All posts tagged: psych thriller

Samantha Downing is back with a dark, twisted new thriller, HE STARTED IT, about sibling rivalry, money, and more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Three siblings, in a race to win their grandfather’s inheritance, embark on a cross-country roadtrip, but dark, twisted things–and places–keep tracking them.  ~PUBDAY PREVIEW|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ BETCHES BEACH READ OF THE MONTH A most anticipated book by Betches ∙ Hello Giggles ∙ She Reads ∙ Book Page  AVAILABLE LATE JULY~ORDER NOW! In HE STARTED IT (Berkley, July 28 2020), Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan are together again after years of being apart, but this is no happy reunion. Their wealthy grandfather has died, leaving behind an enormous inheritance and a cryptic final message: in order to secure their cut of the money, the siblings must reunite for a cross-country road trip. They must stick to the itinerary of the trip they once took as children with their grandfather—no exceptions. Anyone who ends up in jail along the way or doesn’t complete the journey will lose their inheritance. “Wholly original. Scarily clever. Completely mesmerizing. You will never look at family road trips the same way again.” —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author Time with family can be …

Debut literary thriller about a family man grappling with his sense of self, a downward spiral, plus true-crime inspiration, character development and so much more in A GOOD MAN

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By Leslie Lindsay  Debut thriller about a man grappling with his sense of self after his life spirals out of control.  ~WEEKEND READING|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Ani Katz will have readers on edge the entire time they are immersed in her riveting debut, A GOOD MAN (Penguin Books Original, January 14 2020). Katz plays with the dysfunctional family dynamic, an unstable/unreliable male narrator, and the picture-perfect family. Thomas Martin is a devoted family man with a beautiful wife, a sweet daughter at a private school, a home on Long Island, a job as an ad man. He has an eccentric family of origin he’s running from–but sheltering–at the same time. In a sense, A GOOD MAN is a fairy tale, complete with flittering glimmers of dysfunction. Thomas Martin is a devoted family man with an enviable life: a beautiful wife and daughter, a well-appointed home on Long Island, a job at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He’s also a devoted brother and son, yet this family of origin is disturbingly sheltered. What happens when Thomas’s life—and ego—are rocked to …

Deceitful, Dark, & Twisted THE NANNY is about villians, the art world, the slippery nature of memory; plus Gilly Macmillan talks about her ideal writing day, her next book, and more

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By Leslie Lindsay NYT Bestselling author, Gilly Macmillan is back with this dark, original, and diabolically clever tale of family secrets, set in a U.K. manor home. I’ve read all of Gilly Macmillan’s books and I think THE NANNY (September 10 William Morrow) must be her darkest, most sinister tale yet. Each one just gets better and better. Years ago, in 1988, 7-year old Jo’s (Jocelyn) nanny, Hannah, left without a trace. Jo was devastated. No one spoke of her again. Jo grew up bitter and distanced from her family; there was very little relationship between she and her mother Virginia (Ginny). Eventually, Jo leaves her aristocratic family and home–Lake Hall–behind for California. She marries and works in the art world–until her husband unexpectedly dies. It’s been thirty years, and Jo must return home to Lake Hall. She’s dreading this. She and her mother are estranged and there’s a stuffiness to this upper class life she desperately wishes to avoid. While she and her daughter, Ruby, are kayaking in the lake, they discover a human skull. This couldn’t be her long-lost nanny, could it? And then there’s …

Deliciously dark domestic debut from Samantha Downing will have you reading at break-neck speed and looking at your neighbors differently

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By Leslie Lindsay  5 juicy stars to this tautly paced, all-encompassing deliciously dark domestic suspense, MY LOVELY WIFE (Berkley, March 26 2019) will capture and ensnare and have you looking twice at your neighbors.  Truly stunning, jaw-dropping, and so engrossing, you simply cannot look away. That’s what debut author, Samantha Downing, is so skilled at in her debut–this is a debut, people!–and you absolutely have to read it. Here’s the thing: it’s dark. It’s twisted, but on the surface, it’s oh-so-saccharine. Married for 15 years, Millicent and her unnamed husband, the protagonist/narrator have found themselves in a slightly boring marriage. They have two kids, a boy and a girl who are on the cusp of adolescence. It’s a nice life in a nice suburban area of Florida where everyone goes to work and then home for a pre-planned dinner. There’s soccer and tennis lessons and Millicent sells real estate. But MY LOVELY WIFE (Berkley, March 26) is a powerhouse of a novel. It’s about drama, a marriage, kids out of control, and the news media; it’s also about the folks next door, …

Crime writer Cara Hunter talks about the inspiration behind IN THE DARK, her research, how this one is a little like ROOM, but so much more sinister

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By Leslie Lindsay  Impressive police procedural meets psychological thriller in this deeply unsettling tale of a shocking secrets, IN THE DARK is head-spinning and riveting.  In her debut thriller, CLOSE TO HOME (2017), Cara Hunter took the U.K. by storm, introducing DI Adam Fawley and her dark police procedural mysteries. IN THE DARK is actually the second book in the series, but don’t let that deter you—IN THE DARK can very easily be a stand-alone read. A young woman and her toddler child are found ‘by chance’ by a construction crew working on home renovations when a crumbling shared wall is breached. They are starved, dehydrated, clinging to life and vastly unknown. How did this woman and her child find themselves locked in the basement of Dr. William Harper, a retired–and slightly demented–academic? The woman can’t speak, there are no missing persons reports, and the old man who owns the house claims he knows nothing. “A tense exploration of manipulation and betrayal . . . A solid psychological thriller with carefully developed characters and disturbing, cleverly masked revelations …

