The House Across the Lake is a suspenseful thriller written by Riley Sager. This story follows Casey, who is a recently widowed ex-actress who is back in her family's lake house for an escape from her life. Across the dark lake is a huge house that is the new home to a glamorous couple, Katherine and Tom. One day as Casey is soaking in her grief she notices a body floating in the lake and quickly takes her boat out there to discover it is Katherine.
The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden is a psychological thriller that follows the story of a newly hired housemaid named Millie. She begins her live-in housemaid job, but things quickly begin to go wrong. Her room has a lock on the outside, but not on the inside, leaving Millie feeling uneasy. Also, strange things begin to happen in her room at night. The people she works for make her job a living nightmare.
Power Play, by Joseph Finder, is a book full of a very specific charm. The strong male protagonist uses his ingenuity, wit, and determination to save the day and rescue the damsel and takes the reader for an engaging and suspenseful ride along the way. The story explores social politics and dynamics in the business world, as well as what bigwigs do when the lives they play with suddenly get a little too close to their own.
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer, is a stylistically incredible story of survival. The novel follows a Biologist, thrown into an anomalous environment that seems to have a mind of its own. She is set to discover the source of the anomaly along with several other specialists with dubious motives. With a rich exploration of the Biologist’s mind, an environment that falls perfectly into the uncanny valley, and undercurrents of mystery, distrust, and unreliability, VanderMeer creates an incredible and engaging story.
Rooney is a senior in high school, but she sure doesn’t feel it. In fact her entire life has been put on hold to keep her family afloat, all thanks to The Next World Society. Rooney thinks the group is nonsense, but the idea that all the members will leave earth by November 17th is the only thing her mother believes in and her little brother is starting to fall for it too.
Till Human Voices Wake Us, by Rebecca Roque, chronicles the twisting journey of seventeen-year-old Silencia “Cia” Lucero as she attempts to uncover the secrets buried in her hometown, Summerset. Cia has her own dark history, her own secrets. Including a traumatic past as Silence Bennett, living in a house with three sisters and a father that ended up blowing it all up. And when her best friend Alice says that she has answers to secrets that lead back to the Bennett house, Cia isn’t ready to hear any of it.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows high school senior Pippa Fitz Amobi uncovering a murder case that has haunted her small town for years. Sal Singh was suspected of killing his girlfriend, Andie Bell, but Pip isn’t convinced. I loved this book. The characters felt very realistic and it was very fast paced. One of my main problems with mysteries is when the twists are not foreshadowed in the book. I think the author did a great job at making the ending hard to guess, but also laying out easy to find clues.
Naomi is forced to leave her life in the city after a family crisis and ends up in the small town of Knockemout. She soon meets the grumpy and mysterious Knox Morgan who has a reputation for being closed off and the town’s bad boy. Despite their differences, they end up bonding over past trauma and other things they never got over.
Adam and Amelia Wright’s marriage is struggling. In their final attempt to save their relationship, they venture to Scotland on a getaway trip where they stay in an isolated chapel in the woods. Adam has a rare condition that makes it hard for him to recognize faces and Amelia has her own secrets. Their stay at this chapel turns into a game of manipulation and a journey of uncovering the past in unexpected ways.
Millie Calloway has had a rough go at life. She was just released from prison and lost her job and apartment but finds a job being a housemaid for a wealthy family. Nina Winchester, the wife and mom of this family, forces Millie to sleep in the attic that only locks from the outside. Millie then notices Nina’s incredibly wild and erratic behavior. As she stays with this family longer, she discovers the very unusual things that go on behind the scenes.
