Book Review #12 : The Picture On The Fridge by Ian W. Sainsbury

 

The Picture On The Fridge by Ian W. Sainsbury  

 

About the book:

Mags Barkworth still suffers the effects of a life-changing tragedy over a decade ago.

She knows her husband loves her. She knows he would never do anything to hurt her, or their daughter. But what if the voice in her head, the one she’s pushed away with therapy and anti-depressants, is telling the truth?

What if it’s all a lie?

When Tam, their daughter draws an uncannily detailed picture of a place she’s never been, Mags’ life starts to unravel.

But even in her most paranoid moment, Mags could never have guessed the secret she is destined to uncover.

 

About the author:

Ian W. Sainsbury is the author of the World Walker series and the Half hero trilogy, among other books. He lives in East Anglia.

 

My Take:
Mags Barkworth, who is married to Bradley, stays in London, while her husband works in a genetic research lab in Boston. They have an eleven-year-old daughter Tam. Mags’ twin brother Kit stays nearby with his husband David.

Mags has a history of panic attacks and anxiety disorder for which she is seeing a psychotherapist, Ria. Ria also helps her sort out her trust issues for Bradley, which have cropped up since they lost Tamara’s twin Clara, at birth.

The story begins with Tamara drawing a picture so realistic and beautiful, that her teacher especially calls Mags and shows it to her. The only problem is, Tamara cannot recall when she drew the picture.

Soon, Tamara draws a few more realistic pictures of places she has never been to, in a trance-like state, and Mags makes an unexpected connection between the pictures and certain incidents happening all the way across America.

The story also shifts intermittently to the POV of a serial killer who is a chronic insomniac, and believes he brings peace to his victims.

What Mags discovers is something which she has never imagined in her wildest dreams.

This story had me hooked right from the beginning, and it doesn’t disappoint. It is slightly different from the usual psychological thrillers and it may be categorized as a sci-fi thriller as well. The genetics research part is well written and shows the knowledge of the author regarding the same.

In some parts, description of Mags’ mental status got too much for me. Other than the character of Mags, all other characters seem ill-defined and they just flash briefly whenever they are relevant.

The flow of the story picks up pace in the later part.

Overall, it is definitely an intriguing read, and different than the usual psychological thrillers due to the added element of science fiction.

I rate it 3.5 stars.

 

Book Review # 11 - The Other Couple by Cathryn Grant

 

The Other Couple by Cathryn Grant  

About the book:

 

They planned a dream vacation. They got a trip to hell.

Maggie and Brad are on vacation at Lake Tahoe when they meet another couple, Skye and Joe. The four hit it off so well that Maggie invites their new friends to share her beautiful lakeside rental.

What she doesn’t realize is Skye and Joe aren’t just some random couple. They have been watching Maggie and Brad, have chosen them carefully….

And now, when they discover that Maggie has a secret that could destroy her marriage, they start turning the screws, pushing their own sinister agenda. But have they chosen their victim wisely? Or does Maggie also have a dark side?

As the pressure builds, what should have been a dream vacation begins to look more like the inner circle of hell. Before it's over, all four will be changed forever – and at least one of them will be dead…

My take:

 

The story begins with a couple, Joe and Skye looking for another couple to con and run away with whatever they can lay their hands on, when they meet Maggie and Brad, as they dine at a lake side restaurant alongside Lake Tahoe. Maggie and Brad own a boat and they are planning to spend a week in a rented house. Maggie instantly gets along with the extroverted Skye, and soon the two get invited over for dinner at Maggie and Brad's place. 

 

The stay prolongs as Joe and Skye pretend to get scammed on their own reservations. Joe and Skye decide to enjoy the vacation at the expense of Maggie and Brad. But soon Joe stumbles upon a secret which he can use to blackmail Maggie, and a game of chess begins. Who checkmates whom?

 

The story is initially slow paced, but I didn't mind, because I enjoyed the description of the rented house that overlooks lake Tahoe, the boat and the beautiful scenery, and I actually visualised it as I read in my mind's eye. The POV shuttles between the four of them, and the twisted storyline slowly takes form as we go ahead. After about 60%, till when the book is slightly sluggish, it catches sudden pace and many unexpected things happen and unravel. It will spoil to reveal anything, but I will definitely say the twist at the end was unexpected for me.

