Tag: thriller

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Review: The Perfect Stranger

Rating: 3 Stars

I have found that if you have not read a writer before, don’t read their best rated book first, because it will set the bar higher for subsequent books. I had not read Megan Miranda before, and all reviews pointed at All The Missing Girls being the greatest book ever written. Of course, that made me wary of getting it. As I was ordering some books from Amazon, I saw The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda, and added it to my basket without reading any reviews or ratings. I wasn’t disappointed.

Leah Stevens moves to a small town in Pennsylvania with her friend Emmy Grey. She needs to start over and leave behind the scandal that ended her journalism career and almost destroyed her. She takes up a teaching position in the local high school while Emmy, with her background in NGO work, struggles with part-time jobs. It is not a peaceful existence as she struggles with forgetting her past and getting used to living in the isolated house near the lake that Emmy was intent on living in.

When there is a vicious crime near Leah’s house, and Leah reports Emmy missing, all hell breaks loose. Leah realizes that her new house is not so safe after all, and someone seems to be stalking her. As things unravel, it dawns on Leah that there is no evidence that Emmy Grey even existed, and now she herself is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Now Leah not only has to prove herself innocent by finding Emmy Grey, she also has to see her past with new eyes.

The character of Leah is a good one. She has a journalist’s instincts and reactions, and she is ready to go to any length to get to the truth. The setting of the book is also true to a thriller. The glass walls that make the front of the house visible to anyone from outside, struck as quite creepy, and I kept imagining how it would feel to sleep in a house like that. Even though the characters and setting were good, I wish the writer had given some more reality to the narrative.

The irritant in this book was the way Leah Stevens describes everything, from her relationship to her family, to the scandal that made her run away, in terms that seemed to be coming out of the mouth of a psychologist rather than a journalist. Saying something like, “Have you ever wondered if what we’re doing is the only path? If we weren’t meant for something else?” when all her sister asked was what was going on; who talks like that in the real world?

The climax was also a bit of a disappointment. After so many twists and turns, the end was like a fizzled bomb. It was rushed. and there were some loose ends that were not dealt with. The most glaring one being the fate of Theo Burton and how the evidence that seemed so flimsy a couple of pages back, was suddenly enough to detain him. Then there was the last confrontation that was over almost as soon as it began, and leaves you feeling like you were cheated out of a good climax after spending so much time reading the book.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and would give it 3.5 stars. I just wish the ending had been a better.

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Sunday Rant: Save Me From The Contemporary Thriller!

I don’t know if the problem lies with me, or if there is something really wrong with the thrillers being written these days. It doesn’t matter which one I pick up, they all tell the same story, over and over and over again. I have read so many books that essentially have the same plot, similar characters, and predictable twists. Now, I love reading Crime Thrillers, Mystery Thrillers as well as Domestic and Psychological Thrillers, but lately there has been a flood of such books, all selling the same thing.

The definition of a thriller novel is a book that is designed to hold the interest by the use of a high degree of intrigue, adventure, or suspense (Merriam Webster). It is something that makes a reader want to know what is going to happen next and leaves them amazed with its unpredictability. By this definition, thrillers have been around since Homer’s Odyssey. Intrigue and suspense can be found in all types of stories, from fairy tales like Snow White and Red Riding Hood; to Shakespeare in Macbeth and Merchant Of Venice; to H. Rider Haggard with King Solomon’s Mines. The basic makeup of a thriller is the same, but over time it has branched out into many sub-categories making it more widely read than any other genre of books.

The most well-known type of thrillers have always been the Mystery Thrillers. Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and many such writers were masters of this genre which continue to entertain readers even today. In the 1980s, writers like Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Sidney Sheldon wrote about intrigue, crime and espionage, and were considered some of the best writers of thrillers. In early 1990s, John Grisham became a best-selling author by writing another type of thriller, the Legal Thriller which became an instant hit with readers.

All this time, it was widely accepted that this genre was mostly dominated by male writers who wrote for mostly a male audience, except for a few like Sidney Sheldon who appealed more to women. In the 2000s, with writers like Dan Brown and Jo Nesbo, who appealed to a wider audience, there was a visible shift in the narration styles of writers. Then came Stieg Larsson with his badass female protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, and things started changing for the genre known as the Thriller.

