“Well, it was probably one of us,” he says icily. “and you don’t know which one. I guess you have a problem, don’t you?”
Shari Lapena is a favourite C“Well, it was probably one of us,” he says icily. “and you don’t know which one. I guess you have a problem, don’t you?”
Shari Lapena is a favourite Canadian thriller authors so my expectations were high when I pulled this one off my shelf. Rats … SOMEONE WE KNOW was a disappointing failure – a melodramatic soap opera non-thriller murder mystery with an unwieldy collection of poorly developed, unlikeable characters and a very unclear solution with what was supposed to be an ending twist that left me simply scratching my head. Like Lapena’s character who didn’t know which one, I guess I had a problem!
An adulterous wife with round heels who seemed willing to fall into the sack with most anyone she met is murdered in the first chapter. Suspicion of course (both police and readers’) is aimed immediately at the lengthy list of sex partners. To muddy the melodramatic waters, Lapena adds two problem teenagers – one who is an out of control drunk and the other who seems addicted to a combination of cyber-stalking and breaking and entering! Ultimately, everyone seems to be sleeping with everyone else as a second murder puts the cap on the goings on in a very creepy neighbourhood!
The average rating for SOMEONE WE KNOW would suggest that my opinion is an outlier and, accordingly, I’m willing to accept that perhaps I just wasn’t in the right frame of my mind to allow this one to win me over. But … it is what it is and I’ll have to let you make your own decision as to whether to read it and how you might feel about it.
I’m not going to recommend it to anyone! But I’ll cautiously add that I have other Shari Lapena titles on my shelf that I’m still willing to read at some point in my limited reading future. Time marches on relentlessly!
A horrifying psychological thriller that rivals Truman Capote’s true-crime masterpiece IN COLD BLOOD!
Three young teenage girl friends, sworn to eternaA horrifying psychological thriller that rivals Truman Capote’s true-crime masterpiece IN COLD BLOOD!
Three young teenage girl friends, sworn to eternal secrecy under a blood pact, commit a brutal mass murder and enter what most Canadians think of as a very flawed young offender justice system.
Rick Mofina, now definitely on my list of favourite thriller authors (with special kudos to his being a fellow Canadian), has crafted a high-speed thriller that took me into the proverbial wee hours and refused to allow me to set it down. Grisly mass murder, social work, suicide, dysfunctional families, wealth vs poverty, young offenders, legal and police procedures, jurisdictional issues, forensics and technology, psychology, revenge … THEIR LAST SECRET has it all. An extraordinarily easy 5-star recommendation and a solid addition to my Top Ten 2024 Favourites list.
“People killed for money reasons – they fall down steps, they drown, they disappear.” But “This … this was personal. This was hate. Contempt. Control.“People killed for money reasons – they fall down steps, they drown, they disappear.” But “This … this was personal. This was hate. Contempt. Control. Rage.”
A serial rapist is free with the case against him dismissed on a legal technicality. The officer who arrested him on the basis of a faulty search warrant is now himself under investigation for police brutality and assault that may well become a charge of attempted murder. A female detective faces the collective misogyny, indeed hatred, of an all-male deep South police force that threatens to also spill over into violence. Toss a deeply disturbed family with a non-functional autistic son far, far out on the spectrum, more than a spoonful of alcohol abusers, and a string of hot, sweaty sexual interludes into the blender for good measure and you’ve got A THIN DARK LINE.
I’ve read more than a handful of these over the years – suspense thrillers that focus so intently on drama, atmosphere, setting, and character development that the author forgets to craft a plot that needs to move purposely, urgently, compellingly and quickly. At just under 500 pages of painfully small print, A THIN DARK LINE moves far too slowly and takes far too long to reach a climax and dénouement to ever clear the bar of “gripping” - a combination that, for this reader, averages the rating out to a modest 3-star assessment with the added qualification that I will continue to read other Tami Hoag efforts.
On the back cover of the edition I read, fellow author Jessica Knoll gushed, “I cannot get enough of her nuanced chA brilliant psychological thriller!
On the back cover of the edition I read, fellow author Jessica Knoll gushed, “I cannot get enough of her nuanced characters, atmospheric settings, gorgeous writing, and the creeping, sneaking sensation that something sinister is afoot.” I’ve got to “second that emotion” and just add that I love it when a psychological thriller can glue you to the page with the certain knowledge that everything is wrong and everyone is suspect, all while nothing is actually happening!
