Tag: thriller

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Review: The Whisper Man

Rating: 3.5 Stars

The Whisper Man by Alex North is a good thriller, but not as terrifying as everyone claims on the back cover. The story and the setting are chilling enough, and anything that involves children is always uncomfortable to read, but calling it thriller of the year is going a bit far.

After the death of his wife, Tom Kennedy is looking for a fresh start with his son, Jake. They move to Featherbank on Jake’s insistence, into a house considered scary by the local kids. Jake is a sensitive child who has difficulty making friends and his imaginary friends don’t help the situation either. In addition to this, Tom finds it hard to communicate with Jake.

The village looks sleepy and safe, but twenty years ago it was the scene of horrific serial killings. The killer dubbed as The Whisper Man abducted and killed five little boys before he was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment. This isn’t a cause of concern for Jake and Tom since it was all a long time back. But just before they move, another boy goes missing, and the police find startling similarities with the old case.

Then Jake starts acting weirdly, and claims that he hears whispers at his window. Tom is concerned about the mental health of his son. There are also other suspicious things happening around him making him rethink about moving to this sleepy little village.

The Whisper Man is a good thriller that also has a heart. The struggles of a father to understand his son, and of a man to overcome the loss of his wife are beautifully penned, and create real sympathy for both Tom and Jake. There is also the character of Pete who is a very lonely man, living in his past. It is easy to feel bad for this police detective too.

The only things I found lacking in this book were unpredictability and a feeling of fear and dread which generally comes with the way an author writes about the uncomfortable things. It sounds quite macabre, but it is hard for readers to feel actual fear unless they see the extent of a killer’s depravity. After reading Nordic crime fiction, it feels like British authors are a bit squeamish going into gory details. But reading a book is like watching a movie in your mind; you want a clear picture that you can understand. Some books need to be more graphic because of their plotlines.

Still, The Whisper Man manages to keep the reader interested. A good one-time read.

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Review: The Other People

Rating: 3 Stars

The Other People is a decent book, but it doesn’t match up to the earlier brilliance of The Chalk Man. It is unfortunate that C.J. Tudor set the bar so high for herself with The Chalk Man.

Gabe has spent the last 3 years looking for his daughter. Everyone says his wife and daughter are dead. But Gabe knows that he saw his daughter in a strange car the same day she was supposed to have been murdered. He is not willing to give up on his quest.

Katie is a waitress in a service station off the M1 highway. She is the quintessential dutiful daughter, the responsible mother, and the caring sister. Her life is a series of monotonous days. That is all about to change.

Fran has been on the run with her daughter Alice for the last 3 years. She is running away from The Other People who want to hurt her and her daughter. Because she knows the truth about Gabe’s wife and daughter.

Then there’s a girl in a white room, with machines all around her. She has been asleep for more than 20 years.

All these stories would have made for an interesting read, if it hadn’t been so predictable. There are no real twists and turns in this story. The biggest disappointment is the paranormal angle which Tudor hasn’t used to its potential. If elaborated, it could have been the saving grace for this book.

What The Other People lacks is the coldbloodedness of Tudor’s earlier works. There is just too much empathy with every character. So I fail to understand how other reputable authors have declared this book “chilling” and “spooky”?

For me, The Other People is a miss. It is nothing like C.J. Tudor’s earlier works, and the chill factor leaves a lot to be desired too.

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Review: The Perfect Wife

Rating: 4 Stars

JP Delaney has done it again! The Perfect Wife is the perfect thriller. It keeps you on the edge and waiting to see how it all concludes. Technically, this book can be classified as a sci-fi thriller, but only because it revolves around Artificial Intelligence.

The blurb of the book is so misleading that you think that you’re in for a murder mystery. Actually, The Perfect Wife is about Artificial Intelligence and human failings. Whoever wrote the blurb probably didn’t read the book. Abbie finds out in the first chapter that she was declared dead five years ago.

