Psychological Thriller | Book Chatter

One of the Girls
By Lucy Clarke
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 9780593422649, June 2022, 432pp.

The Short of It:

Impossible to put down!

The Rest of It:

This book has it all. A beautiful Greece setting, characters you care about. a quick, dramatic pace, and it will keep you guessing. A group of friends take off on a “hen” weekend, a bachelorette party to celebrate Lexi’s upcoming wedding but everyone on this trip has a secret she is keeping and at the top of the story you know someone ends up dead so from the very first page I was pulled in.

Clarke tells a really good story. There are some surprises and many twists but that gorgeous Greece setting takes center stage. With each page, you are right there with them. At the villa, on the boat, soaking up the sun and enjoying they many drinks that a gathering such as this one has readily available. Clarke slowly peels back the many layers and reveals all of their insecurities and worries and doubt. Do you ever really know your friends?

If you haven’t read One of the Girls yet, you should. It was excellent and got me out of my slump.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Stowaway
By James S. Murray & Darren Wearmouth
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250263650, September 2021, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Gruesome, but oddly entertaining.

The Rest of It:

Two years ago, Maria Fontana, the head of the Psychology Department at Columbia University, sat on a jury for one of the most depraved cases ever to pass through the hallowed halls of City Hall. ~ Indiebound

The set-up is very good. Maria’s role on that jury comes back to haunt her and her family as they are vacationing on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. Maria and her fiancé are trying to put the events of the past behind them while getting a little R&R with Maria’s young children in tow. But things suddenly take a dangerous turn on the ship when people turn up dead. People, mostly, young children. How can this be? Could the man on trial, Wyatt Butler have a copycat?

Maria spent a lot of time reviewing the evidence of that case. All the gruesome photos of Butler’s young victims. Plus, her background in Psychology gives her enough info to know how these serial killers work, but could there really be a copycat on board? Why? What is he after?

This book is a classic example of being trapped with no place to run. It’s a ship but there are only so many places to hide and Maria’s knowledge of the case and what this killer is capable of keeps the story flowing at a breakneck pace. I really enjoyed this one. I read it in one sitting and could not put it down for long.

But…

It’s gruesome. The crime scenes are very graphic. It seemed somewhat tolerable only because the killings are not in real time. As readers, we only hear of the aftermath but it’s children, which is a bit hard to swallow. Many of you warned me about how graphic it was but it was done well-enough that it didn’t keep me from frantically turning those pages.

If you need something a little different, something that is hard to put down and you don’t mind the graphic nature of these killings, then I highly recommend it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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