At a pub celebrating her birthday, podcaster and internet celebrity Alix Summer meets Josie Fair, someone who shares her birthday. As circumstances would have it, Alix Summer is scratching her head for a new podcast series idea so when Josie Fair pitches the idea of a series comparing and contrasting the lives of “birthday twins”, Alix is sold despite that niggling conviction that Josie is somewhat off-kilter, off-base, or slightly out-of-focus.
Author Jewell has hit on a brilliant story-telling style that constantly shifts the narrative viewpoint. Somehow, she kept persuading me that my guesses to that point in the story as to who was the good guy and who was the bad guy were somehow wrong. The underlying theme of a woman’s plight dealing with threats and domestic violence is so often used as to potentially be considered an old chestnut from a literary point of view but Jewell has managed to make it exciting, provocative, heartbreaking, and utterly compelling.
This was my first outing with Lisa Jewell’s novels but it won’t be my last. Definitely recommended.
“From the dawn of time to the end of time, the world would never run short of cold, cold hearts.”
Tami Hoag has created a number of very interestin“From the dawn of time to the end of time, the world would never run short of cold, cold hearts.”
Tami Hoag has created a number of very interesting pieces to the foundation underlying the plot of COLD, COLD HEART. Dana Nolan, a rising TV personality as a respected and talented news anchor is kidnapped by a serial killer. Despite gruesome torture and sadistic mental abuse, she actually manages to escape confinement and kill her erstwhile rapist and murderer. But her brain, suffering from the traumatic injury inflicted by her captor, has shut down her recollection of the event and, in the process, the memories of much of her life and relationships. In the course of her recovery, Nolan crosses paths with John Villante, an old school friend suffering PTSD as a result of his war experiences and now recently discharged. Villante was considered a possible suspect in the unsolved disappearance (and probable murder) of Casey Grant, one of Dana Nolan’s young school friends, many years earlier.
COLD, COLD HEART is a gritty, suspenseful, engaging, and convincing serial killer thriller built around an informative series of “essays” on the realities and the science of physical, medical, and psychological treatment of PTSD and traumatic brain injury. The details of that information are presented in a style that is entertaining, informative and never patronizing or pedantic without being intrusive or getting in the way of the character and plot development that one would expect of a top quality suspense or psychological thriller. Hoag’s afterword explaining that she herself has suffered from this kind of injury adds a good bit of colour and credibility to the novel.
It should be noted that COLD, COLD HEART makes some very cogent, thought-provoking observations on the USA’s less than stellar treatment of its armed forces veterans.
”… good enough to send to war, then cast aside like everything else that was disposable in American society.”
I’m a continuing Tami Hoag fan and have no problem recommending COLD, COLD HEART with two thumbs up.
“By the time you read this, I will have hurt you beyond all forgiveness. There are no words to tell you how sorry I am.”
“Please know that I’ve always “By the time you read this, I will have hurt you beyond all forgiveness. There are no words to tell you how sorry I am.”
“Please know that I’ve always loved you – never more so than at this moment – and if there had been any other way … “
With the suicide of his wife, detective John Cardinal receives what has to qualify as the ultimate heartbreaking Dear John letter. Everyone knew that Catherine Cardinal had struggled with depression and mental illness for many years but her suicide still came as a shock. So much so in fact that the detective in John Cardinal was unable to accept it and bring himself to believe that his wife had actually chosen to end her own life. Cardinal’s off-the-record and definitely unauthorized investigation of a death that his own colleagues would not even acknowledge was anything other than what it appeared to be – a tragic suicide – is paired with the efforts of his longtime colleague, Lisa Delorme, to find the source of some very nasty child pornography.
If you're looking for a nail-biting suspense thriller, BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS definitely won't fill the bill. On the other hand, if you're looking for a profound combination of psychological thriller, police procedural, credible well-defined characters and plenty of local Canadian atmosphere, Giles Blunt has definitely scored a home-run with this novel extending and building on the partnership of John Cardinal and Lise Delorme. They're not quite as angsty as Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch but they're definitely edgy with lots of quirks to build on. As you are pulled more deeply into the story, I'm sure you'll agree that comparisons like this are both inevitable and well-deserved. If there were such a thing as the Canadian Crime Writers’ Hall of Fame, Giles Blunt and his literary creations, John Cardinal and Lise Delorme, would certainly occupy a place of honour (that’s “honor” spelled correctly – with a “u”, LOL!)