Abbie Cullen-Scott wakes up after a vivid dream to find herself in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. She assumes she was in an accident, and wants to know what happened. When she sees her husband, Tim, she wants to know what happened, and whether their autistic son is all right.

Tim is a genius. He is the founder of Scott Robotics, a tech company that has made revolutionary strides in AI technology. What Tim tells Abbie is so unbelievable that she is unable to grasp the implications of it all. Abbie’s memories are of 5 years ago, when she disappeared. What follows is the chilling and thrilling story of Abbie trying to figure out the truth while looking out for her son and her own welfare.

Delaney goes back to the theme that he first used in The Girl Before, and tweaks it into something that is so much better. It is guaranteed to create conflict within the reader about right and wrong. After all, how far is far enough when it comes to technology?

There is an ambiguity about who the narrator of the story is. Seemingly two different people are telling the same story, but from different perspectives, which makes it more engaging.

A word of warning though: This book talks a lot about Autism and its challenges, and the different approaches to understanding it. The author has an autistic son himself and he has tried to be as real about it as possible. For many people, it might be painful to read about the treatments and attitudes regarding Autism that are very common in real life.

A superb thriller that makes me look forward to Delaney’s next.

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Review: Home Before Dark

Rating: 4 Stars

Finally, Riley Sager gets it right! After complaining many times about the ending of his books, I feel like this time he has finally managed to get the right mix. Home Before Dark combines horror, thriller and twists, while keeping it this side of believable. I want to give an extra star for that climax. I had been waiting for something like this from Sager for the longest time.

Home Before Dark sees Maggie Holt return to the house of her childhood. She had spent only 20 days with her parents in this house before they all ran away leaving everything behind. It is famously known as the House of Horrors. There are ghosts in this house. Or so the book says, and Maggie’s parents insist. Maggie herself has very different views about the book that ruined her life.

When her father dies, leaving Maggie the sole owner of a haunted house that she didn’t even know he still owned, Maggie decides to go back to the house. She needs to find out herself what actually happened there. The notoriety of the book has made the whole town suffer. There are people who are not happy that a Holt is back in residence in the cursed house.

As soon as Maggie steps foot on the grounds of the property, strange things start happening. It looks like history is repeating itself. Soon, Maggie starts doubting her own convictions as the house seems to come alive just like it says in the book. It is as if her father wrote the truth, and not a fabrication that Maggie has always believed it to be. And suddenly Maggie is afraid that the truth might be worse than fiction, just like her father warned her.

I like the whole premise and the setting of this book, with the big spooky house surrounded by rambling woods, waiting to devour people. What I can never get behind, is a stupid protagonist taking unnecessary risks. It was hard for me to like Maggie, even if I loved the book overall. She comes across as quite stupid and willing to walk into danger knowingly.

Still, dumb protagonist notwithstanding, Home Before Dark is interesting, if a bit boring and slow in the middle. The climax packs a real punch and rounds off the book nicely, though I did guess the culprit as soon as they came to the house!

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Review: The Chestnut Man

Rating: 4 Stars

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup reminds me of why I love crime thrillers more than psychological or domestic thrillers. The adrenaline rush of going after a serial killer, and learning about their motivation, is something else altogether. Police procedurals are so much more intriguing than any other kind of fiction, and Nordic thrillers are the best.

The press has given the name The Chestnut Man to a killer who is terrorizing the suburbs of Copenhagen. This killer leaves behind a chestnut doll near the victims. Theses victims have been severely tortured and have had their hands sawed off.

The police discovers a fingerprint on the chestnuts; that of a girl kidnapped and presumed dead a year ago. Her abductor is in custody, having confessed to the crime.

Naia Thulin is investigating the murders and doesn’t care much for the partner assigned to her. Europol sent mark Hess back to Copenhagen as a punishment, and he doesn’t want to stick around for too long. He is happy to let Thulin handle the case without getting too involved himself.

