Psychological Thriller | Book Chatter

The Spin
By Faith Gardner
Mirror House Press, June 2026, 326pp.

The Short of It:

Hysteria or something darker?

The Rest of It:

The Crawfords live in a beautiful suburban home in Los Angeles. Leo, a marketing executive, loves the life he has built with his beautiful, pregnant wife, Rose, and their older daughter, Melinda. Then, while on vacation, Rose goes missing. When she returns, she is different.

Once they get her home, Rose seems to settle back into the life she knows, but certain things begin triggering psychotic episodes that eventually land her in a mental institution. Leo cannot figure it out. How can his once beautiful, confident wife be completely checked out one minute, then manic enough to require hospitalization the next? Was it the pregnancy? Or was it something else?

The hysterical housewife of the 1950s was a very real thing. Women were deemed hysterical, and let’s face it, that still happens today. It does not matter if there is an underlying cause. People are not going to look for it. They are going to medicate her and send her to a hospital. This is exactly what happens to Rose.

As Leo and Melinda try to hold down the fort, Leo continues investigating the timeline of events and stumbles across something he was never supposed to find. When his own mother comes to help, having another person in the house brings certain details to light and points out things Leo has missed.

I really enjoyed this one. As the story ramped up to its conclusion, there were a few story threads I wanted to see fleshed out a little more. Overall, though, it was a page-turner that kept me guessing.

Recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Havoc
By Christopher Bollen
Harper, December 2024, 256 pp.

The Short of It:

Quirky. Fun. Batshit Crazy.

The Rest of It:

Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. ~ the publisher

A luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile? Yes, please. Except, the Royal Karnak is dusty and threadbare and coming out of a pandemic shutdown. It has lost its luster, but for Maggie, recently widowed, she considers the staff her family, and the hotel, her home. It still possesses all the charm she needs, and the people within it are an added bonus.

Except, Maggie isn’t all that she seems. Older, yes, sweet, certainly can be, but she has a nose for trouble and has no problem sticking it into people’s business if she sees a reason to do so. Here, I will tread carefully so as to not give anything away.

If she sees a married couple whom she suspects is not happy, Maggie to the rescue. Inquisitive children seen with a single parent? What’s the story there? Where is the father? She befriends these folks as a service of sorts, whether it’s welcomed or not but this gets her into trouble.

As endearing as she is to the hotel staff, and loyal too, she is carefully warned by her beloved hotel manager, that she is 80 and should be living a life of peace and calm. Not running around in the ungodly heat. She takes these warnings lightly and does what she sees fit to do.

I can’t go into more without giving the story away. This is definitely a wild, crazy read and the title is fitting. HAVOC is what you will experience while reading this one. It’s very well done, in my opinion, but I’d put the book down and say to myself, “Phew, that is outright crazy” and then pick it right back up again.

The characters are very well drawn. My book club chose this book for discussion this month and at first I wasn’t sure there would be enough to discuss but oh boy, there’s plenty. There are two main characters in this book and both are off kilter which makes it a wild, fun read.

Highly recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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