 

The characters are well defined and stay true to their character. Despite the slow pace, the flow of the story keeps us hooked till the end. I read many reviews that criticise the book for excess detailing such as that of food. But to tell the truth, I actually loved that too. Especially the way Skye and Brad cooked Tacos.

 

Overall, it was a gripping read and I enjoyed it till the last line. 

 

I rate it 4 stars. 

 

Book Review #10 - Brain Damage by Freida McFadden

 

Brain Damage by Freida McFadden

Brain Damage by Freida McFadden

About the book:

After years of hard work, Dr. Charly McKenna finally has it all. Prosperous career as a dermatologist? Check. Spacious apartment overlooking Central Park? Check. Handsome lawyer husband? Double check.

Then one night, a bullet rips through the right side of her skull and she loses everything.

As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her... before he finishes the job he started.

My take:

The book has been described on Amazon as a twisted psychological thriller that will keep you guessing. Well, I was certainly left guessing till the end about what I was reading!

After reading amazing five-star reviews, I purchased this book. And after reading two other psychological thrillers from the same author which I loved reading, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind. But I was in for a very big disappointment. This is easily one of the worst books I have read.

The story is about Dr. Charlotte Mckenna, a dermatologist, who has a great practice and owns a plush apartment overlooking the central park. She marries Clark, a handsome lawyer, who was once her patient, and pursued her till she agreed. One day, she gets shot in the head and develops hemispatial neglect on her left side of the body, along with loss of memory.

I had expected it to be a nice thriller where the story builds to the climax where she gets shot, and we are left wondering who did it and why. However, right from page 1, you easily guess who did it and why.

The main character, Charlotte, is hardly likable in the part before she was shot. She has absolutely no self-esteem and probably that is how she tolerates the jerk of a husband she married without even getting to know him better. Her cat seems to have better intelligence and instincts. Even in the part after she was shot, he is absent from her life for the majority part, and then reappears to make a deal with Charlotte about taking care of her in return for using her disability payments to sponsor his and his girlfriend's stay at Charlotte's apartment, humiliating and insulting her in every way possible. The same girlfriend he was cheating on with before she got shot. And yet Charlotte puts up with him just because she feels she has no other option! This was too spineless for my taste!

There are hardly any other characters to make us even suspect anyone else, and none of the characters is well developed. Almost 80% of the story is like a memoir of a person who is recovering from severe brain injury and focuses on unnecessary details of speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy that lead the story nowhere.

The only character I really liked was Jamie, but again, his character seemed very sporadic, he wasn't any valuable addition to the story, and the way his relationship with Charlotte was stretched till the very end was irritating.

The author being a physician, I can say she has written this part brilliantly, giving us a real picture inside a rehabilitation centre for the brain-damaged. But that is not why I picked this book for. It is very depressing to read and doesn’t add anything to the story at all.

So even though I like the author and the way she writes, this book could have been promoted as a diary of a brain-injured person, and not as a psychological thriller that keeps us guessing till the end. The only thing I kept guessing was when the book would actually end.

I rate it one star, the lowest I have ever rated.

Book Review #9 : The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden

 

About the book:

Victoria Barnett has it all.

A great career as a nurse practitioner. A handsome and loving husband. A beautiful home in the suburbs and a plan to fill it with children. Life is perfect—or so it seems.

Then she’s in a terrible accident… and everything falls apart.

Now Victoria is unable to walk. She can’t feed or dress herself. She can’t even speak. She is confined to the top floor of her house with twenty-four-hour care.

Sylvia Robinson is hired by Victoria’s husband to help care for her. But it turns out Victoria isn’t as impaired as Sylvia was led to believe. There’s a story Victoria desperately wants to tell… if only she could get out the words.

Then Sylvia discovers Victoria’s diary hidden away in a drawer.

And what’s inside is shocking.