As dead bodies increase, so does Hess’s interest and Thulin’s determination to solve the case. However, not everyone is happy with what the two are uncovering. With little support from their own department, Thulin and Hess are in a race against time and a serial killer to save the next victim, and figure out the killer’s connection to the missing girl, the daughter of the Minister for Social Affairs, Rosa Hartung.

The story is so fast paced and interesting. Pages just fly by and before you know it, you have finished the 500 page book. There is of course, the blood and gore that has become a trademark for this genre, and it only makes things more sinister, and the odds stacked against the protagonists. The overall atmosphere is dark and gloomy, and the setting is late October and autumn, which ties in with the theme of chestnuts and dark nights.

The identity of the killer is a real surprise, and so much more satisfying than who I was thinking it was! Saying anything more would give away the story and take away all the fun. Overall, I would say that this is one book that all fans of crime and Nordic Noir should definitely read.

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Review: The Guest List

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Finally, a good book after so many mediocre ones! I didn’t have many expectations from The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I hadread The Hunting Party and didn’t find it too impressive. My opinion was reinforced when I realised that this book followed the same format, going back and forth in time, and with multiple perspectives. However, it hooked me from the start. I managed to finish it in two sittings, even with all the interruptions.

The story is nothing new. We have all read murder mysteries where the characters are all stuck in a place and the killer is one of them. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express, Shari Lapena’s An Unwanted Guest, and Lucy Foley’s own The Hunting Party are all based on this same premise. Still The Guest List manages to hold its own and tells a pretty engagung tale.

A remote Irish island is the site for a high-profile wedding. People say that this island brings bad luck. The bride is a force of nature who doesn’t let anything come in her way; the groom is a handsome heartthrob who has never set a foot wrong. As their friends and families gather to celebrate their nuptials, it becomes apparent that some of them are not as happy for them as they seem.

It turns out that everyone is harbouring secrets that can have explosive consequences. Yet, the bride is in no mood to let anything come in the way of her perfect wedding. The groom, while not too keen on gathering everyone together, goes along with the flow to keep the peace. As the story progresses, it is evident that it really wasn’t a good idea to invite some of the guests!

The identity of the deceased is not revealed till the last quarter of the book. As you read on, every single person seems to have a motive to kill the other. The setting is bleak and gloomy, with a bog and a cemetery thrown in for effect. There are so many similarities to The Hunting Party here that you can’t help but think of this book as a better version of the previous one.

The climax is satisfying, and for once, not dragged unnecessarily. Sometimes it is best to leave things be and not spoil them with epilogues. The only thing that bothers me about the book is all the coincidences that seem to have been written so that the reader will have no sympathy with the dead person. Even a couple of instances were enough to let us know that the deceased was no angel, there was hardly any need to make them into a movie villian!

Over all, The Guest List is a good thriller that keeps you glued till the end.

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Review: The Girl From Widow Hills

Rating: 3 Stars

The Girl From Widow Hills is a spine tingling, dark thriller from Megan Miranda about a girl who survived. Twenty years ago, six year old Arden Olivia (Liv) Maynor became a household name. One night, she sleepwalked into a rainstorm, and got swept away into a storm drain. They found her after 3 days, hurt but still alive. It was hailed as a miracle, and a triumph for the community spirit of Widow Hills, and eventually the rest of the country.

Now known as Olivia Meyer, living in Central Valley, Liv thinks that she has left it all behind. She has no recollection of the her time in the sewer system. All her memories are based on news stories and the book written by her mother. As the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaches, Liv receives news of her mother’s death, and has a sleepwalking episode again. As if this isn’t enough to make her unbalanced, she stumbles upon a dead body at her neighbor’s property. It turns out to be someone she knows from her past.

From there on, things seem to get out of control. Now, she is a person of interest in a murder case, her friends are acting strange around her, and her new life is unravelling in front of her eyes. On top of all this, she is not sure if she is innocent or not. The past she is running away from has caught up to her and she can’t do anything to stop it.