In 2012, came the success of Gone Girl, a thriller novel with a psychotic element, and before you knew it, people became aware of another genre of thrillers, the Psychological Thriller. Gone Girl was not the first of its kind, it was just more successful than the others. As a result of this success, other female writers began getting noticed and this genre became a constant presence in all bestselling fiction lists. And then came what always follows success – the Great Psychological Thriller Bandwagon!

I know I’m not an author, and I know I can never understand what they go through, and all that; but really, ORIGINALITY, people! There are only so many crazy females that the world can take. Not every female protagonist needs to be a certifiable murderess, or a crazy bitch; nor do they have to be depressed drunks. I like suspense and mystery and thrill and intrigue, but we’re back to where we were in the 1980s and 1990s with macho heroes doing their thing, and batshit crazy villains trying to take over the world; the same story being recycled again and again.

And please, please, PLEASE stop comparing each and every book to Gone Girl, already!!! I had decided not to read anything that compared itself to the book, to find that ALL the books have it mentioned somewhere in the reviews. To tell you the truth, there have been a couple of books that were decent on their own, but I disliked them on principle, because if they want to be compared to Gone Girl, then they deserve to be judged on that scale!

Same goes for the other trend of writing about domestic abuse. It really makes me mad when abuse is used as a prop in a book. Some books have portrayed such horrifying instances of domestic abuse that they leave you reeling and nauseous. I love those books. On the other hand, some writers take domestic abuse and use it as a tool for guaranteed success when it is glaringly obvious that they have no idea of what they are talking about. I HATE such books.

Going after commercial success rather than originality means that everyone loses out at the end, the reader, the writer and the genre. I’m a genuine devotee of the thriller genre, and I absolutely love the idea of a book that scares me yet I cannot put it down, a protagonist who I hate but cannot help sympathising with, and a setting that makes my hair stand and still I refuse to stop reading. All I want is a genuine story that doesn’t leave me with a feeling of having read it before!

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Review: The Wife Between Us

Rating: 3 Stars

Either I read too many thrillers, or I somehow end up reading similar books very close together. I wish I hadn’t read The Last Mrs. Parrish before this one. Because even though The Wife Between Us is infinitely better than that book, the main idea is so similar that it looks like the same person shared their ideas with the authors!

The Wife Between Us starts out as a simple enough narrative, told in two alternate voices, one a first-hand narrative, and the other in Third Person about a girl called Nellie. The first twist comes out of nowhere. Even though I had read the blurb and was ready to question everything, I didn’t see that one coming. I was able to predict a couple of things but not the first twist. For me, this turned everything I thought upside down, and I had to go back and read a few things again. This twist was so good that I had very high expectations from the rest of the book.

Alas, the second part of the book is just spent in clearing up all that happens in the first part. All loose ends are dealt with and everything is neatly tied up. Not a good idea for a Thriller. While you want to know what actually happened, all the suspense is dead and you just read on to find the motives and conclusion. The one thing that the authors seem to think we don’t know, is glaringly obvious from almost the beginning. At a time when domestic abuse is in the spotlight, it is impossible to misconstrue any clues about its existence.

The most unnecessary part of the story comes in the Epilogue. There was no need for that twist, if you can all it a twist. It just emphasized the feeling that the writers were trying too hard. Sometimes, it is ok to leave a few stories untold, a few ends untied. After all, that’s what happens in real life. It sounds too good to be true to have all your demons laid to rest in one go.

Overall, I like the book even though there wasn’t anything different about it. I liked the way the authors have dealt with domestic abuse and its aftermath. A domestic abuse victim can never want another person to go through the same experience, no matter how desperate they are. A good one time read.

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My Favourite Contemporary Author: Gillian Flynn

I was going through a major reading slump when I read Gone Girl, long before it became a blockbuster movie. I would leave books halfway through, nothing managing to catch my interest. Until Gone Girl, that is. I read it in one night, and spent the rest of the week lying awake, suspicious of everyone around me. That is how powerful Gillian Flynn‘s writing is.

Since I seemed to like her writing style, I thought I’d buy the rest of her books and read them too. Dark Places, a bit tamer than Gone Girl, was also quite crazy and left me with a bit of a hangover. But nothing could have prepared me for Sharp Objects.

Flynn’s debut novel, Sharp Objects, is so disturbing that even thinking about it makes me shudder. It is certainly the most creepy book that I have read in a long time. It is a book that has a must read for all fans of Gone Girl. There is just something about it that will make your heart beat faster, and your eyes dart around for anything suspicious, even when you’re at home, in your bed!

