidently an unhealthy environment. The details were interesting, but never really seemed to make sense. Though we got answers, they came very much later and this meant I wasn’t quite as engaged throughout as I might have been.

 

‘Exit’ – Belinda Bauer

A cleverly plotted mystery that had me scratching my head at regular intervals, and smiling by the end. Given the subject matter, that’s no mean feat.

Within Exit there’s a large cast of characters, all of whom are pertinent to the story though it’s not always clear how. Stick with it though as all is revealed.

Our primary focus is the pensioner Felix Pink, a rather staid man who has a good heart but who – after the deaths of his son and wife – has lost his way. Partly to alleviate the suffering of others, and out of a desire to do good, Felix has signed up to be an exiteer. A curious idea, but this is a group of people who go to sit with someone who is terminally ill and wants to commit suicide in order to oversee their exit from this world to ensure there are no legal implications for family members. Whatever your view of this practice, I was captivated by this story the moment Felix and new girl Amanda end up on a job with the wrong man dead. What went wrong?

The investigation into this was great fun to follow. From Felix’s panic over the implications of breaking the law and the mundane matters of who would look after his dog when the police came to take him away to the much darker reasoning behind who might be responsible for the set-up I was desperate to find out exactly what had happened. Characters who seemed good were not; characters who I doubted were very much more positive than I’d considered. Throughout, I was guessing as to who was behind this obvious set-up and getting it very wrong.

Felix was a character it was hard not to warm to. His developing relationship with Skipper (the man they didn’t manage to kill) was heart-warming, and there were so many little scenes within this to love. Our final image of Felix waving Skipper off lent a lovely circularity to the book and I was quite in awe at the level of plotting that must have gone into the creation of this novel.

My only question after finishing the audiobook was about the slip…what did Calvin do?

 

‘The Lost Village’ – Camilla Sten

Finishing this with the wind whistling in the woods outside my home, I confess to feeling more than a little jittery at the thought of this story.

The Lost Village focuses on a mystery that has puzzled people for years…a village where all 900 inhabitants mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of their presence. The only person found when someone later entered the village was a young baby. A grisly scene met the people who rescued the baby – the body of a woman who had been stoned to death in the village square. Of course, people want to know what happened.

In the present day we have filmmaker Alice whose grandmother used to live in the village. She received letters from her family when she first moved, but had no idea what happened to them. She shared stories about village life with Alice, so this is very much a personal journey.

This personal involvement leads to what can best be described as a blinkered passion. Alice has spent years dreaming of making a film about the village and documenting what happened. She manages to track down the daughter of the baby found in the village (this isn’t a spoiler, though this fact isn’t shared with all the cast who journey to the village to shoot material to secure backing for their film).

From the moment they arrive in the village, Alice and her crew sense something eerie about the place. Of course, their unease starts to grow and we’re never quite sure whether the mysterious noises and sightings are products of unsettled minds or something more threatening.

As the story progresses the growing unease is well-captured. When it becomes clear they are trapped in the village it doesn’t bode well. This claustrophobic sensation is increased as Sten cuts into our present story with the narrative of incidents in the village leading up to the disappearance. The threat is real…and once this is clearly established it became (for me) scarier but also enabled me to develop some empathy for the characters who I wasn’t unduly concerned about initially.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for giving me access to this prior to publication.

 

‘The Sanatorium’ – Sarah Pearse

A remote setting in the Swiss Alps sounds idyllic, but the trip Elin Warner takes to the luxury hotel sited there turns out to be anything but.

Elin is a detective. After a traumatic incident in the course of duty, Elin has been experiencing flashbacks to an incident in her childhood that resulted in the death of her much loved younger brother, Sam. She is struggling to function, and has taken time out of work. This has been the perfect opportunity to confront some of her demons…the visit to Switzerland is to celebrate the engagement of her older brother.

Upon arrival we sense conflict. Elin and her brother clearly have unresolved issues, and from other narrative accounts interspersed with Elin’s story we know that this hotel is not as pleasant as it seems.

The site of an old sanitorium, the history of the place is tinged with darkness. When an employee of the hotel goes missing it becomes worrying. When an avalanche occurs, leaving the staff and odd guests stranded, things take a more sinister turn. Then a second body is discovered and it’s fair to say all hell breaks loose.

Someone is playing a very dangerous game, determined to take their vengeance on someone for something they resent. We are given a number of options for possible suspects, but Elin throws herself into this investigation with reckless abandonment. All around her, people are injured or killed…but still she determines to play the hero and sort this out (because she has to make up for something she wishes she’d done a long time ago).

We do eventually see Elin get the satisfaction of solving this, but at what cost? The revelation seemed to be a jump just a little too far to feel fully plausible, and my lack of engagement with Elin herself made this hard to really feel overly happy about. Things seemed to be over, but then came that weird tagged-on ending suggesting that perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to accept everything the author had presented us with. I have my suspicions of the identity of the mysterious watcher in the carriage, but it seemed so at odds with everything else that I’m not sure what to make of it.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication. It had some high points, but felt just a little too jumbled to work effectively.