The Housemaid is Watching

The Housemaid is Watching is the third book in the Housemaid trilogy and it's just as wonderful as the first two.  Its a psychological thriller with yet another twisty finish that surprised me. The story takes place ten years after the first novel and Millie Calloway returns with husband Enzo and their two kids. 

The publisher's summary: 

“You must be our new neighbors!” Mrs. Lowell gushes and waves across the picket fence. I clutch my daughter’s hand and smile back: but the second Mrs. Lowell sees my husband a strange expression crosses her face. In that moment I make a promise. We finally have a family home. My past is far, far behind us. And I’ll do anything to keep it that way…

I used to clean other people’s houses—now, I can’t believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

Even though I’m wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it’s our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it’s like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills…

The Lowells’ maid isn’t the only strange thing on our street. I’m sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here? I thought I’d left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?

Millie and Enzo have two nosy, annoying neighbours. Suzette Lowell cannot stop flirting with Enzo and Millie is jealous. The neighbor across the street, Janice, is the neighborhood spy. She spends the entire day and night looking in everyone's windows with her binoculars. The Lowells have a maid, Martha, with Thursdays open and Suzette talks Enzo into hiring her even though the Accardis cannot afford it. 

Millie and Enzo have two kids, eleven year old Ada and nine year old Nico. Ada is quiet but Nico has tons of energy. Millie repeats several times that she is obsessed with her new house and that the mortgage payments are too high for her to pay. She also has quite a few internal thoughts about her husband maybe cheating on her. Why repeat these two items?  It seemed unusual for McFadden to repeat any information in a novel. It felt odd as I was reading. In addition, Millie's usual housemaid activities are not written into this novel. It made me confused until the ending. 

Who was the villain?  There were a few possibilities. Suzette, Janice and Martha were the characters I was thinking about. The identity of the whodunnit wasn't revealed until the ending but all three characters were suggested throughout the story. 

I had a few issues with the writing.  The formula used in the prior two books in the series was not followed. This reduced the suspense factor during my read. While the ending tied up all of the loose ends, it was not as shocking as the earlier novels. Unfortunately, I have to reduce my rating of the book to 4 out of 5 stars.

The Housemaid's Secret

Millie Calloway returns as a maid in this sequel to The Housemaid. She takes a new job working for the wealthy but mysterious Douglas Garrick. Millie has been told to not disturb his wife Wendy who stays locked in a guest room supposedly sleeping.

The publisher's summary:

As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job – not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .

It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything....

That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go....

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train will be completely hooked!

The writing formula for this sequel is exactly the same as in The Housemaid. For me, this is a plus and it is what I wanted and expected. The mystery surrounding wife Wendy is the focus of the story. I enjoyed following the small reveals concerning Wendy's situation throughout the book but felt that Millie's early attempts at intervention were not called for. Wendy's situation did not change enough for Millie to need to intervene. That said, it was proper for the plot to have Millie try to intervene early and often. I wish, though, that something more severe than shouting would have alarmed Millie to take action. 

Despite my above misgivings, there was a slow ratcheting up of the tension in the story to keep me riveted to my read. There were many twists and turns that maintained my interest and some of these twists involved the characters having ulterior motives. It was hard to tell where the story was going when none of the characters seemed trustworthy.

In this installment of the series Millie has a boyfriend. Brock is an attorney who wants Millie to move in with him. She prefers to stay independent even though Brock's apartment is luxurious. When Millie gets arrested for killing Mr. Garrick he dumps her. Of course, Millie did not kill anyone. She's the heroine so I knew that she would be exonerated. What Millie does not know is that her former boyfriend Enzo is back in the country and has been following her. She had believed that someone affiliated with the Garricks was stalking her. It goes without saying that the ending was shocking. It is something McFadden's readers both expect and receive.

I loved this story. It is a wonderful sequel to The Housemaid and I am looking forward to reading the third and final book in the series.  4 out of 5 stars.

The Housemaid

The Housemaid has been on my TBR list for a few years. I finally got around to reading it last week and I hope to soon finish the four additional books in this Housemaid series. 

The publisher's summary:

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out … and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of …

Our protagonist is housemaid Millie. Millie was recently released from prison and is having a hard time finding employment. She is a convicted murderer. A week after being interviewed for a job as housemaid for Nina Winchester, Millie gets the good news that she has been hired. The job is a live-in situation and Millie can finally move out of her car. From her first day on the job Millie senses that it was a mistake to accept the position. That same day the landscaper tells her the house is dangerous.