The story is unpredictable and dark. Everyone is a suspect, even Liv, because we don’t know what secrets remain hidden in her sub-conscience. There are all the classic suspects; the elderly neighbour with many firearms, the older ex-boyfriend, the quiet best friend, and the vivacious new friend. Even Liv is not sure about who to trust and who to stay away from.

The thing I liked about this book was that there was no romantic angle. There was no man waiting for Liv at the end of it all. It is the story of a girl, and it remains the story of a girl. A girl who is strong enough on her own, and there is no need for a romance on the side.

The most thought provoking point in this book is how we think of incidents as stories. Something that is terrible for one person becomes a news story for the rest of the world. People begin to think that they have a right to know about that person’s life, a right to know personal details about them. Some people even start thinking that this unfortunate person owes them something. This obsession with news “stories” is too real, and has caused grief to many families all over the wolrd, and continues to do so.

Now for what I didn’t like about this book. The story became a bit hard to swallow as it progressed. There are too many coincidences, too many secrets, quite a few things that remain unresolved, and the climax was a bit of a let down, not because of the twist; it was a good twist, one of the better ones that I have read recently, but it was just too easy in the end, for the culprit as well as the one who got them.

Even with the unbelievability, I enjoyed reading The Girl From Widow Hills. It is a good one time read for fans of dark thrillers.

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Review: The Sun Down Motel

Rating: 3.5 Stars

If The Broken Girls was creepy, The Sun Down Motel promises to be so much more! Simone St. James has outdone herself in chills and secrets. A mystery spanning 35 years, the story is full of intrigue and suspense; and it has a few ghosts thrown in for additional thrill! I had fun reading this book, especially late at night when you can actually feel the creepiness of the Sun Down Motel.

In 1982, Viv Delaney stumbles onto the Sun Down Motel on her way to New York. Circumstances make her stay back in the small, strange town of Fell. The owner practically hands her the night shift, and thus begins the spooky tale of the ghostly motel. The place is frightening, and haunted, yet Viv finds herself being drawn into this dark world. Then she stumbles upon an unsolved murder and things start spiraling downwards from there.

In 2017, Carly Kirk decides to visit the town where here aunt Viv disappeared mysteriously, before Carly was born. But fate has decided to play a joke and Carly ends up with the same job as her aunt at the Sun Down Motel. Before long, she too finds herself going down the same rabbit hole as her aunt. Nothing seems to have changed at the Sun Down in the last 35 years.

The story mostly takes place during the night when the Sun Down comes to life in a very creepy way. The parallels between the lives of Viv and Carly are startling, and their destinies seem intertwined. Many times I found myself wanting to tell them to stay away from the place and leave town.

Yet, not once did I feel like the two women acted stupidly. Normally, in such situations you feel like the protagonist made stupid choices by going it alone and not asking for help. No such thing in this book. Both women are smart, courageous, and not afraid to ask for help. Yes, there are a few instances where you feel like Viv is taking too many chances, but when you know you’re right and no one believes you, there are times when you don’t really have much of a choice.

The mystery part becomes a bit easy to work out as the story progresses but that is not really the main draw of the book in the first place. The climax could have been a bit more detailed. I could have read a few more pages if I had gotten all the answers, the most bothersome being the story of Callum MacRae. Other than that, I was happy with the whole story and would recommend it to all fans of supernatural thrillers.

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Review: Lock Every Door

Rating: 3 Stars

Riley Sager is an author whose books are a must-buy for me. I enjoyed his first two books so much that even the weak links in the books didn’t really matter. To say that I was looking forward to reading Lock Every Door, is an understatement; which is why I was so very disappointed with it! Even though there are some stellar reviews and this is a highly rated book, it failed to impress.