Definitely recommended and on to CRIME MACHINE and UNTIL THE NIGHT, #5 and #6 in a series that has plenty of legs and shows no indications of flagging or running out of steam. Fans will hope there’s plenty more to come.
“He calls himself the Dark Wind Killer” and he’s “just getting started”.
Claire Bowen, a troubled but compassionate psychologist with plenty of psychol“He calls himself the Dark Wind Killer” and he’s “just getting started”.
Claire Bowen, a troubled but compassionate psychologist with plenty of psychological baggage in her own past, helps other troubled women rebuild their lives. But that past and her new husband’s past are unwilling to let her go. Detective Tanner, also rebuilding his life, struggles with continuing grief over his wife’s death and typical single parent issues raising his young daughter alone. Tanner’s and Bowen’s lives become inextricably entwined as a sleeping serial murder, responsible for five gruesome unsolved and ice cold murder cases, has awakened from his slumbers. Claire Bowen and the women on her patient list are in the macabre murderer’s sights. The hunt is on but it isn’t clear who is the hunter and who is the hunted.
While many readers will characterize INTO THE DARK as a suspense thriller or a psychological thriller, I’m inclined to disagree as Mofina has made no great secret who the killer is. The only questions are who will win the game of “hunter v. hunted”, how many victims will the Dark Wind Killer claim, and who will they be. But, as a straight-up police procedural that outlines Tanner’s efforts to corral a psychopathic monster, INTO THE DARK is a gripping, compelling, high-speed, easy-reading page-turner. Along the way, readers are treated to instructive and entertaining sidebars of police techniques, domestic abuse, father and daughter relationships, journalism, and more.
Three cheers for another successful Canadian author along with the expressed hope that he finds a much broader global readership. Goodness knows he deserves it.
“I’ve lied to everyone, even you. I’ve fooled you … You’ll see what I mean, by the time it’s over”
EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES is a psychological thriller, a“I’ve lied to everyone, even you. I’ve fooled you … You’ll see what I mean, by the time it’s over”
EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES is a psychological thriller, a carnal smorgasbord of delightful meaty tidbits of plot to chew on and mull over as you try to puzzle out the identity of the sociopath who has their sights on Dr Eric Parrish – the ethical considerations of confidentiality in psychotherapy; the Tarasoff judgment requirement for psychiatrists to report dangerous patients or potential harm to the community to authorities; contentious, adversarial divorce and child custody issues; stalking; suicide; the dark, deeply narcissistic mental pathways of a sociopath; sexual harassment and the social implications of false, unwarranted accusations; OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and its manifestations; childhood or teenage mental illness; and more.
EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES is the kind of novel that few people would class as literary but I dare say that very few readers will find it less than compelling, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Well done, Lisa Scottoline. You may definitely count me a fan and be assured that I’ll be looking for more of your work.
Monday seemed like a good day to indulge one’s impulses and kidnap a child!
The newspaper headlines and photographs sparked by Matthew Farraday’s shockMonday seemed like a good day to indulge one’s impulses and kidnap a child!
The newspaper headlines and photographs sparked by Matthew Farraday’s shocking abduction have troubled psychotherapist Frieda Klein scratching her head, questioning the ethics of her profession and wondering what she should do. One of her patients has told her of a dream in which he hungers for a son and grabs a young boy. But the patient’s description fits Matthew Farraday exactly and the problem is that the patient told Klein of his disturbing dream BEFORE Farraday’s abduction even took place. Despite her legal concerns about violating the sanctity of patient confidentiality, she conveys the story to the police only to be faced with disinterest and disbelief. Klein is on her own and finds herself drawn to the center of a hunt for a kidnapper who is in all likelihood a pedophile and a serial killer.
BLUE MONDAY is definitely a first-rate psychological thriller. The pacing is a slow steady burn driven by an interesting, cleverly developed set of characters including a burnt-out therapist and an immigrant handyman whose entry onto the story’s “stage” has to characterized as vaudevillian slapstick. And that ending?!! Oh boy, it has to qualify as a superb twist ending that ranks with the best of them – Jodi Picoult’s MY SISTER’S KEEPER, William Diehl’s PRIMAL FEAR, Dennis Lehane’s SHUTTER ISLAND, Delia Owen’s WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, or Agatha Christie’s THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD all come to mind!