Nina is a classic psycho. She messes up the house on purpose so Millie has more to clean. It was mean-spirited. Nina also accused Millie of misinterpreting her instructions on a daily basis. I thought Nina was the villain but nothing is that easy to decipher in a Freida McFadden book. I wondered what was wrong with her but it wasn’t until the end that I realized what was really going on.

Andrew, on the other hand, is Nina’s debonair, handsome husband. He is always calm and pleasant. Andrew makes excuses for his wife's behavior and supports her fully. No one in the neighborhood knows why he puts up with her. Landscaper Enzo is hotter than hot. He generally dismisses any conversation that Millie starts. For one reason, he speaks Italian and does not know many English words. The Winchesters have a young daughter Cecelia who is just as demented as her mother. Cecelia makes Millie's life even more miserable.

There are too many twists and turns to describe. Nothing and no one is who they seem to be. I believe there was a new twist in every other chapter. This made for a super fast pace. I read that this book was made into a movie but I didn't see it. I am definitely going to watch it ASAP as this plot is amazing. 

To say the ending is shocking is a putting it mildly. I recently learned that the author is a psychiatrist in her day job. I can only imagine that she gets her material from her clients. Otherwise, how does she come up with these plots?  5 out of 5 stars!

Dear Debbie

Dear Debbie is Freida McFadden's newest novel. It was published on January 21, 2026 and I must say it was fantastic. Debbie writes an advice column for a local newspaper similar to the Dear Abby columns I read while growing up. However, Debbie has a screw loose. No, ten loose screws.

The publisher's summary:

Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction. Or at least, she did.

These days, Debbie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets, according to the tracking app she installed on his phone. Now, Debbie’s done being the bigger person.

She’s done being reasonable and practical. It’s time to take her own advice.

And now it’s time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.

When the story began Debbie was frequently featured at social events with friends. Nothing untoward was obvious. She attended a monthly book club with neighbors who lived on her block who openly disparaged her lack of class and higher education. Debbie desperately wants to fit in and accepts this mistreatment as necessary to endure. Later these friends begin to ridicule her intense behavior behind her back. They gossip about rumors that she spent a few months in a psychiatric hospital. Debbie’s next door neighbor Brett then accuses her of breaking into his basement and destroying his fuse box because she complained to the police about his loud music. Brett screams at her and later her husband Cooper every chance he gets.

Debbie has a beautiful garden and it is going to be featured in a local magazine. However, when the photographers don't show up she learns that the magazine canceled the photo shoot and were instead going to feature a neighbor's garden. Jo is known for having the best roses in the community. Debbie feels that Jo sabotaged her shoot and after midnight she plants beetles in the dirt of Jo's garden. By morning the beetles were all over the flowers and the photographer refused to take photos. Of course Jo blamed Debbie and Jo publicly screamed at her several times.

Most of the chapters begin with drafts of her column wherein she suggests that the complaining women kill their husbands. Debbie’s actions are slowly revealed but her duplicity is not known to the reader until the halfway point. Debbie is always calm. Her friends and neighbors are shown as explosive. 

Following the garden incident, we see Debbie plotting revenge on other neighbors as well as her husband's boss. The boss refused to promote Cooper and, in a huff, he quit his job. She also sought revenge on her daughter's soccer coach for removing her from the team. At this time Debbie was fired from her job as an advice columnist for suggesting a wife kill her husband. 

Debbie is clearly nuts. I enjoyed reading about her unraveling. Frankly, I loved some of her vengeance because these characters definately deserved it. It's interesting to note that Debbie is both the protagonist and the villain. This works though. 

Dear Debbie is a nother great McFadden novel. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Eight Perfect Murders

I am so impressed with this novel. The plot premise concerns a blog post written by a bookstore owner wherein he listed eight crime novels with perfect, unsolvable murders. The owner becomes a suspect in several murders where it seems that a killer used this book list to recreate unsolvable murders.

The publisher's summary: 

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack―which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”―chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. MacDonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's The Secret History.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move in a twisty cat and mouse game―a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead―and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.

As with all Peter Swanson books  I was hooked from the first page. If there is one word to describe the plot it's Hitchcockian. That's a word, right? Swanson delivers this thriller with tantalizing clues and a shocking ending. Also, I am impressed with the idea that someone is nutty enough to duplicate so-called "perfect" murders in mystery novels.

Malcolm's relationship with FBI agent Gwen Mulvy was a little off. She interviewed him in the beginning of the story and told him her entire theory of her case. That was odd. What was odder was that Malcolm decided to get in her car wjen he didn't have to and drive to the murder scene of one of his bookstore's big customers. It was strange that she asked and strange that he agreed to go with her in her car. Wouldn't most people drive separately given a choice? Their conversation in her car was bizarre. Malcolm revealed alot about himself and his deceased wife. I felt he was indirectly telling Gwen that he had reason to kill his wife. She did not take the bate though.

