In “The New Couple in 5B,” author Lisa Unger brings us a tale which will remind those of us of a certain age of Ira Levin’s work, namely “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Sliver.” As I was reading this very gripping novel, I kept thinking about those intriguing and slightly horror-filled novels, and how echoes of those came to my mind.
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Why do women lawyers represent rapists? In “Her, Too,” Bonnie Kistler faces this question head on, and the twists she presents in this action-filled legal and moral drama make for page-turning reading. In fact, by the time you’ve finished the second chapter, you will be hooked.
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“The Senator’s Wife” begins with a woman who certainly fits that title character’s role. Author Liv Constantine presents Sloane, a woman who has been married to not just one senator, but two. Her second marriage to a senator occurs just two years after the tragic deaths of her first husband, a senator, and the death of the wife of her second husband, Whit. In their grief, the two find solace together, and Sloane is hoping to find even a small amount of the happiness she had experienced with Robert, her first husband.
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In “All the Dangerous Things,” author Stacy Willingham addresses many dangerous “things,” but points out that nothing might be as dangerous as people with mental health problems who don’t receive the help and support they need. This carefully wrought mystery keeps us guessing until the end about several deaths in the story. And while we think we know what happened because the main character, Isabelle Drake is the first person narrator, as is the case with many such narratives, we can’t be sure that what she shares is the truth.
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The title of Megan Goldin’s newest thriller, “Stay Awake,” is important. We find out that those two words have been vital to the survival of the main character, Liv Reese, for two different reasons. Why must Liv Reese stay awake? Why has she written those words on her arms? On her doors? In fact, why are exhortations like that posted and written everywhere: stay awake, don’t trust anyone, don’t sleep? What we know from the first page is that Liv has problems remembering things. For example, she doesn’t know why she has a bloody butcher knife in the pocket of her cardigan. She doesn’t know why someone else is living in her apartment nor why it’s been totally redecorated. She doesn’t know why her roommate Amy doesn’t answer her phone, nor does Liv’s boyfriend, Marco.
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In the very first sentence of “The Family Plot,” by Megan Collins, the first person narrator shares the fact that she was named Dahlia after Black Dahlia, an actress who was gruesomely murdered. Likewise, her siblings were named after other murder victims, including her twin brother, Andy, named after Lizzie Borden’s father. The matriarch of the Lighthouse family came from a wealthy family, and her children knew, growing up, that her parents were murder victims. Their father was distant from the two girls, but shared his favorite pastime, hunting, with Andy and their older brother Charlie.
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With “Hostage,” Clare Mackintosh gives us a thriller with nonstop action and not one set of hostages, but two. The family at the center of these hostage situations is the Holbrook family: Adam, MIna and Sophia. Adam is a police inspector and Mina is a flight attendant. Sophia is their adopted daughter, and we learn a lot about the harmful effects of neglect in the first year of a child’s life. Sophia has an attachment disorder which makes her difficult at times, and she is also extremely bright. Mackintosh does a fabulous job introducing the three main characters, and we learn about them from the first person narratives Adam and Mina provide, each chapter detailing the time and the narrator.
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With her latest thriller, “False Witness,” author Karin Slaughter creates three characters we can’t stop thinking about. We meet sisters Callie and Leigh, both raised by a brutal, uncaring mother in extreme poverty. Both abused physically, sexually, and emotionally. What is different is how Callie and Leigh react to that abuse; what is the same is that the abuse ends up controlling both their lives—just with vastly different outcomes. She also explores the psychology of our brain after trauma. How do we know our memories are true? What does trauma or abuse do to our personality, our brain? And with the third character, she explores what a psychopath is capable of—in horrifying detail.
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“The Wife Stalker” by Liv Constantine is a suitable second book for the authors who created the thrilling “The Last Mrs. Parrish.” Like the first book by the two sisters who write together under the name Liv Constantine, this one features alternating narratives and stories that appear to lead in one direction only to completely turn us around when we realize that things — mostly — are not as they seemed.
In “Something She’s Not Telling Us,” author Darcey Bell makes it pretty clear that there are some unreliable narrators telling the story. The main character, Charlotte, appears to have a perfect life. Her husband has made enough money that now he can pursue his passion, theater, and she owns a group of flower shops and gets to spend her days among the beautiful blossoms and heavenly scents of exotic blooms. They have a beautiful daughter, Daisy, and while she does suffer from asthma, it’s under control with her inhaler. So Charlotte and Eli, her husband, are as happy as can be. Continue reading
In “No Bad Deed,” debut author Heather Chavez presents readers with the thought that making one wrong move or just one poor decision, might change our lives. In fact, Cassie Larkin has always regretted not helping a victim of abuse she witnessed when she was in college, and she’s tried to make up for that lack in her current life. She’s a veterinarian whose heart is bigger than her pocketbook as she helps her patients with their beloved pets even when they can’t afford her skills. She’s a loving mother to her two children and a devoted wife to Sam, every woman’s idea of a perfect husband. He understands when she has to work long hours and can’t always be home for dinner or the children’s events. Continue reading
Like many popular mysteries, “The Other Mrs.” by Mary Kubica has multiple narrators, but in this psychological suspense novel, readers are lead down the wrong dark path. Or rather, we are led down a path that goes in the right direction, but we completely miss the shady crooked path that goes to the heart of the mystery. Continue reading