Definitely recommended and I’ll admit that I’m hoping the books to follow in the series intend to build on that great twist! I’m looking forward to TUESDAY’S GONE with more than a little anticipation!
It held the promise of a first-rate psychological thriller
" 'Right', she said. But the world, the swirling possibilities, seemed so manic, out of conIt held the promise of a first-rate psychological thriller
" 'Right', she said. But the world, the swirling possibilities, seemed so manic, out of control."
The intro and the plot premise was unquestionably a five-star glue-you-to-the-seat grabber!
On a late commuter train home from work, Selena Murphy encounters a stranger who introduces herself as Martha. For no reason other than anger and angst and, truth be told, probably a need to speak with somebody non-judgmental who doesn’t know who she is, they trade secrets. The woman confesses to being involved with a pointless affair with her boss and Selena, in her turn, discloses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with their nanny. The stranger commented, “Maybe she’ll disappear, and you can just pretend it never happened”. And then, when the day after that bleak (and, in retrospect, somewhat sinister) conversation dawns and the nanny does disappear, Selena finds herself on a dizzying track to mayhem.
Pretty nifty hook, don’t you think? I know it had me turning pages for a few chapters.
Sadly, once the story got underway, things began to go downhill. The characters, self-interested and apparently not particularly bright, make decisions and conduct themselves in ways that seem guaranteed to sabotage their self-interests. And, that plot and the relationships between the characters, get thicker, twistier, more byzantine and downright tortuous by the page. It took all my concentration, (given quite grudgingly by the final quarter of the novel, I’ll admit), to keep the plot line, the time line, and even the characters’ names lined up and in order.
Final verdict … it was OK, but as psychological thrillers go, I’ve definitely encountered far superior examples.
A psychopathic serial killer with a gruesome signature (are you ready for this one? He bites out his victim’s A suspense thriller without the suspense
A psychopathic serial killer with a gruesome signature (are you ready for this one? He bites out his victim’s tongues!) is on the loose in Atlanta. The entire police force is wired and on the hunt but the search centers around the efforts of Michael Ormewood, an abrasive and much disliked hard-nosed veteran whose marriage is in distinctly rough shape; Angela Polaski, a gorgeous vice cop with a generous libido who doesn’t seem to have to stretch her personality very far to simulate her role as an undercover prostitute; and Will Trent, Polaski’s on-again off-again friend and lover and a brilliant, somewhat introverted, detective whose career is hampered by severe dyslexia.
The characters were developed to a tremendous degree and would certainly drive readers to become fully invested but, for me, the plot left a great deal to be desired in that the guilty party was entirely obvious almost from the outset. Perhaps author Slaughter crafted TRIPTYCH on purpose that way and perhaps it was her intention to create a moody character driven “suspense” thriller that was based more on revelation of personality than deeds. That’s OK and it’s certainly an author’s prerogative to write as she sees fit but for me it never managed to reach compelling or thrilling.
That said, it was an enjoyable read and I’m a continuing Karin Slaughter fan.
Stephanie and Patrick’s married life was warm and happy. Indeed, if their new twin bouncy bundles of joy weren’t “Why don’t you go to the police?”
Stephanie and Patrick’s married life was warm and happy. Indeed, if their new twin bouncy bundles of joy weren’t suffering from colic, life would be perfect and idyllic. Instead, as it stands, their life is currently a mess and spiraling out of mental control under the torture of serious sleep deprivation. And that state of affairs goes from bad to much, much worse when Erica, a misguided adulterous fling from Patrick’s past appears and makes an eyebrow raising accusation. She has suggested that the death of Patrick’s first wife, long set aside as a tragic accidental death, was in fact murder. Patrick is insistent that he is innocent and that Erica’s outrageous claim is nothing but a blackmail attempt.
Why don’t you go to the police, indeed?
Stephanie wants to believe, wants to trust, but as disturbing details begin spill into reality, she no longer knows what to believe! Has she married a murderer? Is it possible that she was simply being set up as Patrick’s next victim?