The big reveal of the whodunnit was a slow burn. Into the second half of the book the details began to be revealed. I didn't catch the clues until later in the story. Eight Perfect Murders is a suspense thriller on steroids. Mystery lovers simply must read this book. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Twin Sister

I selected The Twin Sister for the Key Word Reading Challenge. This psychological thriller is author Yvette Davies debut novel. Let me tell you right off the bat that this psychological thriller is a must read. The book was published in October 2025 and her second book will be published in 2026.

The story opens with a car crash. The police assume that Cate, Beth's identical twin sister, was inside the car involved in the accident. Cate died along with Cate's husband Giles and two of her three children. However, Beth was in a separate car with Cate's son Ted and Cate's purse was in that car too because Cate was going to be driving in this car. A last minute decision to travel in the car with Giles and her kids put her in the accident. Since Cate was wearing Beth's sweater and had Beth's phone in the sweater pocket, the police thought that Beth had died. Without even thinking, Beth assumed Cate's life. Cate was married to a wealthy man, wore designer clothes and owned a multi-million dollar house. The lifestyle was too good to pass up and after ten years of trying for a baby with husband David, Beth now has the chance to be a mother to her nephew Ted. The mistaken identity creates an opportunity for Beth to have a better life.

Beth's marriage had been in a shambles. She and David had been unhappy and David dealt with it by getting a girlfriend. Interspersed with funeral planning were snippets of Cate and Beth as children as well as David’s life with Adriana. Beth found out that she really didn't know her sister well. Cate too was having an affair with the gardener and had other household help. Beth's biggest issue was assuming Cate's personality. They were very different people but some of Cate's acquaintances figured it all out. 

There's was a lot of action and many twists in the plot. All of them were shocking which, of course, kept me reading. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Locked Door

Freida McFadden might be the best psychologist thriller author of our times.  You can always expect a good read from her. After reading the first chapter of the book I was hooked. However, I got up to make coffee and grab a snack because I knew once I started reading that I would not stop until the book was finished. That is pretty much what happened. Below are a few details about the plot.

The publisher's summary:

While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.

 

All I can say is wow! This is a gripping, fast paced thriller with a surprising ending. The short chapters help to maintain the suspense level which starts high, stays high and ends high. It's the perfect psychological thriller, which is what I think I said about McFadden's last novel. The story is told in a dual timeline: the present time and 26 years earlier. When the story begins it is the 26th anniversary of Nora turning in her father to the police. He killed at least 30 women in the basement of their home. The basement door was locked at all times, At the present time, someone begins killing women in the same manner that her father used. The police think that Nora is guilty but there is no evidence. 26 years ago Nora had a childhood friend named Marjorie who was bullied by every other kid at school. Marjorie was a loner with no friends and her character fit this stereotype perfectly. When Nora suggests that they play a game called Hunter and Prey, I thought that she would kill Marjorie. This game was fairly aggressive. 

I liked the characters. Nora is interesting because it seems that she might have desires to kill or at the very least is afraid that she has the same desire to kill that her father had. Her personality has been sorely affected by a childhood with a killer parent. I half expected her to turn out to be a killer too. Nora's college boyfriend Brady was creepy. He was highly educated but was working as a bartender so there is a story there that made Nora nervous. Every conversation that Nora had with him made her think that Brady was dangerous. While she slept with him a few times she was also running away from him. Go figure.

Several secondary characters are possible killers of two of Nora's patients. Brady was my main suspect and until the last chapter I thought that he was. One of Nora's patients, Henry Callahan, was another suspect because Nora believed that he was following her home after work.Toward the end of the story Nora's business partner Philip Corey looked suspicious too. The reveal of the whodunnit was shocking.

When I began reading the book I said "OMG." When I finished the book I said it again. I cannot recommend this book more highly. It is a fantastic story.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Realtor

I have had this book on my TBR list for almost a year. Finally, I got around to reading it. The main character is Celine Bauman. Celine has a five year old daughter Alyssa who is about to hegin kindergarten. Her job as a real estate agent allows Celine the time to drop Alyssa off at school in the morning and pick her up in the afternoon. On the first day of school Celine sees an unkempt woman by a fence. It is Hannah, a wealthy client buying a $400,000 house from her with cash. Celine stands to earn a $24,000 commission on the sale. Hannah's behavior is creepy so Celine talks to her best friend Jill almost daily about her. While at the school, an old friend tells Celine that her old boyfriend Brad Dowling has woken up from a five year coma. This news sends Celine spinning. The next day she receives a text stating "I know what you did. Murderer." From here the plot takes off. 

