Category: Thriller

Title: The Homecoming
Author: Andrew Pyper
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 26, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Bestselling author Andrew Pyper returns with a riveting psychological thriller about how the people you’ve known your whole life can suddenly become strangers.

What if everything you knew about the people you loved was a lie?

After the death of their absentee father, Aaron and Bridge Quinlan travel to a vast rainforest property in the Pacific Northwest to hear the reading of his will. There, they meet up with their mother and troubled sister, Franny, and are shocked to discover the will’s terms: in order to claim their inheritance they must remain at the estate for thirty days without any contact with the outside world. Despite their concerns, they agree.

The Quinlans soon come to learn their family has more secrets than they ever imagined—revelations that at first inspire curiosity, then fear. Why does Bridge have faint memories of the estate? Why did their father want them to be sequestered there together? And what is out there they feel pulling them into the dark heart of the woods?

The Homecoming is at once a gripping mystery, a chilling exploration of how our memories can both define and betray us, and a riveting page-turner that will have you questioning your very existence.

Review:

This book was a mix of suspenseful thriller and horror. It was a wild roller coaster ride!

There was a lot of suspense in the story, because we don’t know much about the events that lead to the beginning of the story, including the characters’ backgrounds. The characters all find themselves at an isolated house, and are forced to stay there to inherit millions from their father. However, we don’t know how they got there or even much of their relationship with their father. He remains a mysterious figure until the end of the story.

There were actually some fairytale elements to the story. They compare the house to the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel. There are even a couple of monsters in the woods. It’s a twisted fairytale. It was getting so gruesome that I had to stop reading it before bed one night!

Right away, I made a prediction of what would happen at the end. I was only half right, and I was glad because I was hoping it would be a more complicated ending than I predicted. I liked that I still had some questions at the end, so I can just imagine what some of the answers would be.

I couldn’t put this book down! It’s a great thriller!

What to read next:

Have you read The Homecoming? What did you think of it?

Title: An Unwanted Guest
Author: Shari Lapena
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: August 7, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A remote lodge in upstate New York is the perfect getaway. . . until the bodies start piling up.It’s winter in the Catskills and the weather outside is frightful. But Mitchell’s Inn is so delightful! The cozy lodge nestled deep in the woods is perfect for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. The Inn boasts spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a book and someone you love. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in for the long haul. The power’s down but they’ve got candles, blankets, and wood–a genuine rustic experience! Soon, though, a body turns up–surely an accident. When a second body appears, they start to panic. Then they find a third body. Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. They can’t leave, and with no cell service, there’s no prospect of getting the police in until the weather loosens its icy grip. The weekend getaway has turned deadly. For some couples, it’s their first time away. For others, it will be their last. And there’s nothing they can do about it but huddle down and hope they can survive the storm. 

Review:

I was so excited to read this book when I found out it was similar to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. That has always been my favourite book.

It is similar to that story in the way that a group of people are stranded for a couple of days, and someone starts murdering them. However, it doesn’t have the same ending. There was a little twist at the end which I loved!

This is the perfect book for a cold winter night. It was a fun mystery, but terrifying to imagine being part of it.

What to read next:

Have you read An Unwanted Guest? What did you think of it?

Title: Seven Days
Author: Patrick Senécal (translated by Howard Scott and Phyllis Aronoff)
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 1, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For fans of Stephen King’s Misery and Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman comes an engrossing thriller about a monster who becomes a victim and a victim who becomes a monster. From Patrick Senécal, the Quebec author who has sold over a million books worldwide.

One sunny fall day, Dr. Bruno Hamel’s life changes forever.

His beloved seven-year-old daughter, Jasmine, is the victim of a tragic crime. Grief-stricken, Hamel sets in play a meticulous plan. He will kidnap the man responsible for his daughter’s death and make him pay horribly for what he has done. He manages to ambush a police transport and disappear with his target.

But Hamel hasn’t accounted for Hervé Mercure, a detective with a troubled past who becomes certain he can track down Hamel by studying clues in his past—and in the increasingly unsettling phone calls Hamel makes to his partner, Sylvie.

Both riveting and provocative, this daring thriller is an enthralling meditation on what it means to be human—and to battle the monster within and without.

Review:

I have to start this review with some trigger warnings. This book includes the rape and murder of a young girl and graphic torture of a man. There was one point that I almost had to put down the book because the scenes were bothering me, but I skipped a few pages and kept reading.

This story was fascinating because it explored the morality behind killing. Bruno’s daughter was murdered, so he tortured her murderer with the intent to kill him. Is an eye for an eye applicable? Does it justify one death over another? Which one is the worse monster? The one who killed first, or the one who tortured a man for a week? These are difficult questions to think about.

I was expecting a twist to happen at the end. There was a slight surprise, but more the most part it ended the way I expected. Other than some graphic scenes, this was a great crime thriller.

What to read next:

Have you read Seven Days? What did you think of it?

Title: Watching You
Author: Lisa Jewell
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 26, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.

Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…

Review:

I loved this book!

The chapters were short which made the book a quick read. I read it in one day! It was fast paced too, with important plot points in every chapter.

Even though there were many characters, it was easy to follow them. All of their lives were woven together, but it wasn’t obvious at the beginning. I loved the way that the story slowly unfolded until the end.

It took a long time for me to figure out who was the victim and who did the crime. I figured it out just before it was revealed. It wasn’t an obvious crime, but it made sense.

This is a great thriller!

What to read next:

Have you read Watching You? What did you think of it?

Title: Don’t You Cry
Author: Mary Kubica
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: MIRA
Source: Borrowed from a friend
Format: Paperback
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In downtown Chicago, Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her roommate Quinn Collins to question how well she really knew her friend. Meanwhile, in a small town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more sinister.

As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under the stranger’s spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us.

Review:

My friend recommended this book to me, so I was excited to read it. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it.

It took a long time to get into the story. It moved very slowly. There was a lot of description and not a lot of action.

What was the most frustrating was the ending. There was no way I could have guessed what would happen. It took me a minute to understand what was happening because it was all twisted up and complicated. Some of the issues weren’t even resolved, or didn’t have a logical conclusion.

This book didn’t work for me.

What to read next:

• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
  

• When The Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica
  

Have you read Don’t You Cry? What did you think of it?

Title: Tell Me You’re Mine
Author: Elisabeth Norebäck
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: Publisher
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this riveting domestic suspense debut, a woman’s life shatters when she meets a girl she believes is the daughter she lost years ago–and she finds that reclaiming the life she lost might cost her the life she has. Tell Me You’re Mine is a story of guilt, grief, and the delicate balance between love and obsession.

Where is the line between hope and madness?

Three women: one who believes she has found her long lost daughter, one terrified she’s about to lose her child, and one determined to understand who she truly is.

Stella Widstrand is a psychotherapist, a happily married mother to a thirteen-year-old son. But when a young woman named Isabelle steps into her clinic to begin therapy, Stella’s placid life begins to crumble. She is convinced that Isabelle is her daughter, Alice. The baby that tragically disappeared more than twenty years ago on a beach during a family vacation. Alice is believed to have drowned, but her body was never found. Stella has always believed that Alice is alive, somewhere–but everyone around her worries she’s delusional. Could this be Alice?

Stella will risk everything to answer that question, but in doing so she will set in motion a sequence of events beyond her control, endangering herself and everyone she loves.

Review:

This was a slow paced thriller with a good ending.

It took a while for me to get into this book. The first few chapters ended with cliffhangers and things weren’t clear, so I didn’t really know who was related and what they believed was the truth. Once I got used to the pace of the story, it became exciting.

I found the ending predictable, but good. I think the ending was the only possible solution to the mystery of the possibility of Isabelle being Stella’s long lost daughter. I don’t think there could have been another ending, especially considering the involvement of Isabelle’s mother in the narrative.

There were some things in the story that weren’t believable, including the fact that Stella could just abandon her job for days and no one noticed or complained. However, this is still an entertaining story.

What to read next:

• The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

  

• Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

  

Have you read Tell Me You’re Mine? What did you think of it?

 

 

Title: The Exes’ Revenge
Author: Jo Jakeman
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: Publisher
Release Date: September 11, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Originally titled Sticks and Stones

A wickedly dark debut thriller about three women who’ve all been involved with the same man and realize the one thing they have in common is that they all want revenge against him…

Divorces are often messy, and Imogen’s is no exception. Phillip Rochester is controlling, abusive, and determined to make things as difficult as possible. When he shows up without warning demanding that Imogen move out of their house by the end of the month or he’ll sue for sole custody of their young son, Imogen is ready to snap.

In a moment of madness, Imogen does something unthinkable–something that puts her in control for the first time in years. She’s desperate to protect her son and to claim authority over her own life.

But she wasn’t expecting both Phillip’s ex-wife and new girlfriend to get tangled up in her plans. These three very different women–and unlikely allies–reluctantly team up to take revenge against a man who has wronged them all.

Review:

This was a dark, suspenseful thriller.

The premise behind the story reminded me of the movie The Other Woman. In that movie, three women join together to get back at a man. The women are his wife, his mistress, and his new young girlfriend. In this story, Phillip’s ex-wife, current wife, and new girlfriend try to get revenge against him together.

Most of the story was narrated by Phillip’s current wife, Imogen. The only parts that were not narrated by her were flashbacks into the other women’s lives. I found her frustrating most of the time. I kept wanting to yell at her to do something different. For example, she didn’t want to go to the police for help. Her husband is a police officer, so they were likely to side with him like they had done in the past. But I still think she should have reported what was happening.

Even though I found Imogen frustrating at times, I still liked this fast paced thriller.

What to read next:

• With You Always by Rena Olsen

  

• Still Mine by Amy Stuart

  

Have you read The Exes’ Revenge? What did you think of it?