My Take:

Sylvia Robinson has hit a low in her life when she finds herself jobless, with hardly any savings, desperately looking for a job, her landlord threatening to throw her out, ex-boyfriend Freddy stalking her, when she meets the handsome and charming Adam Bernett. Adam offers her a dream job. The job of taking care of his wife Victoria, who is half-paralyzed and wheelchair-bound after a serious accident at home.

As Sylvia begins living in the big palace that Adam owns in Montauk, far away from Manhattan, almost inside the Atlantic ocean and starts caring for Victoria, she starts getting curious about Victoria and her life before the accident. When she gets the chance to read Victoria’s diary, secrets begin revealing themselves. The diary chronicles the transition of Victoria from a nurse practitioner in Manhattan to a stay-at-home wife of a New York Times bestseller celebrity novelist. The more Sylvia reads, the more intrigued she gets. Because what she reads in the diary is completely opposite of what she is witnessing around her. And then, Victoria begins giving her clues, as she desperately tries to tell her something.

The plot is very gripping, and even though a ‘diary’ is a somewhat commonly used concept especially in this genre, still this story stands out due to the way it unfolds. The narration alternates between Sylvia’s story and the diary of Victoria, making the read fast-paced and interesting. Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger and even though we have a general idea of what to expect, we are left guessing and second-guessing right up to the end.

This is the second book of this author that I have read, and I would love to read more from her.

I rate it 4 stars.

 

Book Review #8 :The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden

 

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden  

About the book

"Mrs. Cass, we were hoping your son could answer a few questions about the girl who disappeared last night..."

Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door.

A high school girl has vanished from Erika's quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst--murder. And Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive.

Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth--Liam may have done the unthinkable.

Now she must ask herself:

How far will she go to protect her son?

 

My take

The story begins with a young girl Olivia Mercer going missing. Everyone suspects Liam, Erika’s son, who many seem to think to be a certified psychopath, to be responsible for the abduction and probable murder of Olivia. Erika herself is not so sure that Liam is innocent, especially because of the many incidents that have taken place in the past with Liam that have shaken Erika to her core. Still, being the protective mother that she is, she desperately hopes that Olivia is found soon, safe and sound, and her son is free.

Even as Erika feels Liam may be guilty, her husband Jason and younger daughter Hannah swear on their lives that they believe Liam could never do such a thing. Liam says nothing, and that makes Erika more worried.

While all of this is happening, Erika learns a horrible truth about her own past. And soon she beings questioning everything.

So what happened to Olivia? And is Liam innocent?

The story is gripping right from the beginning, as the narration shuttles between police interview transcripts of Olivia’s friends and their parents, as well as past teacher’s of Liam, who all seem to think that he may be responsible for whatever has happened to Olivia, and Erika, who tries very hard to hold herself together as she struggles to maintain peace in the family, at the same time bracing herself to face her worst fears. As the narrative goes forward, layers of the truth about Liam, who on the surface seems to be the most charming and most obedient boy on earth, but has a dark side to him, are slowly revealed. We get to know why Erika thinks her son is guilty, and how she tries to protect him from his own demons.

However, the ending is definitely an unexpected twist, and the suspense stays, revealing itself at the last page.

The only downside was the confusing use of tenses. Most of the story is narrated in the simple present tense, but suddenly some lines pop up in past tense and that becomes slightly irritating.

But overall, it is a gripping read, and I rate it 3.5 stars.

Book Review #7 - The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler

 

The Perfect Couple: by Jackie Kabler

About the book: The perfect couple … or the perfect lie?

A devoted wife…
A year ago, Gemma met the love of her life, Danny. Since then, their relationship has been perfect. But one evening, Danny doesn’t return home.

A missing husband…
Gemma turns to the police. She is horrified by what she discovers – a serial killer is on the loose in Bristol. When she sees photos of the victims she is even more stunned…they all look just like Danny.

Who would you believe?
But the police are suspicious. Why has no one apart from Gemma heard from Danny in weeks? Why is there barely a trace of him in their flat? Is she telling them the truth, or is this marriage hiding some very dark secrets?