The story was riveting. I could not stop reading as each chapter ended with suspense. Two friends of Celine were murdered. Both of these ladies had dated Brad. Rosalie Phillips had killed herself but a few of the officers in the local police department believed otherwise. Then, Teryn Holmes, a nurse at the hospital where Brad is a patient is found dead. Teryn, was also a former girlfriend of Brad. There were alot of twists in the story and as the plot was winding down, I was excited to find out the whodunnit and the whydunnit. However, the denoument was a bit weird. I was disappointed. 

Note that the book is a revised edition of The Life She Stole. While the book was mainly gripping, because of the ending I have to reduce my rating to 4 out of 5 stars. Parts of the ending were satisfying but other parts were bizarre.

The Quiet Wife

The Quiet Wife was published in January 2023. It was written by one of my favorite authors so I had high expectations for this book. It was fantastic!

The publisher's summary:

At 36, Katie Cope isn’t where she thought she’d be. Somehow the things she was supposed to have slipped by. Her dream of being a journalist was reduced to writing pop culture pieces. Her dream of being a mother stalled in a faltering marriage. And when her husband sells his business, reaching success she never has, she feels more pressed than ever to make something of her life.

When she discovers a disturbing connection between a wealthy housing project in the Colorado mountains and missing girls, she knows she might have a chance at a big story. But after joining the community, what she sees in her neighbor’s windows and the strange footsteps in the snow that come out of the woods and linger at her backdoor have her wondering if the success is worth her safety.

Something is fatally wrong in the mountains of Carson’s Pass, and when she realizes her own past might have everything to do with the vanished girls, she must risk going missing herself to find out what.

This story is a slow burn. In fact, I was rather bored until page 70 when Katie finds a secret room behind a wall. The developer had a reputation for building secret tunnels behind the walls of homes that he built. 2 girls had gone missing years earlier from houses that he constructed. Katie and her best friend Miranda came to Carson’s Pass to determine whether the homes in this development had secret tunnels. They planned in taking photos of these spaces and sending them to a journalist friend back in San Diego. While in the secret room Katie found a box filled with photos of young girls. She was shocked to discover a picture of her friend Claire, who it was assumed killed herself in the Colorado mountains. 

This story was so eerie it could have been written by Alfred Hitchcock. Toward the end I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone when what was real became unreal. I had goosebumps. Aside from the initial chapters the book was perfectly plotted. The pace was fast but at the end it was racing to the finish line. It was very rewarding. This author is well known for his psychological thrillers but The Quiet Wife may be one of his best. 

The characters were well drawn. The story is told from Katie's perspective. She is somewhat estranged from her family. Katie wants to avoid her prevocative sister but finds herself inviting her sister to family events. The relationship with her husband was hard to decipher. Both of them wanted to reconcile but not really. They thought it would be the right thing to do but their hearts are not in it. Katie is obviously the "quiet wife" but she has started to express her feelings more. No one cares though. Secondary character Phillip Pope, the developer of Carson’s Pass, is the primary villain of the book. There has been alot of gossip about him for years because of the missing girls. Some went missing from houses that he built in Colorado and no can figure out how anyone could have taken them. 

I cannot say enough good things about the book but because the opening was slow I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Intruder

Freida McFadden had a new book published just last week. She is the best psychological thriller author out there these days and I couldn't resist getting the book as soon as it was published. The Intruder meets the requirements of the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge for the publication month category as it was published on October 7, 2025.

The publisher's summary:

Who knows what the storm will blow in…

Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.

She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood.

The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.

The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.

I LOVED this book! It's another gripping psychological thriller from Freida McFadden. Like all her previous books, it engaged me from the first page and kept me reading until the last page. I could not put it down. The story has a shifting dual timeline, about twenty years apart and from four character perspectives. This made the plot more suspenseful and with short 2 or 3 page chapters, the pacing was quick. 

The story opens with a dark and stormy night and the main character Casey living in a dilapidated rural cabin. She begins to see faces looking in her cabin. This gave me that deja vu sensation. When Casey offered to give the blood covered girl a place to sleep for the night, I was shocked. Who does that? I thought the girl had just murdered someone and I would never personally allow Ella inside my home. Casey, however, let the teacher inside her allay her fears and only considered how she could help Ella. Ella was rude and I half expected Casey to send her back outdoors after making her dinner. I would have been too scared to let her stay. Casey was naive and I didn't think much of her as a character. Ella, on the other hand, played the villain well. She is a victim, though, but the reader does not know this fact in the beginning.

The story continues with plenty of twists and turns. The big reveal was a surprise that I wasn't expecting. In fact, I started reading it a second time to find all of the clues that I missed. If anything, I was disappointed in myself for missing all of the clues.

