Everyone is trying to come up with the next Gone Girl. That will be hard to do, but if you really loved that title, try one of these older works that have the same feeling of suspense.
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson - an edge of your seat story about a woman with a type of anterograde amnesia who wakes up each morning surprised to see a 40 year old face in the mirror. Each day, she forgets her husband, forgets her life and does not know how she ended up where she is. Frightening, so she starts keeping a journal. Who can she trust? Really, really terrifying. This is actually the first title I blogged about way back in June of 2011.
Sister by Rosamund Lupton - I've blogged about this one also in December of 2011. Lupton writes this novel in the form of a letter from an older sister to her dead younger sibling. She explains all her thoughts and reactions to finding out Tess, the younger, was missing and then found with her wrists slashed. While the police and the rest of the family believe this a suicide. Bea, the letter writer, is sure it was murder. Very suspenseful, very well written, highly recommended.
The Expats by Chris Pavone - Kate leaves her position at the CIA and she and their children accompany her husband to a new job with a bank in Luxembourg. Living in a country where you don't speak the language with a husband who is mysteriously absent and friends who are not what they seem. It can't help but bring out the spy in her.
Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon - Another Kate, but this time a 41 year old school nurse who returns home to care for her mother. On the night she arrives, a young girl is brutally killed. It brings back the memory of 30 years ago when her friend, Del, was brutally slain and the murderer was never found. The memories is brings back are not good ones.
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens - Annie spent a year as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist. Here she recounts events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.
Gone by Mo Hayder - Murder detective Jack Caffery arrives at the scene of a car jacking to find that on the back seat of the car, was an 11 year old girl. Cafferty and team start to realize that the jacker targeted the car because it had a child in the back, and that this is part of a pattern; in the other cases, the children were released. Then there's another carjacking, and another girl taken. Can he find the children?
In The Woods by Tana French - This is the first of French's Dublin Murder Squad series and it features Detective Rob Ryan. Just like Promise Not To Tell, Rob was the only surviving member of 3 children who went into the woods. He was found covered in blood and hugging a tree and he can not remember anyting that happened. Now, a 12 year old girl is murdered in the same wood and he is one of the investigating detectives.
The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson - this is the first in Davidson's Lily Moore series. Lily, a successful travel writer, moves to Spain to get away from her troubled, drug-addicted younger sister, Claudia. But when Claudia is found dead in a bathtub on the anniversary of their mother’s suicide, Lily must return to New York to deal with the aftermath. The difficulty is, when she views the body at the morgue - she discovers it is a stranger. This title won the Anthony Award for best first novel in 2010.
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry - This also won the Anthony Award for best first novel in 2012. It also won the 2012 Mary Higgins Clark Award. A single woman dives headlong from a ferry into Lake Champlain to rescue a child, and then must figure out what to do with him. It's really very good.
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly - In 1997, responsible 'good girl', Karen Clarke, spent a hedonistic summer of drugs and sex that ended in murder. Ten years later, she and her 9 year old daughter, are picking up Rex from prison where he has spent his time charged with a double murder. What lengths with Karen go to, in order to protect her family. Throughout the book, there's a feeling of something dark lurking in the background. It's hard to put down.
Enjoy some of these titles which are available at the library.
No comments:
Post a Comment