About the author:

Jackie Kabler was born in Coventry but spent much of her childhood in Ireland. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then as a television news correspondent for twenty years, spending nearly a decade on GMTV followed by stints with ITN and BBC News. During that time, she covered major stories around the world including the Kosovo crisis, the impeachment of President Clinton, the Asian tsunami, famine in Ethiopia, the Soham murders and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Jackie now divides her time between crime writing and working as a presenter on shopping channel QVC. She has a degree in zoology from Trinity College Dublin, runs long distances for fun and lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.

My take

The book begins with Gemma O’Connor, a freelance journalist, returning to her Bristol home from a work-related trip, to find her husband Danny missing. Gemma and her husband have recently, just three weeks back, shifted here from London. She awaits Danny’s return for a day and a half, with her dog Albert as eager as her to welcome Danny back home, before finally going to the police.

DCI Helena Dickens and DS Devon are already neck-deep in two murders that have rocked Bristol in recent times, and they are hardly interested in a missing person when Gemma shows up at the police station.

That is when they make a fascinating discovery. The victims that have been recently murdered are lookalikes of Danny O’Connor.

As they begin investigating the serial killer angle and trying to figure out whether Danny is alive or dead, and if alive, where, new facts begin to surface.

Contrary to Gemma’s claims that Danny has been in Bristol since past three weeks, no one else has seen him, nor is there any evidence that he ever was in Bristol. Neighbours claim they have seen only Gemma right from the beginning; Danny has never joined the new workplace Gemma claims he went to every day, five days of the week; there has been no bank transaction from Danny’s account; Gemma has no photos of the two of them from Bristol though she swears they had taken a few, and there is hardly any DNA belonging to Danny in the house.

As the needle of suspicion begins pointing towards Gemma, two more backdated similar, lookalike murders in London come to light.

Where is Danny? Why are people who look like him getting murdered? Where did Danny go every day when he went off to work? Or was he really never in Bristol ever?

DCI Helena is convinced that Gemma is lying through her teeth. DS Devon wants to believe Gemma, but all evidence points against her. Gemma desperately wants the police to believe her but she has no idea how to convince them.

As Gemma rushes against time to seek answers along with her friend Eva, she learns things about her own life that she had never known.

The story narration switches between the POV of the police officers and Gemma. The flow of the story is very nice, and every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, making us hungry to read more. The suspense is good, and the twists are unexpected. The ending could have been shorter, it feels unnecessarily stretched out. But overall it is a gripping book that kept me hooked on to it till I finished it. I could guess the suspense a little beyond midway, but still, the why’s and how’s kept me wanting to read more. So I rate it four stars.

 

Book review #6 - Play Date by Alex Dahl

 

Playdate: a gripping psychological thriller about a missing girl

By Alex Dahl

About the book:

It was meant to be your daughter's first sleepover.
Now it's an abduction.

Lucia Blix went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie. Later that evening, her mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and shared a glass of wine with Josie's mother. Then she kissed her little girl goodnight and drove home.

That was the last time she saw her daughter.

The next morning, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia.

In Playdate, Alex Dahl puts a microscope on a seemingly average, seemingly happy family plunged into a life-altering situation.

Who has taken their daughter, and why?

About the author:

Alex Dahl is a half-American, half-Norwegian author. Born in Oslo, she studied Russian and German linguistics with international studies, then went on to complete an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University and an MSc in business management at Bath University. A committed Francophile, Alex loves to travel and has so far lived in Moscow, Paris, Stuttgart, Sandefjord, Switzerland, Bath, and London. She is the author of three other thrillers: Playdate, The Heart Keeper, and The Boy at the Door, which was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger.

My take:

Elisa Blix and Fredrik Blix are the typical family of four, with Lucia, a seven-year-old daughter, and Lyder, a five-year-old son to complete this seemingly happy family. One fine day, Lucia insists on going on a play date with her newfound friend from school, Josephine, and Elisa obliges, after meeting Josephine’s mother, Line.

Later, Lucia calls her from Line’s cell phone and begs to allow her a sleepover. Elisa is not very happy with the idea, but seeing how happy it makes Lucia, she allows. She heads over to the house of Josephine to handover Lucia’s nightclothes and stuffed toys, walks around the beautiful house where Lucia will be spending the night, watches Lucia as she happily plays cartwheels with Josephine, has a glass of wine with Line, and leaves, making arrangements for her husband to pick Lucia up the next morning, since she has her flight the next day, as the flight attendant for Nordic wings.