The Intruder is a winner. 5 out of 5 stars. 

The Crash

 

I love Freida McFadden books so when I needed a title for the Key Word Reading Challenge last month, I chose The Crash. I am a little behind with my reading due to a move last month but I am getting caught up. The Crash was published in January 2025.

The publisher's summary:  

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn't realize she's heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she's made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn't right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn't what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.  

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself―and her unborn child.

Wow! What an amazing ride from reading this novel. It's a fast paced suspense thriller about an unmarried 8 months pregnant woman who takes shelter during a snowstorm with a strange couple. Tegan doesn't want to be rescued by Hank because he is unkempt and scary looking as he approaches her crashed vehicle. She has no choice though as she has injured her foot and cannot put any weight on it. Hank takes her home because the hospital is 10 miles away, impossible to reach in a snowstorm. Hank's wife Polly is a former nurse who cares for her in their basement. A nursing suite had been built for Polly's dying mother but now Tegan is lying in their hospital bed. She doesn't trust Polly at first but is terrified of Hank.

With an intricate plot, plenty of twists, and an unexpected ending, I found it impossible to put the book down. I read it in approximately 2 hours. The story reminded me of the 1990 movie Misery with Kathy Bates. In fact, the plot of the novel is similar to the movie. The pace was pretty fast although the plot was a slow burn. The Crash is one of the best written books that I have ever read. 

I am rating the book way over 5 out of 5 stars.

Save Her Life

Save Her Life is my choice for the Key Word Reading Challenge for June. Hostage negotiator Sandra Vos is the protagonist of a new police procedural series with Save Her Life being the first installment of the series. Sandra chose law enforcement as a career because her brother was murdered when they were young. When her teenage daughter disappears, Sandra feels like life is repeating itself. The book was published on May 27, 2025.

The publisher's summary:

The tears fall down the girl’s pale face as she desperately tries to struggle free from the ties around her wrists. The only sound in the room other than her muffled cries is the ticking of a clock. Her mother has less than one hour to find her alive.

It’s been more than thirty years since Special Agent Sandra Vos’s twin brother was shot dead, an innocent victim caught in a kidnap gone wrong. It devastated Sandra’s family, but it made her who she is today, one of the FBI’s most successful negotiators.

After dropping her teenage daughter, Olivia, at school, Sandra is alerted to a potential hostage situation at her local grocery store and races to the scene. A man has pulled out a gun and is refusing to talk or let anyone out of the building until his demands are met. The fate of dozens of lives rests in Sandra’s hands.

But as Sandra starts to make a breakthrough with the hostage taker, she receives a call that makes her blood run cold. Someone has taken Olivia, and their demand will push Sandra to her absolute limit. If it’s not met within twenty-four hours, she will never see her daughter again.

Sandra knows she should step aside, letting her team take over, but she doesn’t trust anyone else to bring Olivia home alive. Breaking every rule in the book, Sandra is ready to go into her most personal negotiation yet. But how much will she have to sacrifice to save her daughter?

The story opened with Sandra attending a parole hearing for the man who killed her brother over thirty years ago. The man was denied parole. The story then moved to a hostage negotiation that Sandra lead. I don’t think I needed to read 80 pages of Sandra negotiating with a hostage taker to understand her job. It was overkill. Also, her daughter wasn't kidnapped until 40% of the way into the story. Since saving daughter Olivia's life is what the book is supposed to be about, I think the kidnapping should have occurred early on in the story.  

The book concentrates more on procedure than relationships and I was somewhat bored. I did not connect with Sandra as a character. I felt more for the criminals instead. After reading other reviews of the book I am aware that my opinion is a minority opinion. Given that these criminals are not going to be involved in future stories, I don’t see much to entice me to continue to read the series. There aren't any secondary characters that were drawn upon either. We basically only read what their names are.

The plot was interesting but I had a few issues with the writing. I am rating the book 3 out of 5 stars.

The Doctor's Secret

The Doctor's Secret was published last year. It's a psychological thriller featuring city coroner Stacy Lewis as the protagonist. Her fiance, emergency physician Dr. Henry Goldberg, is the prime suspect in a serial murder case wherein three women who look like Stacy are killed. The killer always leaves the bodies naked in an alleyway. Stacy does not believe that Henry is the killer. However, her ex-boyfriend Matt Ensor does. Matt is the detective on the cases. Stacy is convinced that Matt’s judgment is skewed by his hatred of Henry and desire to get Stacy back. She is willing to do anything to clear Henry's name, even abuse her position as city coroner. After getting Henry out of jail on bail, women begin disappearing again.