What makes Gillian Flynn an excellent writer of thrillers, is her portrayal of deeply disturbed, dark female protagonists. Some accuse her of misogyny; for me, she is someone who is not afraid of venturing into themes that make others uncomfortable. It is not easy to accept that a female protagonist can be a screwed up failure, with hardly any redeemable qualities.

The one thing that I find common in the three (four, if you count The Grownup, a short story) females from her books, is their inherent selfishness and strong survival instinct. They care about themselves before they think about anyone else, and that is what makes them so appealing. As a rule, women in fiction are thought of as selfless beings, out to do good in the world, and even heroines who are badass and have done some really bad stuff are somehow redeemed at the end of these tales. Gillian Flynn shows no such mercy to her characters. They remain screwed up, maybe to a lesser degree, till the end.

It is not just the female protagonist that is the main draw for Flynn’s books. It is the overall atmosphere. Her settings suck you in, and you get lost somewhere in the streets of these dark and menacing places, which spit you out violently at the end. It is such a shock to come out of her world, that you feel disoriented after finishing the book.

All the best to my favourite contemporary writer of thrillers. I cannot wait to read more of her books.

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Review: You Will Know Me

Rating: 4 Stars

A psychological thriller set in the world of gymnastics, this is book takes a peek into the world of competitive sports. I have watched gymnasts perform amzaing feats on TV, but never wondered about their lives; how they have to maintain a compact physique, and at the same time be strong enough to withstand the rigorous demands of their chosen profession. This book not only gives insight into the lives of gymnasts, it also shows the struggle that their families have to go through, though, surely, these families are nothing like the Knoxs!

Katie and Eric Knox are living their dreams through their daughter, sometimes at the expense of their younger son. Their lives revolve around somehow getting Devon to make the Olympics team one day. Katie still harbours some guilt from an accident that resulted in Devon’s deformed foot, and as a result puts all her efforts into giving everything to Devon.

When an hit-and-run causes the death of a boy, the whole community is left shocked. Devon’s gym gets caught in the eye of the storm, and Katie and Eric can see their dreams getting shattered. Rumours start flying about everyone and Katie can’t help but start digging about the accident. As she goes deeper, Katie finds herself unraveling secrets that are better left alone and that may threaten the entire fabric of her family. She is left reeling as more and more secrets come to light, and leave her determined to do what is right for her and her children.

Sometimes, parents will go to great lengths to ensure the well being of their children. Here, the parents will go to any length to make sure their own dreams are not shattered. Is it a crime to want the best for your children? Is it selfish to be willing to go to any extremes for the happiness of your children? This book proves to be a true thriller.

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My Best Books of 2017

I know it’s a bit late to talk about what was hot last year, but I thought I would give it a go. I had been going through a reading slump for the last six years or so. In September 2017, I decided to end this slump and get back to my old habits. Hence, my list of the best books of 2017 is not that long. I have read some really amazing books that have made me very happy to be back with my most beloved possessions. The following books are not in any particular order, just random ranking as they came into my head.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I have always loved History as a subject, but books based on the two World Wars leave me feeling depressed. So, as a rule, I avoid reading about these wars. The Alice Network proved to be a surprise in that regard.

It is a very sad story based on very real people who sacrificed their lives during the World Wars. Yet, it is a completely immersive tale. Women spies have been a source of fascination and wonder since time immemorial. Everyone has definite ideas about female spies; they’re either pious angels, or promiscuous devils; either black, or white; no greys.

The Alice Network forces you to look at female spies as courageous women who served their countries. They took risks and endangered their own lives. Their ground realities were starkly different from everyone else. They operated in a reality that we cannot even fathom.

Written in the voices of two different women, in two different eras, this book tells us about how spy networks were the backbone of the two sides during both the wars. I found it hard to put the book down as it took me through two wars simultaneously, and merged two stories together seamlessly. The wit and intelligence presented are based on truth. This makes me more in awe of the great women of the Alice Network.

This book is definitely worthy of heading the list of the best books of 2017.

The Rules of Magic By Alice Hoffman

This is by far my favourite book from last year. It is so far removed from my usual favourites that even I was taken by surprise.“Fall in love whenever you can.” The last rule of magic is the enemy of the Owens family. They are cursed in matters of love, yet they are destined to be followed by love all their lives.