NYT bestselling author Linwood Barclay chats about his new thriller, A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS…thrills & chills & twists galore

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By Leslie Lindsay  Fast-paced summer thriller about a seemingly possessed typewriter will have you thinking you have it all figured out and then… Linwood Barclay is here chatting about how writing is a job he loves (but words don’t get on the page unless you put in the time), how he’s readying for R&R in Prince Edward County, and his love for typewriters and model trains.  I’m so glad I’ve been introduced to Linwood Barclay. His writing is sharp, compelling, and addictive in similar vein of Harlan Coben meets David Bell meets Stephen King. A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS (William Morrow/HarperCollins 2018) is a fabulous thriller beach read that you can easily finish in a long afternoon because it’s so fast-paced and has all the makings of a terrific read: murder, an unreliable protagonist, and just when you think you have it all figured out… You’re wrong. College Professor Paul Davis seems to have it all: house on Long Island Sound, a second wife, a son, a teaching job at a local university. But when he spots a colleague out …

Summer chills with a dash of horror in Zoje Stage’s debut, BABY TEETH, which will leave you thankful for the family you have

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By Leslie Lindsay  Dark, chilling, disturbing psych thriller that might be best suited to the horror genre, BABY TEETH will shake you to the core and keep you flipping the pages. Join me in conversation with Zoje Stage about scary child movies, the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths, how much fun she had writing Hanna, and so much more. If you want to read something this summer with varying reception, BABY TEETH (St. Martin’s Press, 7/17/18) is for you. It’s completely unsettling and will most definitely burrow under your skin and having you looking over your shoulder. And it’s deliciously compelling. Hanna is a mute seven year old who adores her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands—accepts—her, and Hanna wants to live happily-ever-after with him. But Mommy stands in her way. Its’s one of those Electra complexes that will have you questioning everything. Is Hanna really that bad? Is her mother, Suzette, partially to blame? Is there something more at hand? Suzette has tried with her daughter. Oh, how’s she’s tried. There have been …

What happens when a house-swap goes wrong, plus Thailand, reinvention, thrills, and so much more in LAST SEEN ALIVE

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By Leslie Lindsay  Chilling tale of psychological suspense hinging on one woman’s past, her attempt at reinvention, and so much more. Plus, Thailand, finding the time to read, books to obsess over and more.  Libby Hall wants a vacation. She’s newly married, a teacher, and has just suffered a miscarriage. She and her husband, Jamie are living in a basement flat in Bath when a leaflet flits through her door offering a house swap in Cornwall. The note indicates the couple selected their home/flat because of its close proximity to the hospital; they have an ailing daughter who needs a specialist at that particular hospital. In exchange, Libby and Jamie can live in their glorious home in Cornwall. For a week. If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is. But Libby is desperate. And so they make arrangements. The isolated seaside mansion is everything they hoped for–and more. Panoramic views! A fully stocked fridge! Plenty of sightseeing nearby! But strange things start happening. A sheep’s skull in a tree? A strange man who seems to be lurking everywhere …

Wednesdays with Writers: Stunning Psychological Debut from Roz Nay OUR LITTLE SECRET

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By Leslie Lindsay  Stunning Psychological Debut from Roz Nay about first loves, mother-daughter relationships, a disturbing twist and so much more in OUR LITTLE SECRET; oh and her TV obsessions, literary influences, those delicious almonds, and so much more. Stunning voice-driven psychological thriller explores first love and the dark recesses of a twenty-something’s mind.  High School. Oh, how we loathe to love. Or love to loath. It’s often a time complicated with first love, self-discovery, and parental angst. That’s where OUR LITTLE SECRET starts–with Angela Petitjean, a girl living with her high-achieving academic parents and feeling like she’s not really fitting in. Plus, her mother is a little overbearing and a little too enmeshed in her daughter’s life.  But back up a bit and the story actually begins in a starl interview room at a police station. The officer hounds Angela about a missing woman, whom she claims to have no knowledge of. What she ‘forgets’ to tell us is that missing woman is the wife of her first love, HP.  Angela promises the officer she will …

WeekEND Reading: Internationally bestselling U.K. Author Clare Mackintosh is back with her third psychological suspense/crime novel, LET ME LIE and it will most definitely keep you guessing

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By Leslie Lindsay I’m so excited to share with you LET ME LIE (Berkley, March 13 2018), the next work of psychological suspense from New York Times and internationally bestselling author of I LET YOU GO and I SEE YOU. Have you read either of them?  I was absolutely gobsmacked by the cliff-hanger ending of I LET YOU GO and the cat-and-mouse intensity of I SEE YOU had me on the edge-of-my-seat. She’s back with her third tale of psychological intrigue and I promise, it will keep you guessing.  “The police say it was suicide. Anna says it was murder. They’re both wrong.” Before turning to writing, Mackintosh is a police investigator for twelve years and it most definitely shows in her writing. There’s plenty of real-life procedural jargon and action, but it’s more than that, too. Last year, Tom and Caroline Johnson chose to end their lives, one seemingly unable to live without the other. Their daughter, Anna, is struggling to come to terms with her parents’ deaths, unwilling to accept the verdict of …