Stacy was an annoying character. I could not stand to hear her acquiesce to everything Henry desired. Henry disagreed with all her plans for dinner, wedding planning, and even the books Stacy was allowed to read at home. He was a bully. I thought she was a weak character. Because she grew up in an abusive home, Stacy was trained to cater to bullies. I cannot imagine how she obtained a medical degree or was able to perform autopsies without a mental breakdown. As the coroner, Stacy autopsied the victims of the serial killer. Some of her findings she shared with her husband but he refused to listen because it was macabre.

While Stacy was annoying, Henry was the typical mama's boy. He felt he was the king of his household because his mother held him up on a pedestal. Whenever Stacy was speaking he cut her off. He dictated their dinners, the TV shows they watched and Stacy's reading material. I am astonished that Stacy would accept this behavior. She was highly educated and I expected more from her.

I figured out the identity of the whodunnit early on. The whydunnit was hard to determine and it wasn't revealed until the end of the story. It was an OK ending but I wish that it had been more complex. 

3 out of 5 stars.

The Lost Girls

The Lost Girls was published in February 2025. It was previously published in 2023 with the title The Flash Girls. I don't know the reason for changing the title, especially since several flash girls were killed in the story. Perhaps the story was revised. I don't know. As usual, though, J. M. Cannon has written another outstanding novel. He is the king of psychological thrillers.

The publisher's summary:

Charleston, South Carolina. Four years ago. Three girls disappear into the night. One by one they go missing, never to be seen again. No witnesses, no leads, nothing. The only thing they had in common? An uneasy sense of being watched in the days before they vanished. Noises in the night, and boot prints in the flower beds outside their bedroom windows . . .

Today. One of the lost girls was Anna Klein's best friend. With no body, the case went cold. But Anna never stopped looking for Sylvie - or whoever took her. Now, four years later, Anna finally has a lead when a body turns up in an abandoned mansion. She has to know: is it Sylvie? But time is running out. As the storm of the century threatens the whole East Coast, the clock is ticking to find the answers before this trail goes cold.

Can Anna find Sylvie and the other girls before they're lost forever?

I was mesmerized by this story from the first page:  

"Marble eyes. That's the rumor. A woman's corpse has been found with eyes like a doll. Anna thinks it sounds just strange enough to be what's she's after. The location is right. So is the body's estimated age."  

I had alot of questions already about the plot from this first paragraph. It was so intriguing that I couldn't stop reading until I finished the book in one sitting. The pace was fast but the last quarter of the story was super fast.  

Anna's job as a newspaper journalist was perfect for an amateur sleuth. She was assigned to covering a fast approaching hurricane but she felt that was beneath her. The murder story should have been assigned to her, not the newby reporter on staff. She was always ahead of the police but they didn't always know it. There are subtle hints throughout the book of Anna having intimate knowledge of the missing girls. While I was reading I was not sure whether this was a clue or red herring.

The secondary characters were all important to the plot. Anna worked with Justin at the newspaper and her favorite teacher Geller helped her with unscrambling the meaning behind the killer's poem. Her mother was awful. She was an unrepentant alcoholic but her importance is revealed toward the end. Anna's school friends Hannah, Tess and Sylvie have been missing for four years. They are the flash girls. The meaning behind "flash" was part of the killer's modus operandi and it was an intriguing part of the story.

The Charleston setting wasn't prominent until the latter half of the book as the hurricane approached. Here we read about famous buildings being ripped apart from the waves. The ending was a surprise I did not expect  ur it was a satisfying feeling to finish the book.

I loved this book and mystery fans will want to read it, especially if they like psychological thrillers. 5 out of 5 stars.

This Blood Runs

This Blood Runs is the sequel to J. M. Cannon's This Family Lies. It is a psychological thriller at its best and mystery fans will love it. Note that parts of the novel are gruesome but it matches the storyline. However, if you are squeamish you might want to pass on reading the book. The story involves the Mexican cartel and descriptions of human trafficking are prominent.

The publisher's summary:

Iris is being hunted.

Through the burning sugarcane fields she must flee Sweet Blood and the country.

But in the blue hills of Mexico awaits a new set of horrors. Blood trails and missing girls tell a story: what Iris was told about her past might not be true.

The game is on for her to stay alive and find the person she loves. The challenge is the truth because that's the thing about lies, Iris has learned...

They multiply.

This Blood Burns picks up with the intensity, twists and the shock that left readers of This Family Lies enthralled. Coming late summer.