Notwithstanding the fact that the mental and physical difficulties of sleep deprivation and dealing with screaming, colicky twins is repeated to a wearisome degree, THE END OF HER is definitely an exciting story with some serious gripping power. Those pages sure did seem to turn mighty quickly. As I’ve come to expect from well-written thrillers, my opinion as to the identity of the bad guy of the piece was expertly pulled one way first and then the other as the story slowly reached a VERY clever conclusion. Lapena crafted an ending which I am convinced was a deliberate anti-climactic let down. But then, BUT THEN, came that fabulous epilogue and my jaw dropped. No spoilers here but I thought it was brilliant!
Definitely enjoyable and definitely recommended. Count me a Shari Lapena fan!
“A sniper had opened fire on a crowded playground, but was gunned down before any children were hurt.”
TIME BOMB, the fifth in Jonathan Kellerman’s Ale“A sniper had opened fire on a crowded playground, but was gunned down before any children were hurt.”
TIME BOMB, the fifth in Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series, was written in 1990. So its opening scenes of a school shooting, the “good guy with a gun” scenario saving the day, and the plot segue into the black holes of far right-wing hatred – neo-Nazism, racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia – held out the promise of a thriller that was prescient and thrilling today in a way that Kellerman could not possibly have predicted when he put his proverbial author’s pen to paper over two decades ago. Sadly, the plot is driven purely by emotions, by that hatred, and it seems appropriate that Alex Delaware, as a psychologist, puzzles out the solution to the thriller solely on the basis of psychoanalysis and the extended psychological autopsy of the young girl who was thought to be the original shooter. The plot unfolds at the pace of a turgid cerebral snail and the novel’s only saving grace is the heartwarming development of a new love interest for Delaware in the person of the school principal, Linda Overstreet.
TIME BOMB was a chore to finish and, while I haven’t put paid to the Alex Delaware series yet, I can’t say that this one makes me look forward to PRIVATE EYES, #6 in the series, with any degree of anticipation.
“ … when she looks, car lights surface on the horizon, going way too fast. There’s no time to hide.”
The basic theme is kidnapping, murder, and a m“ … when she looks, car lights surface on the horizon, going way too fast. There’s no time to hide.”
The basic theme is kidnapping, murder, and a missing woman. Hang on, make that two missing women. Oh crap, are you kidding me? Belay that and call it two women and a young girl missing with the police clock ticking down towards changing the ugly ending that everyone knows is all too possible but nobody wants to talk about!
Readers need to keep their wits about them as author Kubica’s writing style of shifting the narration from character to character makes for brilliant characterization and gripping development of a complex plot that has more twists and turns than a switchback road through a pass in the Swiss Alps. Despite the fact that the underlying story is obviously a murder thriller, much of the story line is told inside the minds of these narrators and has a rather cerebral and leisurely yet completely compulsive and gripping pace to it. I particularly enjoyed the thoughts of the older brother of the young girl who was kidnapped. Kubica did a wonderful job telling large chunks of this very disturbing story with a convincing child’s perspective.
LOCAL WOMAN MISSING will never win any Nobel Prizes for literature but, as thrillers go, it’s readable and eminently enjoyable brain candy. Extra kudos for the inclusion of the LGBT lesbian couple in a very current, realistic, yet matter of fact portrayal. Definitely recommended.
“A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.” She places her child in your arms. She says your name. Then she jumps …”
I woul“A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.” She places her child in your arms. She says your name. Then she jumps …”
I would be hard-pressed to summarize the plot-line of WOMAN ON THE EDGE better than that quotation from the back cover marketing blurb. Who could fail to raise their eyebrows and want to read a novel based on such an intriguing premise?
Debut Canadian novelist Samantha M Bailey has adopted a compelling story-writing style using first-person narration alternating in chapters between the distraught mother leading up to her suicide and a puzzled social worker who has no idea who this woman is and why she would choose to give away her baby. An added twist that definitely moves the story into gripping and unputdownable territory is that the police are treating the suicide’s death as a potential murder. They believe that the social worker pushed her into the path of the subway with the intent of stealing her baby (and available evidence seems to point in that direction). Sherlock Holmes’ oft-quoted aphorism applies,“The game is afoot”!
Bailey’s depiction of corporate demands on driven employees and executives, post-partum depression, mental illness, drug addiction, family and marriage breakdown, financial greed, and the intense almost over-powering desire of some women to have and to raise children all make for a first-rate easy-reading thriller that any lover of the genre will gobble up in very short order.
Definitely recommended and I’d be happy to pick up another novel by this author.
