Book Reviews
Love, Mom by Iliana Xander
This is the latest psychological thriller internet sensation, propelling this debut to heady Amazon heights. I listened to it as an audio book and rather wish I’d read it instead. The story follows McKenzie who receives mysterious letters following the death of her famous author mum. As she uncovers the truth about who her mother really was and...
The House Sitter by Keri Beevis
I’m a great fan of Keri Beevis who writes fabulous psychological thrillers. This book is about Nina who agrees to housesit for her brother following the breakup of her relationship. But when she looks through a pair of binoculars at the apartment block opposite, she sees something that looks highly suspicious. There are lots of extremely...
First Time Mother by AJ Campbell
Wow! AJ Campbell sure knows how to write a gripping psychological thriller! First Time Mother is about sleep-deprived, new mum Annie. Struggling with baby Lola and not getting on with her stepchildren, Annie feels like she’s going mad, with increasingly sinister things happening at home. This multi-layered book starts with a death in her home and...
You Shouldn’t Have Done That by Liz Alterman
You Shouldn’t Have Done That by Liz Alterman is a fast-paced thriller about close friends and how far a mother will go to protect her child. Jane and Ivy have been best friends since their sons Brad and Cal were in kindergarten, and now the young men are living together in a Wyoming ski resort. When only one of them returns from a ski trip, the...
You Killed Me First by John Marrs
I listened to You Killed Me First as an audiobook and having read Marrs’ dark future books and loved them, I found this to be quite different. It’s more of a conventional psychological thriller, with a very disturbing opening, portraying someone bound up and about to burn to death at the top of a November 5th bonfire. Narrated from the point of...
The Husband Before You by A J McDine
I blame The Husband Before You for making me seriously sleep-deprived! I couldn’t stop reading A J McDine’s latest psychological thriller. Alex’s first husband Freddie disappeared a decade earlier and now she’s married to his best friend, Carter. So when Freddie appears on her doorstep, it’s quite the shock. Oh, what a tangled web of lies and...
The Crash by Freida McFadden
With the exception of a couple of books, I’ve been a huge McFadden fan and certainly think she deserves the stratospheric success she’s achieved. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so taken with The Crash. The dual narrative of Polly and Tegan meant that sections of the book dragged because the same story was told twice and I found Tegan to be a frustrating...
Three Little Lies by Danielle Stewart
Three Little Lies by Danielle Stewart is a fast-paced domestic thriller about Jo, her husband Everett and their two kids, Megan and Ashton. We know early on that Jo has secrets but in many ways that’s a red herring. When British exchange student Eden comes to stay, the tension ratchets up. And then when Eden goes missing, the book races ahead...
It’s Always the Husband by C.L. Taylor
You can always rely on C.L. Taylor to create multi-layered psychological thrillers with well-developed characters. It’s Always the Husband is narrated from the points of view of several school mums, but the principle one is Jude, who arrives in small-town Lowbridge after a recent divorce. She’s thrust straight into the school gate dramas when she...
The Psychopath Next Door by Mark Edwards
Edwards is one of my favourite authors, so I knew I was in for a treat when I downloaded this audiobook. The story follows Ethan and his family, as well as Fiona, who moves in next door. When Fiona starts spending time with 12-year-old Rose, we soon realise that Fiona is extremely evil. This book explores parental child relationships, and what it...