 

It took me a few chapters to become familiar with the action that occurred in the first book. In a perfect world I would have read these novels consecutively. I felt awful that Iris experienced so many tramatic events while she was on the lam. She believed that law enforcement was searching for her in order to charge her with killing her husband so she put up with alot. SPOILER ALERT We find out later that this was false. Every person who helped her run was actually an enemy of her but she didn't know it. These reveals were all shocking but part of the many twists and turns in this story. Iris's run covers most of the pages but at one point she agrees to help the FBI catch the leaders of the cartel. This is where the story becomes gruesome. As Iris uncovers information about the trafficking trade, it's ugliness is shown. 

I recommend beginning with This Family Lies before reading this book. There are clues that eminate from the earlier novel and these clues are not explained. The reader really needs to have read This Family Lies in order to understand what the clues refer to.

I loved reading the novel and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

This Family Lies

J.M. Cannon is one of my favorite authors. In 2023 he published Blood Oranges which was one of my top 5 books for that year. He expertly writes suspense novels so I know that I need to read the two books that he published last year.

The publisher's summary:

Iris Adler was supposed to be killed.

In their home in Southern Louisiana, Iris and her husband Joseph are both shot point-blank in the head by an unknown assailant.

While her husband is killed, Iris survives, but only by a ricochet.

She wakes with her memory fractured. She doesn’t remember her husband’s family, eager as they are to take her into their world of marble, maids and prim Southern manners.

Not long after Iris goes to heal at the family’s historic plantation, a girl is found dead in the sugarcane stalks nearby. And of these wealthy, strange people Iris is surrounded by, she realizes one of them might still be trying to kill her.

The only thing certain is not everyone is getting out of this alive.

I LOVED this novel. I was hooked from the first chapter and had to read it all at once. This Family Lies is a psychological thriller on steroids. The pacing is fast and there are so many twists that I was spinning. The constant back and forth between the possible identity of the villain was exhilarating. Every chapter or two showed a dark side of a character and it was difficult to determine who the real villain was. In fact, you don't know until the final chapter.

Iris is main character and, as such, she is very sympathetic. I was rooting for her. However, several of the twists point to her being the one who killed her husband and wounded herself. Other probable villains were mother-in-law Augusta and sister-in-law Annabelle. These two ladies make great adversaries. Both are ambitious and aggressive in reaching their goals so their actions are always suspicious. Iris, on the other hand, is physically unstable and fragile and is at their mercy. Every once in a while Iris attempts to be independent but is shut down quickly by her in laws.

Mystery fans simply must read this book. I am looking forward to reading the sequel This Blood Runs. 5 out of 5 stars 

The Guests

I selected this book for the Key Word Reading Challenge this month. The plot is interesting. Six guests are invited to the private Stonecliffe Island in Lake Michigan for the reading of a will and some of them are going to die.

The story opens with Ryleigh, a struggling artist whose been invited by her best friend, Kerrigan, to spend a week on Kerrigan's family’s private island on Lake Michigan. Kerrigan is a housewife with a perfect life. She has a seemingly loving husband, Kip, and a glamorous downtown Chicago apartment. However, her husband hates her. Their marriage is a sham. Cole is the caretaker of the estate and his job is to make sure the guests of the estate have everything they want but he has private aspirations that he needs to accomplish before the summer is over. Also in attendance are newlyweds Stavros and Mika.

On the estate each guest has their own villa. There are staff on-call twenty-four hours a day, including a masseuse, chefs to make dinner every night, and waiters pouring endless champagne. Their stay is expected to be perfect. However, a violent storm arrives and there is no way off of the island. Then one of the guests disappears.

The story started off well but for half of the book there was mainly bickering among the characters. The first disappearance didn't happen until halfway through the story so I tired of this dialogue. The story took off though and the pace kept ratcheting up until the final pages. The guests pointed fingers at each other, accusing everyone of commandeering the disappearance of Mika and later the disappearance of Kerrigan. This back and forth continued to the end of the story which had me reeling from the frequent twists and turns.

Despite the slow start this was an exciting novel and I am glad that I stuck with it. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Vanishing Hour

The Vanishing Hour is my selection for January's Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. It's author Seraphina Nova Glass's fourth novel but the first of hers that I have read. She is known for writing tightly woven suspense stories. The book was published in May 2023. 

The publisher's summary:

Grace Holloway keeps to herself. Since narrowly escaping death at the hands of the man who kidnapped her, she’s thrown herself into the small inn she runs in Rock Harbor, Maine. It’s quiet, quaint and, in the off-season, completely isolated—the perfect place for Grace to keep her own secrets.

But Grace isn’t the only one with something to hide, and Rock Harbor isn’t just a sleepy vacation town. Someone is taking young women—girls who look an awful lot like Grace did when she was kidnapped so many years ago.

