Tag: Shari Lapena

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Review: The End Of Her

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Another great thriller by Shari Lapena. Though she hasn’t been able to recreate the chilling atmosphere of The Couple Next Door in her later books, she still manages to pack enough in The End of Her to satisfy her readers.

Stephanie and Patrick are parents to newborn twins, exhausted and sleep-deprived like all other new parents. They are finding it hard to juggle everything and staying on top of work. Yet, they are happy and satisfied with their lives.

This bubble of happiness bursts when one day Patrick’s past arrives to haunt them. A woman turns up, seemingly from out of nowhere, and starts blackmailing Patrick. She accuses him of killing his first wife and threatens to tell Stephanie all about it.

Not ready to give in to the blackmail, Patrick confides in Stephanie about everything and assures her that he is innocent of murder. Now it is up to Stephanie to believe her husband or to start doubting him. Trust is not as easy to come by as Stephanie had thought. Suddenly secrets start tumbling out, and Stephanie is not sure who and what to believe.

Shari Lapena is truly a master of Domestic Thriller. There are no bodies, hardly any murders in her books, just some truly creepy psychopaths living a normal life and fooling everyone around them. She makes you look twice at the people you meet daily, and wonder if such people exist in real life!

The End Of Her is a fairly easy read; I finished it in one day. You want to get to the bottom of everything as soon as possible. It is a classic “one more chapter” book that lives up to its promise.

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Review: An Unwanted Guest

Rating: 4 Stars

An old-fashioned murder mystery, set in an isolated hotel, where everyone is a suspect. What’s not to like in a book like this? An Agatha Christie fan like me can never get enough of these mysteries, and Shari Lapena delivers the goods most satisfactorily.

Ten people check into Mitchell’s Inn, a beautiful hotel in the Catskill Mountains, away from the crowded and busy life of the city. There is no wi-fi or mobile connectivity in this location to disturb the peace that the guests are looking for. On this particular weekend, however, the weather is horrible as a fierce storm rages outside, threatening to cut off the electricity and heat supplies. With only the owner and his son as the staff, the hotel is also short-staffed because of the storm.

But the weather is not the worst enemy that they have to face.

The first body is found lying down the stairs, seemingly having tripped. Everyone is skeptical when the possibility of a murder is raised. This skepticism doesn’t last long as they realize that they don’t know anything about each other, and that there is possibly a murderer among them.

Fast-paced and slick, this book reminded me of my favourite And Then There Were None, with the suspicion moving from one person to the next. However, that is where the similarity ended.

While Agatha Christie had strong back stories for all the characters, here the motive lacked that strength.

Everyone has something to hide, a secret which they don’t want others to know. While some secrets were really worth hiding, others seem to be made up just to move the story forward. In real life, there aren’t many people who will really care about something like this in someone’s past. But, like I said, something was needed to move the story forward.

The second weakness in the narrative was the sudden wrapping up of the whole case. I found it a bit abrupt, as I expected something better from the writer who gave us the brilliant ending of The Couple Next Door. Then again, I said the same thing about the last chapter of A Stranger In The House, so I think the bar was set so high with The Couple Next Door, that it is difficult to reach that level again.

Overall, I loved this book because of its typical murder mystery feel, and the suspense and terror it managed to create.

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