Their world turns topsy-turvy when the next day, Lucia is gone without a trace, no evidence of Line or Josephine at the residence they were staying at, or of Josephine at the school.

As the story progresses, many different angles are examined by the police, during which secrets come out, and the Blix family proves to be nothing close to the happy family they portray to be on Elisa’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

The story is narrated from different point of views, including Elisa, little Lucia, Line, Marcus, a criminal serving time in  the prison at Lillehammer, and Selma, a journalist who invests too many emotions in the case.

The flow of the story is nice. Human emotions are beautifully captured, including those of the young Lucia, who doesn’t know what and whom to believe anymore. The suspense is spell-binding, something I hadn’t thought of till I was almost 85% into the book.

The downside of the book is the way it drags on becoming boring and repetitive in the middle. The detailed descriptions, especially of Selma, about what she ate, what she wore, which roads she took, which shops she stared at, made me feel like giving up reading at one point. Had the story not been so compelling, I would definitely have left. I also developed a strong dislike for Elisa, and pity at the way Selma behaved. The secret that Elisa was carrying was mentioned so many times and yet not revealed till so late that it became irritating at one point.

So overall, a nice story, which could have been narrated in a better and crisp way.

I rate it 3.5 stars.

 

Book Review #5 : Lying next to me by Gregg Olsen

 

Lying next to me by Gregg Olsen

About the book:

No matter what you see, no matter what you’ve heard, assume nothing.

Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears.

In a nearby cabin is another couple, Kristen and Connor Moss. Unfortunately, beyond what they’ve heard in the news, they’re in the dark when it comes to Sophie’s disappearance. For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. She’ll do everything she can to help. She must.

But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. The lives of the two couples are converging in unpredictable ways, and the picture is unsettling. Lee suspects that not everyone is telling the truth about what they know—or they have yet to reveal all the lies they’ve hidden from the strangers they married.

 

About the author:

New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen has written more than twenty-five books, including The Sound of Rain and The Weight of Silence in the Nicole Foster series. Known for his ability to create vivid and fascinating narratives, he's appeared on multiple television and radio shows and news networks, such as Good Morning America, Dateline, Entertainment Tonight, CNN, and MSNBC. In addition, Olsen has been featured in Redbook, People, and Salon, as well as in the Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, and New York Post.

Both his fiction and nonfiction works have received critical acclaim and numerous awards, including prominence on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Washington State officially selected his young adult novel Envy for the National Book Festival, and The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year.

A Seattle native who lives with his wife and twin daughters in rural Washington State, Olsen's already at work on his next thriller.

My take:

The story begins with the abduction of Sophie Warner in broad daylight from the beach cabin at Hood Canal where she has come with her husband Adam Warner and daughter Aubrey to spend the Memorial day weekend. Of the occupants of three cabins near Lilywaup, none has witnessed this. The only eyewitness is an old dog walker.

The detectives who respond to the crime scene are Lee and Montrose. Lee has a past, of which Adam Warner is an important part.

Tension begins when Sophie’s parents, the Flynn’s, who hate their son-in-law from their core, enter the picture. The blame game begins. Affairs are uncovered. Secrets are revealed.

The story keeps shifting the point of view from Adam to Lee to the couple at the third cabin (Kristen and Connor). Things get complicated as Connor can’t remember what happened the night before and the morning Sophie went missing.

A Facebook clue leads the detectives to Coyle, a history-sheeter. But things don’t add up.

The suspense is built up nicely. The shifting point of view gives us an entire picture, at the same time keeps us double guessing. Despite the limited characters, we keep shifting our needle of suspicion to each one in turn. The climax is well developed.

The ending is slightly expected, slightly unexpected – a mixture of sorts.

The only downside for me was a few inconsistencies I found in the storyline. I would have mentioned them but they would be spoilers. These inconsistencies made me go back and read some parts again. And they stayed unresolved.

So overall, a good and enjoyable read. I rate it 3.5 stars.