Psychological Thriller | Book Chatter

The Couple Next Door
By Shari Lapena
Pamela Dorman Books, Hardcover, 9780735221086, August 2016, 320pp.

The Short of It:

A story made-up of lies and secrets makes for a good page-turner.

The Rest of It:

Marco and Anne Conti attend a dinner party at their neighbor’s house while their infant daughter sleeps next door. Bad idea. Cora disappears and because Anne and Marco are too intoxicated to remember details, they can’t remember if they left the door unlocked or exactly when they saw her last. As the disappearance is investigated, secrets are revealed and no one can be trusted.

This is a book that is really hard to put down because every time you turn the page, someone is lying or blame quickly switches from one character to the next. NO ONE in this story can be trusted which is a little aggravating but somehow makes for good reading. Plus, Anne is suffering from postpartum depression so her take on the situation is rather skewed at times which makes you doubt what’s going on.

If you are sensitive to convenient story lines or tire easily of red herrings, you could grow bored with this one. I am typically that type of reader but it was a fun read and a great book to take my mind off of my first week back at work.

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

Fractured
By Catherine McKenzie
Lake Union Publishing, Paperback, 9781503937826, October 4, 2016, 349pp.

The Short of It:

Say hello to crazy town.

The Rest of It:

Julie and Daniel move to Cincinnati. Their house, somewhat charming but mostly a copy of the other homes around them, provides the perfect view of the house across the street and that’s how the story opens.

I live in a city that is known as “Awesometown”. Yes. That is how it is advertised and it’s made the list of Top 25 Cities a few times. So when I picked up Fractured, I saw a lot of similarities to my own hometown. This grabbed my attention from page one.

So what’s the story about? Well, Julie is a well-known author. Her bestselling book, The Murder Game, put her name on the map and with it, came a stalker by the name of Heather. Heather and Julie knew each other in law school but when they lost a mutual friend, Heather became obsessed with Julie and with Julie’s recent fame, even a restraining order can’t keep Heather away, which is why Julie, her husband Daniel and their two kids move to Cincinnati.

But things are not good. Julie doesn’t fit in and the Pine Street Neighborhood Association head, Cindy, takes it upon herself to make sure Julie is miserable. Especially when it’s rumored that Julie has a thing for the married guy across the street, John.

John’s immediate attraction to Julie spells trouble. He’s happily married to Hanna (and knows it) but life in the ‘hood is drab if not boring without something or someone to look forward to and when things begin to happen to Julie, John is the run she runs to.

Have I piqued your interest?

This book is all kinds of crazy. I seriously questioned what was going on many, many times. The author plays with the timeline quite a bit and to be honest, this took a little bit of getting used to. The story is also told from John and Julie’s POV. This also took a bit of getting used to because at the beginning, John and Julie are almost too similar. I had to keep reminding myself who was telling the story. But, by the half-way point, their characters were pretty distinct and I no longer had that issue.

Julie is a difficult character to like. She’s kind of annoying and does nothing to improve her situation. It seems as if she is always getting into trouble but man, witnessing her awkwardness makes for great entertainment.

This book is built on a big secret which the author manages to keep until the very end. Yes, you can speculate and try to guess what’s happened, because at the very beginning you know that something has happened, but you really can’t be sure until you read those final pages and it’s a fun ride, Full of interesting characters, ones you love to hate and plenty of drama to keep you engaged, Fractured is a real page-turner.

In case you missed the link above, the book featured in Fractured, The Murder Game is actually a real story and coming out in November!

If you’d like a chance to win your very own copy of Fractured, check out the giveaway details below.

Catherine McKenzie

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

This giveaway is for one copy of Fractured and is open to the US and Canada. A winner will be chosen randomly by me. The book will come directly from the publisher. Only one entry per person. Giveaway closes on November 5 (pacific). I will contact the winner for his/her mailing address.