The book starts off spectacularly with Jules Larsen finding an apartment sitting job that seems too good to be true. She is unemployed and has been unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend. The address is the prestigious Bartholomew, a New York landmark, exclusive and secretive. The apartment is everything that she has ever dreamed of, and more. Except that it gives her the creeps and she can feel something sinister within its walls. Shrugging off the feeling as a residue of her past experiences, and ignoring the warnings of her best friend, Jules decides to spend the next 3 months living in luxury and earning the easiest money ever.

The rules are very strict. Jules cannot disturb any other residents; she cannot spend any nights away from the apartment; and she can not have any visitors. For Jules, these rules are just the eccentricities of the rich and famous, and not something to worry about.

There are also other apartment sitters in the building. Jules soon finds herself befriending Ingrid who lives in the apartment right beneath Jules’s. Ingrid tells Jules that she feels scared, like something is not right in their building. Jules laughs off her fears and doesn’t think much of them. Until one night she hears a scream from Ingrid’s apartment, and finds out that Ingrid has disappeared without trace. As Jules is afraid that history might repeat itself, she decides to find Ingrid and lay her own demons to rest.

The suspense and tension till here is absolutely fantastic; you can feel the sinister presence of evil within the Bartholomew. However, as Lock Every Door rushes towards the climax, everything starts spinning out of control. Jules suddenly becomes a dumb girl making poor choices, yet being smart enough or lucky enough to get away with them. Then comes the last part of the book that is one of the most unbelievable sequences that I have ever read. I understand that it is not easy to find a balance between the sinister and the real world, and sometimes writers find it hard to come up with a resolution that is good enough to justify the whole spooky scenario while being realistic at the same time. Still, this was a bit much for me, and a big let down after such an excellent rest of the book!

This brings me to the fact that all three of Riley Sager’s books have very weak climax sequences. The perpetrator is a surprise for sure, but once you look back, the whole plot starts to look shaky. This time around, more than shaky, it seems downright ridiculous and full of plot holes. If I seem too harsh, then it’s only because I expected so much from Lock Every Door, and I don’t like being disappointed.

Still, that doesn’t stop me from looking forward to Sager’s next book. I have bought it already and can’t wait to read it.

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Review: Conviction

Rating: 3 Stars

Conviction by Denise Mina follows Anna McDonald as her life unravels one fine day. She gets up early like always, relishing her “me time” before her husband and daughters wake up. She has no idea how things are going to go down on this particular morning. Engrossed in her new true crime podcast, it takes her some time to catch on with what is going on with her husband. Before long, she is alone in the house, desperate, and on the verge of doing something stupid. The only thing she can think of is to listen to the podcast, and try to forget her own troubles for a while.

As it turns out, the events of the morning are just the beginning of her troubles. As she listens to the podcast about a family murdered on board a cursed yacht, she realizes that not only does she know one of the victims, she has also come across another person mentioned in the podcast. Someone connected to the past that Anna has tried to delete from her life; a past that her husband, daughters and friends have no idea about.

Even though she is certain she knows what happened to the ill-fated family, Anna has no intention of telling anyone about it. Until Fin Cohen shows up at her door, and a nosy neighbour takes the choice out of Anna’s hands. Now Anna is on the run. She is determined to get to the bottom of the triple murders. An all-too-recognizable ex-rockstar accompanies her. He has no idea about the nest of hornets that he has stirred up.

Conviction is fast paced. The murder mystery keeps the reader hooked for a while at least. But then Anna’s past life starts intruding. While it is commendable that the writer maintains the pace, it also becomes irritating that things are left up in the air where Anna’s past is concerned. All actions and everyone’s motivations are guessed at by Anna, and that too with a superficiality that leaves you thinking, why would anyone do that?

Conviction concludes with the same speed with which it started, leaving behind a lot of unanswered questions. For me, this open ended conclusion is not a negative point. I like books that leave things unsaid and unexplained; in other words I like things to be left to the reader’s imagination. Not all readers are like that, though. So if you like books that tie up all ends and solve all of life’s little mysteries, this book might not be for you. For people like me, pick it up, give it a read.

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