“… a 99.999% DNA match. So there it is, in black and white. My son is alive.”
Some women suffer from post-partum depression, some much more so than“… a 99.999% DNA match. So there it is, in black and white. My son is alive.”
Some women suffer from post-partum depression, some much more so than others. Three years earlier, Susan Webster was convicted of murdering her newborn son Dylan. After serving a two year term in Oakdale Psychiatric Institute, now ostensibly recovered from her battle with puerperal psychosis and separated from her former husband, Ms Webster moves with her best friend to a new town and assumes an alias, Emma Cartwright, to begin life anew. But that new life is torn apart when she receives an envelope addressed to her as Susan Webster that contains a photo of a handsome young toddler captioned with her son’s name, Dylan. With no memories of actually committing a murder, she begins to believe that she is innocent and that her son is alive. The hunt for the truth begins and the path to that new reality is a twisted and byzantine route fraught with danger.
The poignant plot premise is certainly full of exciting and intriguing possibilities but Ms Blackhurst’s execution leaves a great deal to be desired. Too many characters, too many plot holes, and a fractured, disjointed and extremely tortuous story line that is difficult in the extreme to follow. In fact, in the final analysis, virtually nobody in the entire novel retains the identity with which they were introduced to the reader. Throughout the entire story line, Ms Blackhurst’s characters, both good and bad, are making decisions with what would appear to be a complete lack of common sense and rational judgment. Now I’ll admit that thrillers are supposed to puzzle the reader and force them into attempting to solve the mystery and beat the author to the solution. But HOW I LOST YOU simply goes over the top with the red herrings, and all of the twists, turns, and about-faces.
The difference between a 1-star rating and a 2-star rating is simply the fact that I finished it. Not recommended, I’m afraid.
One of only a handful of books in my life that I’ve plowed through in a single day!
Alicia Berenson seems to have the tigers of the world by the tail. One of only a handful of books in my life that I’ve plowed through in a single day!
Alicia Berenson seems to have the tigers of the world by the tail. She’s a celebrated painter whose work is showcased in a grand gallery. She’s happily married to a well known fashion photographer and they’re living in a home that would be the envy of many in the city of London. But one evening when her husband returns home late from work, she shoots him five times in the face and, to all appearances, shuts herself down mentally. She never speaks another word. Perhaps she can’t or perhaps she won’t … who knows? Judged in court as mentally unfit, she is locked away indefinitely in a secure psychiatric institution. Enter criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber who takes up the challenge of searching for the truth, diagnosing and treating the issues behind Alicia’s continuing silence.
THE SILENT PATIENT is definitely a page turner with a bizarre ending twist. Nevertheless, despite the fact that I was unable to set the book aside and finished it in a single sitting, I withheld one star from my rating. Even allowing Mr Michaelides literary license to create the mandatory twist to end a psychological thriller, I felt that my credibility meter got pushed just a little too far into the red zone. Who’s to say why people with psychological issues make the decisions that they do but I had more than a little difficulty puzzling through this particular bad guy’s motives.
That said, THE SILENT PATIENT is a thoroughly enjoyable thriller that’s very easy to recommend to other lovers of the genre.
It’s not the lions and leopards doing the stalking in THE HUNTED!
Stevie Erickson is at sixes and sevens! The sudden loss of her grandmother, memoriesIt’s not the lions and leopards doing the stalking in THE HUNTED!
Stevie Erickson is at sixes and sevens! The sudden loss of her grandmother, memories of the tragic death of a good friend in a car accident, lousy sleeping plagued with recurring nightmares, doubts about a strained relationship with her boyfriend. It’s no wonder she thinks that a vacation completely away from all of that might be just the ticket that the doctor ordered. So it’s off to Africa on a backpacking trip only to discover that “darkest Africa” doesn’t mean what she used to think it meant.
The literary style of first person narration is brilliant and works perfectly for this novel. The reader is put right into the mind and the mind-set of each of the narrators in alternating chapters. There is no doubt that you will have the creepy feeling of doubt and worry that something and somebody is not quite right from the opening sentence until the climax and, of course, the inevitable twisted ending. THE HUNTED is just a novel, of course, but readers will come away with a greater appreciation of the profound effect that being stalked in real life would have on someone’s state of mind.
Definitely recommended. Three cheers for Canadian authors.
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