When a surge of disappearances brings the investigation to her door, Grace finds herself unwillingly at the center of it all and doing everything she can to keep her distance. Because Grace knows something…something that could change everything. And when the truth comes to light, getting justice for the vanished might be more than Grace can handle alone…

This book was soooo good! I was hooked from the first chapter. The suspense was built up nicely throughout the story all the way to the end. The story is told through a triple narrative. We read from the perspectives of Grace, Kira Everett (whose daughter is missing) and Aden Coleman (whose father is missing). The book opens with Kira looking for her daughter Brooke. Then we see Aden visiting his mother who is upset that she cannot get a hold of her husband. Aden rents a room at a local hotel that is run by Grace. The Coleman family learns a few days later that the father is actually missing. Each chapter alternates between the viewpoints of these three characters. 

The police aren't sure if the crimes are connected. Kira decides to investigate herself because she doesn't believe that the police are on the ball. Kira soon meets Aden and Grace and together they try to piece together what has happened to their loved ones. Their friends and family are secondary characters who provide twisty turns in the plot. Almost every character becomes a suspect.

What is the vanishing hour? It is 10 pm. Each family had their relative last seen at 10 pm in the same seedy part of town. The media, who has been reporting on these cases, made up the phrase "vanishing hour."

The Vanishing Hour is a thriller with a satisfying ending. Mystery lovers will want to read this one. 5  out of 5 stars.

The Fury

I loved the author’s The Silent Patient and had high expectations for The Fury. Thus, I selected The Fury for this month's entry in the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. The book was published in January 2024. 

The publisher's summary: 

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

I did not enjoy the book. I picked up a copy of it because I loved The Silent Patient. My expectation for this book was high but it just never grabbed my attention. There was too much narration and I had to continually think about who the narrator was. During my read, I couldn't figure out why this person was the narrator. After reading one third of the story, the murder finally happened. At the midway point of the story there was still no investigation of the crime. Why? This is supposed to be a psychological thriller.

There wasn't any character development. None of the characters were likable and I think that's due to all the narration. The characters were flat. They did not communicate with each other because the narrator couldn't shut up. He was always promising a new twist but they didn't materialize. I can't help but feel disappointed with the book. While I read it until the end, it never grabbed my attention.

1 out of 5 stars.

Such a Loving Couple

I selected this book for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. The word "couple" is one of the choices for November. This psychological thriller was published in November 2023.

The publisher's summary:

A man smiles warmly at me from the end of my bed. ‘Honey, I’ve been so worried,’ he says gently. ‘Do you remember me? I’m your husband.’ My blood runs cold. I don’t know where I am, or who I am. All I know is I’ve never seen this man before…

As he packs my things, the nurses tell me Freddie hasn’t left my bedside since the accident. He’s so loving, so kind, we seem like the perfect couple. But deep down I know something isn’t right.

Then flashes of memory come back. First my name, then the terrifying moments before the crash – the pouring rain, a sudden scream. But most heartbreaking of all are the haunting images of a blue-eyed little girl,who is nowhere to be seen…

Freddie is determined to keep me safe. But if we aren’t the really loving couple he wants us to be, why am I here? What does Freddie want? Who is the child? And how far will I have to go, to discover the truth?

Wow is my first reaction to finishing the book. It was an intense, fast paced thriller that kept me guessing about the outcome. The beginning was slightly slow but now that I have finished reading it, I see that the most important clues were there. The pace picked up around page 80 of this 315 page novel when I was in a restaurant eating breakfast. I think I stayed long after my welcome but I had to finish reading before starting my daily errands. My gosh this was such a good book!

There are four main characters: Toby, Freddie, Magdalena and Becka, the protagonist. Their relationships are seriously messed up. Toby and Becka are married. Freddie is single but allows Magdalena, Mags, to move in to his home. Freddie is a successful photographer and is frequently away from home. While Mags is in his home she begins a cake baking business but also makes goodies for her elderly neighbor across the street. Freddie, Mags and Becka were close friends in high school. Freddie had been dating Mags at that time but Becka stole him away. Becka also destroyed Mags' art portfolio which resulted in Mags being denied entry into art school. Becka was involved with watercolors and she had the opportunity to go herself and she was admitted. The three of them went their separate ways after high school.

Twenty years later Becka and Toby are married and struggling to stay together. Mags had happened to run into them in a parking lot and not long after that Mags is having an affair with Toby. Then the accident happened. The novel began with the flooding that caused Becka to be submerged in the waters. She was rescued and the story unfolds from there. There was an incredible ending that kept me reading at the restaurant until I finished the book.

If you like intense, gripping psychological thrillers then you must read this book. 5 out of 5 stars!