The Rules of Magic is a magical book. It pulls you in and refuses to let you go. It is about the lives of the three children of Susanna Owens. She wants to keep them away from the cursed legacy of their family. But it is a great folly to hide your true self. Truth has a way of coming out. It is better to accept who you are than keep lying for the rest of your life.

The story may be about witches and magic, but what it embodies is true for all human beings. Life is full of good and bad, so accept everything that life throws at you and draw strength from these experiences. Loving and losing is all part of life, and avoiding love does not mean avoiding pain. The only way to live is to be true to yourself.

After a long time, a book has touched me so much that I could feel the pain of the characters. As I look back on the book, I can find nothing out of the ordinary that makes it special, but it is true that I cried with the characters. It has touched my heart somehow and I see myself picking up this book to read again and again. It reaffirms my belief that in order to live well we must “Love more, not less.” Another one of the best books of 2017.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

I had never read anything by Celeste Ng before. Little Fires Everywhere was my introduction to the author. And what an introduction!

The book starts with actual little fires everywhere in the Richardson house in Shaker Heights. From there, we’re taken back in time to around a year ago and how the events from that time culminated in the house being burned to ground. It is a good lesson in how there are always two sides to every issue. Everyone looks at things according to their own experiences.

Sometimes there is no right or wrong way of doing things, you just have to make the best of what you have. Reading the book left me feeling quite emotional. I really hate it when things are not tied up neatly and everyone doesn’t get their just deserves. But I also love such climaxes because they leave a lot to your imagination. And that way the book experience is never the same for two people. It is not a thriller. There are no murders, no crazy psychopaths, no robberies, no mysteries. This is just the story of how a few months impacted so many lives; a small glimpse into a community during the 90s. A good read and a worthy contender for the list of best books of 2017.

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

What an intense thriller! I had never read any books by Karin Slaughter and this was a great introduction to the author. The narrative is quite graphic, and not for the faint of heart. It grips you from the first chapter and you find yourself wanting to know what happens next.

The story revolves around a family torn apart by a tragic attack twenty eight years ago, which leaves all of them with scars, both physical and psychological. Charlotte thinks that she has come a long way from her nightmarish ordeal almost thirty years ago. She is a good lawyer, not like her notorious father who is willing to represent anyone regardless of their guilt.

One morning, she is caught in a school shooting. It threatens to expose everything she has worked so hard to keep inside her. As things get worse, Charlie’s life starts to unravel around her and there is only one person who can help her become whole again. But they haven’t seen or spoken to each other in a long, long time, and there are some wounds that just refuse to heal.

There are some sequences that are truly horrifying and leave the reader close to tears. However, the solid narrative and story make it very hard to put the book down. Underlying the narrative is the theme of a father’s love for his daughters and how he believes, I think quite rightly, that everyone needs a different kind of love. One of the best thrillers that I have ever read. Definitely a must read for all lovers of this genre and definitely one of the best books of 2017.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

When I picked up this book, I absolutely expected to get bored with it and have trouble finishing it. After all, I have never had patience with long, rambling narratives about people’s lives. So, it was a surprise when I it took me one day to finish it because I couldn’t put it down!

This is the story of Evelyn Hugo, a Hollywood mega star, and her equally famous and ill-fated marriages. Evelyn wants to tell her real story to the world, but only if Monique Grant writes it. Intrigued by why a Hollywood movie icon would want a little-known journalist, Monique agrees to write the biography, little knowing the effect it will have on her.

The character of Evelyn is such that you dislike her, yet root for her at the same time. She is ambitious and ruthless, but there are some aspects to her life that are very painful. Like her One True Love, and her best friend, who is ready to do anything for her.

As far as the book itself goes, while captivating, it feels like some parts of the story are just glossed over without any details. I don’t like lengthy narrative, but there are a couple of things that required more detail. Still, it does not take anything away from the story itself. It sort of reminded me of A Woman of Substance and Master of the Game, but only because of the strong female protagonist who will go to any lengths to get what she wants. It sure does deserve a place on the list of the best books of 2017!

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The Mysterious Mystery of Mystery Writers

There’s nothing I like better than old-fashioned mystery solving. These days Thrillers are all the rage, Crime Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Mystery Thrillers, and so on and so forth. I am a big fan of these Thrillers too. But nothing beats the good old mystery solved by a detective, professional or amateur. From Famous Five to Nancy Drew and from Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot, there has always been something about detectives that has made me want to be one of them.

