Category: Thriller

‘Be Not Far From Me’ – Mindy McGinnis

Mindy McGinnis doesn’t shy away from the topics that many would rather not address. In Be Not Far From Me the mood quickly shifts and it was a lot more graphic than I was expecting. I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed this exactly, but it certainly was a story I was keen to finish as soon as I could and work out what would happen.

Our main character is Ashley Hawkins. Resourceful and more than a little intimidating if I’m being honest, and the qualities that made her so irritating at the beginning stand her in good stead as the book progresses. When she sets off for a party in the woods with her friends, it should be a welcome start to the summer holidays.

Of course, things have a habit of going wrong when groups of teens assemble in the woods for drunken fun…and this couldn’t have gone more wrong if they were trying!

Ashley definitely sees herself as slightly better than her friends in respect of her ability to navigate in the woods. The party starts well, but Ashley is on edge because her boyfriend’s ex has turned up. She looks amazing, and Ashley is feeling uncomfortable. She drinks more than she might otherwise be tempted to. When she wakes in the middle of the night to relieve herself, she is stunned to stumble across her boyfriend and his ex having sex!

Now, this scenario is not going to be one that many will ever have to face. Heaven only knows what someone would do. Certainly, the urge to flee would be high. However, Ashley runs and doesn’t stop…until she falls and passes out.

What follows is the grimmest fourteen days anyone could hope to experience.

While Ashley is trying to survive and find her way back to humanity, we learn a little more about her and her past. This allowed us to gain a little more understanding of her character, and while I admired her resilience and ability to cope in adversity there was a part of me that wished the details were a little less graphic.

By the time we get to the end of the book, things have developed considerably. Ashley certainly grows as a character and while I don’t begrudge her the relatively happy ending I can’t help think it’s highly improbable.

 

‘The Couple on Maple Drive’ – Sam Carrington

The book opens with a body being carried out of a house on Maple Drive and someone led out in handcuffs. By the end of the book we know the identity of each of these characters, and have been offered the reasons for it.

Isla and Zach are a relatively new couple. They’ve worked together for a while, and after experiencing a violent mugging Isla has been struggling to cope. Zach has moved in to care for her, but as Isla begins to get flashbacks to the night of her attack she starts to wonder whether Zach might know more than he’s letting on. She enlists the help of a group of true-crime enthusiasts and, from this point on, things happen quickly.

What happened is actually signalled fairly early on. I wondered to what extent we were being toyed with, and whether the reality of the situation was more focused on Isla. While there’s something refreshing about things being as they seemed, it felt odd. I felt duped; expecting something clever but then realising it was exactly what it seemed. This is very much more about my expectations than a problem with the book.

The story began, for me, rather slowly. It seemed to take a while to flesh out Isla’s situation and she was a protagonist that it was difficult to warm to. She made dubious decisions and the rapidity with which things escalated was bizarre.

Much of the story hinges on characters that play a peripheral part in events, and things meld together in a way that is quite incredible. It was hard to reconcile the images we’d been given of certain characters with the reality of their actions. Some elements made little sense.

While I had my issues with the book, this was a pretty solid thriller that offers enough to keep you entertained while reading.

 

‘The Grimrose Girls’ – Laura Pohl

The Grimrose Girls makes for an interesting story…death, secrets and a boarding school with a history tinged with odd events. When the book begins we learn that Ari, a student at the school, has recently died. The general consensus is that she committed suicide, but her best friends – Yuki, Rory and Ella – are convinced that she would not have done this and there is more to the story.

Upon their return to school the girls decide to try and investigate. They have to broach some dark secrets and try to address some of the things about themselves they would prefer to keep hidden. It’s unclear who can help them and who might have something to gain from keeping them in the dark.

New girl Nani is given Ari’s place in the school and it’s no surprise that she finds it hard to settle. She has her own secrets and is reluctant to trust others. Determined to find out exactly what caused her father to leave before he got her the place at the famed school, Nani offers to help the girls try to discover what happened to Ari.

Once Nani finds a mysterious book the girls start to realise that there are some disturbing links between Ari’s death and other strange deaths of students that have taken place in the last few years.

I enjoyed the natural way in which we learned about each of the girls and the details of the mystery of the school. Some of the finer points of the story weren’t always explained, but I wonder whether this might be because there’s more details to come in the next book.

 

‘The Night Caller’ – Martina Murphy

The Night Caller is a slow-burn thriller, interweaving a standard police procedural with an intriguing character study.

Set in Ireland, we follow our two main characters as they are investigating a murder. A young woman was found, beaten, and the investigation into her death throws up some rather odd facts. Though we don’t learn how until much later, it’s tied to a killing that took place years earlier and some more recent crimes.

I enjoyed learning about Dan and Lucy as we watch them carry out their investigation. They each have their issues, and I can certainly see these being explored further if this is part of a series. While this was interesting, it never became a distraction from the gritty focus of our main story.

As things progressed, I found myself slack-jawed at what was unravelling. The crime and our knowledge of the one responsible was quite unexpected, though the clues are there if you remain alert.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this before publication in exchange for my review.

 

‘Apples Never Fall’ – Liane Moriarty

Apples Never Fall is a book that fans of Moriarty may love unreservedly, but which may perplex others.

The story begins rather slowly…with the disappearance of Joy Delaney.
Joy, along with her husband Stan, is a character who seems to have it all. A long marriage, four adult children, a successful tennis coach and embarking on retirement in a comfortable situation. Yet Joy disappears, leaving no note and a garbled text message to each of her children. Her husband has scratches on his face…and the detective investigating this case is, probably rightly, suspicious of the family and their reluctance to tell all.

