Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Hello Fellow Crime, Mystery & Thriller readers,


Welcome to our discussion about Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier, your discussion leader is PrettyDoll.
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about spoilers

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Summary

This is the story of three best friends: one who was murdered, one who went to prison, and one who's been searching for the truth all these years . . .

When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong—one of the most popular girls in school—disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, now an executive and rising star at her Seattle pharmaceutical company, was involved in any way. Certainly not Kaiser Brody, who was close with both girls back in high school.

But fourteen years later, Angela Wong's remains are discovered in the woods near Geo's childhood home. And Kaiser—now a detective with Seattle PD—finally learns the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James. The same Calvin James who murdered at least three other women.

To the authorities, Calvin is a serial killer. But to Geo, he's something else entirely. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo's first love. Turbulent and often volatile, their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed.

For fourteen years, Geo knew what happened to Angela and told no one. For fourteen years, she carried the secret of Angela's death until Geo was arrested and sent to prison.

While everyone thinks they finally know the truth, there are dark secrets buried deep. And what happened that fateful night is more complex and more chilling than anyone really knows. Now the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong.

How far will someone go to bury her secrets and hide her grief? How long can you get away with a lie? How long can you live with it?

Hillier is a master as weaving dark, trigger-worthy content throughout her novels. She creates realistic, dynamic characters who you can connect with. This read hit the creep factor, but also tugs as the heartstrings.

I have just started The Silent Patient. I’m on Chapter 7 and think it’s well written. Somehow the patients are correlated, just don’t know how yet. What are your thoughts of the first few chapters?

Woops wrong group

This was a tough read for me. I guess my issue was that I was immersed into the world this book created. Which normally is what I want, BUT... Because the book takes place in prison for so much of it, I found myself feeling horrible while reading. I would also categorize this as not mystery/thriller genre, but horror. I know I am an outlier in my opinion, I just really hated how I felt when I was reading this. Even though it was not my cup of tea, I do think Hillier is a great writer and did a good job on this one technically speaking.

I enjoyed the book overall but hated the ending. Geo killing both her serial killer ex-boyfriend and her equally psychotic son struck a wrong note with me for some reason.

I finished the book and I enjoyed while reading it. The story includes very long period and I like this because thrillers generally includes a short period of time. I think the ending is not too satisfactory thats why I gave 4 stars. Some of the readers said that this book feels like a horror book than a thriller, I agree with them. Anyways I enjoyed the book except the ending. I am looking forward to read September books. Have a good day!

Good read, finished it quite quickly. I too had issues with the ending. The “twist” ending with her son felt too easy. I wish the epilogue was a little longer, I really enjoyed the Kaiser/Geo relationship. Overall however, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Glad it was recommended.

I'm probably going to be an outlier here, but I found the story a little underwhelming, espcially based on all the high ratings. From pretty early in the story, I suspected that Geo was the one who cut up Angela. Later when it was revealed that she had a baby from Calvin that she gave up for adoption, I immediately began to suspect that Calvin's son was the real murderer. The ending was disturbing and creepy, yet satisfying. Exactly how it should end.