Enid Blyton was the most prolific writer of mysteries. The Famous Five, The Five Find Outers, The Secret Seven, all made it look so easy. There was always a mystery to be solved in the neighbourhood. Too bad our neighbourhood was nothing like that. We had a pretty dull life because we didn’t have any mysteries to solve!

Enid Blyton paved the way for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, those cool teenagers who always got pulled into adventures and came out of them unscathed and triumphant! How jealous I was of these teens who could drive their own cars and go around fighting criminals and villains without worrying about studies or school. In contrast, my life was full of homework and school projects that were as boring as ditch water! So, I continued to live precariously through these awesome individuals who never seemed to age.

I read all the adventures of Sherlock Holmes with a wide-eyed wonder. He was a genius and could solve any mystery. However, as I grew older, my awe turned into irritation at how self-centered and mean he appeared to be. It was only after watching the retelling of Holmes in the series Sherlock that I was able to forgive him and change my views about him. But not by much.

In recent times, I have liked both P.D. James and Robert Galbraith. Though I find that their books have more action and broken limbs than exercising brains and collecting clues. With P.D. James, there is the added boredom of pages and pages of descriptions ranging from the scenery to the appearance of a character, making the readers yawn and think about leaving the book halfway. Still, her books are well worth the odd yawn or two because of the great stories she spins.

Robert Galbraith, while very good, carries the additional baggage of actually being J.K. Rowling which puts a much bigger burden on those poor shoulders. And Cormoran Strike, while one of my favorite characters from recent times, is somewhat violent and prone to being beaten up a bit too much for my liking. Yet, I have devoured the books and wait impatiently for the next one.

The ultimate Queen of Crime, for me, has always been Agatha Christie. I have read even her more mediocre books with much excitement and pleasure. Poirot, of course, is a favourite, for even though he is egocentric, he is never mean. I don’t care that much about Miss Marple or Tommy and Tuppence but I still read their books when I don’t feel like reading anything else. For me, there are no other books like And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. These books are perfection, the best mysteries that anyone can write. I am also partial to The Man in The Brown Suit, The Passenger to Frankfurt, Murder on The Orient Express, and  Death on The Nile.

As I write this, I realize that almost all the writers I have written about are females! With the exception of Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes, all characters have been created by extremely talented female authors. It also occurs to me that both Holmes and the Hardy Boys have always come across as cocky and self-centered! Well, that’s kind of funny I think. I wonder why it took me so long to realize this. Oh well, more power to women, I guess. I will keep reading and loving mysteries, no matter who writes them or who solves them. After all, my favourite TV sleuth has always been Scooby Doo!!!

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These Are Some of My Favourite Things…

The first book I really fell in love with and wanted to read again and again, was A Little Princess. I don’t remember when or how old I was, but I absolutely loved that book. Then came The Chronicles of Narnia and Anne of Green Gables. It’s not as if I grew up hating Enid Blyton or not reading her; I was reading too many of her books as it was, I just didn’t fall in love with them like I did these books.
It sounds strange now, but there were quite a few books in our school curriculum that I couldn’t get enough of, A Tale of Two Cities and Pride And Prejudice being two that I still re-read from time to time. That was the time that I found Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Rebecca. I do love a strong female protagonist in a book! Around the same time, I borrowed a library book called The Seven Dials Mystery written by one Agatha Christie, and thus began my obsession with mystery and crime thrillers. I still stop and buy Agatha Christie books when I see them in a bookshop.
As I look back, it is hard to believe that I found time to read so many books since, like any teenager at that time, I was also reading a lot of Sweet Valley High and Sweet Dreams. Romance novels have been a weakness of mine ever since I started reading them. I still have piles of Harlequin and Mills & Boon books stashed away in my closet where no one can see them! I also happen to have quite a lot of books by Julie Garwood, Sandra Brown and Julia Quinn. And of course, I have ALL the books written by Judith McNaught which I still read from time to time. So I’m not just a Crime Thriller and contemporary literature kind of girl. I love a good romance too. Though, I would rather read a happy ending than a sad one in romance novels. This is one of the reasons I have never managed to read The Fault in Our Stars or The Notebook. I do confess to loving A Walk to Remember beyond anything else, but that may be because that is the only book whose movie adaptation made me cry more than the book itself.
When you have read so many books in your life, it becomes impossible to say which books are your favourites. As I write, I can think of so many books that I want to read again and again. Maybe I will write about those books some time later. For now, these are some of my favourite books!
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