The initial setting-up of the story felt odd, and it soon becomes apparent that there is more to this. A mysterious young woman arrived on the doorstep of the Delaney home, claiming to have been attacked by her boyfriend. They take her in, and she quickly becomes embedded in their nest.

The arrival of this cuckoo definitely stirs things up. We don’t learn the details quickly, but I was intrigued by the way these characters interacted and the shifting focus we had which allowed us – slowly – to start piecing things together.
While the story is not quite the dramatic one I thought it was going to be, I actually found myself liking it more because of the way it examined relationships and how our actions can impact on others even years down the line.

Without giving too much away, the ending had – for me – a wonderful conflict. There was happiness and acceptance on one hand and a chilling sense of a story yet to be uncovered.

 

‘Real Easy’ – Marie Rutkoski

Real Easy was not what I expected at all…and I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this before publication.
Our setting is the Lovely Lady strip club. We get to meet the girls, the other staff and some of the patrons over the course of the novel as we watch the police try to uncover the identity of the person responsible for running two women (both of whom worked at the club) off the road, killing one and then holding the other hostage.
The scenario around the serial killer targeting strippers feels like it has been done before, but this was a cast of characters that you couldn’t help but root for. We receive a sympathetic portrayal of a business that may not be to everyone’s states, and a chilling reminder set of the risks involved in certain types of work.
There were more than one or two moments where I found it hard not to prejudge. While I still had a lot of questions, there was plenty to keep me satisfied.

 

‘The Paris Apartment’ – Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley does it again…a thriller that gets its hold on you and draws you in.

Featuring a cast of characters that you can’t help but hate/love, The Paris Apartment is a story that I’m sure lots will be talking about upon its release.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the chance to read this in advance of publication.

Our story focuses on a mysterious apartment block in Paris and a family with plenty to hide. Sometimes secrets can be kept for years, but just one thread unravelling can pull it all apart. While the secrets are not anything out of the ordinary, the way they have tangled over the years and the resulting problems make for a most intriguing read.

When Jess needs to escape her life in London after a run-in with her pervert boss, she flees to her brother, Ben, who has found himself an apartment in Paris. She gets more than she imagined, as we already know that something has happened to Ben. Watching Jess blunder into this macabre building – with deliciously creepy characters and a wonderfully oppressive atmosphere full of shadows that could just be hiding something threatening – felt uncomfortable at times. We sensed she was getting into something potentially dangerous, but her determination to leave no stone unturned and to help those in need meant you couldn’t help but wish her success in her endeavours.

Knowing no more than is revealed to us in the blurb is important for this read. We know something is not right, but the way these little details are revealed is done well. Perhaps a little more background information about some of the characters would have been welcome but there was plenty to be getting on with.

 

‘Hide’ – Nell Pattison

Seven friends head out into the nature reserve where Lauren works. One of the group, Alec, is shot and so begins a tense few hours as they try to work out who was responsible.

We are told fairly on that a number of the group have secrets they are wanting to keep quiet. Alec has, we know, let the group know he is aware of some of the things they’re hiding and so the possibilities for who might have killed him are fairly high.

From the outset we have a fairly claustrophobic setting. As the characters split up to try and find their way to safety we know that time is of the essence. The various characters are developed a little, though I did feel we were deliberately kept out of the loop a little.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this prior to publication.

 

‘Falling’ – T.J. Newman

From start to finish I did not want to put this down. I’d heard rave reviews, wondered if it would be worth the hype and I’m happy to jump on the bandwagon and urge people to read this book.

We open with a routine day; a family preparing for the day ahead. Little do they (or we) know just how rapidly their lives are about to change once the cable guy drops in.

Bill, a pilot of some standing, has been called onto a last minute flight. He regrets letting down his wife and kids, but his duty is important to him. The chilling moment when Bill learns that his family are being held hostage and he has a choice to make had my jaw dropping! Allow his family to be killed in order to protect his passengers, or save his family and be responsible for the deaths of over a hundred innocents. What a dilemma!

Particularly since 9/11 and the increasing instances of terror attacks, this is a very real fear that Newman plays upon. How much do we value duty and family? Which would take precedence? Should anyone ever have to choose? I could not imagine being put in this position and it was gripping to see this dilemma play out.

However, the action focuses on a lot of other characters. We follow them on board and through their experiences and this really brought a sense of immediacy to the story. Some very serious issues were raised, and I genuinely found myself far more caught up in this element than I thought I would.

Packed with drama, plenty of heart-stopping moments and a truly Hollywood ending…what’s not to love?

 

‘Her Perfect Twin’ – Sarah Bonner

The joy of finding a book that you get so caught up in cannot be underestimated…having read so many of Bonner’s reviews on Twitter, I was desperate to read her debut. I am stunned!

Due out in January 2022, I’m so grateful to NetGalley for letting me get my hands on this early…and I’m desperate to read it again to try and make sense of the twisted mind-games and genius plotting that I’ve been fortunate enough to read.

The book started with a humdinger of a quandary. Megan finds a picture of herself on her husband’s phone wearing electric blue underwear. Only she doesn’t have any. I cannot imagine what would go through your mind in this situation, but when we learn Megan has an identical twin her behaviour and subsequent actions make sense. At this point I imagined we’d get an engaging thriller as we followed Megan try to cover up her actions, but really wasn’t expecting anything too out of the familiar.

If I could only take back all my pre-judgments I would be happy, because within a relatively short space of time we are given a complete bolt out of the blue.

Nothing will be given away here, but it didn’t take long for me to realise we were in far from familiar territory and being played. And there were more shocks to come!

Told in four parts, this story was so cleverly constructed that I really want to go back and reread it to see which elements I’d missed in the initial read. The characters were far from idealised, but those flaws actually played a key role in the success of the plot.

I am so excited to see what friends make of this when it’s released…though I’m still not entirely sure there isn’t something I missed!