THE WHISPER MAN

Author:  Alex North

Genre:  Thriller, Standalone

Published:  2019

Personal Rating:  3/5 (just okay)

Format:  eBook

Yearly Count:  26

From NetGalley:

After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank.

But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.

Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.

And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...

Thriller?  Eh.  Not so much.  I was never fully engaged with the story, but was somewhat interested.  The writing was fine, the characters were okay, but there just wasn't enough to make me want to read into the night.  I did finish it -- that says something.

Thoughts of Joy

My thanks go to Celadon Books and NetGalley for providing me with the eGalley.

LIES

Author:  T. M. Logan

Genre:  Thriller

Published:  2018

Personal Rating:  2.75/5

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Leighton Pugh

Yearly Count:  25

From NetGalley:

Six days ago, Joe Lynch was a happily married man, a devoted father, and a respected teacher living in a well-to-do London suburb. But that was before he spotted his wife’s car entering a hotel parking garage. Before he saw her in a heated argument with her best friend’s husband. Before Joe confronted the other man in an altercation where he left him for dead, bleeding and unconscious.

Now, Joe’s life is unraveling. His wife has lied to him. Her deception has put their entire family in jeopardy. The man she met at the hotel has vanished. And as the police investigate his disappearance, suspicion falls on Joe.

Unable to trust the woman he loves, Joe finds himself at the mercy of her revelations and deceits, unsure of who or what to believe. All he knows is that her actions have brought someone dangerous into their lives—someone obsessed with her and determined to tear Joe’s world apart.

What if your whole life was based on LIES?

Lies was believable until it wasn't.  :(  I had high hopes for this one, and they kept falling as the book progressed.  By the time the ending arrived, I was a bit disappointed.  There were just too many events that didn't ring true.  

Thoughts of Joy

My thanks go to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with the eGalley.

THE ESCAPE ROOM

Author: Megan Goldin

Genre:  Thriller, Standalone 

Published:  2019

Personal Rating:  3.75/5 (good +)

Format:  eBook

Yearly Count:  24

From NetGalley:

Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style—but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?

This was incredibly unbelievable, but I enjoyed it anyway.  Odd, but true.  I much prefer more realistic reads, but I was curious and would pick this up to find out more!  There were two time frames:  an elevator team building exercise and the events that lead up to it.  That, too, was not my favorite style.  So, with an unbelievable storyline and a format I'm not fond of, I still enjoyed this book.  That says something.  The actual writing was an easy read.

Thoughts of Joy

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with the eGalley.

THE WOMAN INSIDE

Author:  E. G. Scott

Genre:  Thriller, Standalone

Published:  2019

Personal Rating:  3/5 (just okay)

Format:  ebook  

Yearly Count:  11


From NetGalley:

Rebecca didn’t know love was possible until she met Paul, a successful, charismatic, married man with a past as dark as her own. Their pain drew them together with an irresistible magnetism; they sensed that they were each other’s ideal (and perhaps only) match.

But twenty years later, Paul and Rebecca are drowning as the damage and secrets that ignited their love begin to consume their marriage. Paul is cheating on Rebecca, and his affair gets messy fast. His mistress is stalking them with growing audacity when Rebecca discovers Paul’s elaborate plan to build a new life without her. And though Rebecca is spiraling into an opiate addiction, it doesn’t stop her from coming up with a devious plot of her own, and this one could end absolutely everything.

Another book that had an interesting beginning, which definitely built my curiosity--until it didn't anymore.  Early on I figured out what was going to happen and just slowly watched it unfold.  Of course I couldn't predict all the details, but even those additions didn't thrill me.

Thoughts of Joy

   

My thanks go to Penguin Group and NetGalley for providing me with this eGalley.

LIES SHE TOLD

Author:  Cate Holahan

Genre:  Thriller, Standalone

Published:  2017

Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)

Format:  eBook

Yearly Count:  31

From NetGalley:

Sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

Liza Jones has thirty days to write the thriller that could put her back on the bestseller list. In the meantime, she’s struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. With stresses weighing down in both her professional and her personal life, Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine.

Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home alone providing for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, Beth sets out to catch him in the act and make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes it, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the river.

Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the Hudson and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including herself. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.

Oh my goodness.  I liked so much about this book, but frankly, it was just too confusing!  It took me about 1/2 the book to get into the swing of the two storylines.  I enjoyed them both immensely, I just couldn't keep anything straight; therefore, not knowing what was real and what wasn't.  (Later to find out, I didn't have all the subtitles in my version.  Uhhhhh, that would have helped tremendously!)  Anyway, I liked the complexity of the story, but I'm writing this a week after finishing it, and I don't remember the actual final ending.  Ultimately, this one seems a bit too confusing to read sporadically (and without subtitles).  : /  I will gladly read another by this author, though.

*subtitles = chapter title headings

Thoughts of Joy

My thanks go to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with this eGalley.

ALWAYS WATCHING

Author:  Chevy Stevens

Genre:  Thriller?, Standalone

Published:  2013

Personal Rating:  2.75/5 (eh +)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Joyce Bean

Yearly Count:  20


A psychiatrist realizes that she has much more in common with a patient than she ever imagined.

It was not believable, but I still listened to it.  And it definitely wasn't a thriller.

Thoughts of Joy

DESCENT

Author:  Tim Johnston

Genre:  Thriller, Standalone

Published:  2015

Personal Rating:  3/5 (just okay)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Xe Sands &
R.C. Bray

Yearly Count:  11

From NetGalley:

The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a young family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner's heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they've only read about in headlines or seen on TV.

As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren't they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin's disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family's harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life?

I am really torn on how to rate this book because there were some things that impressed me and at the same time annoyed me beyond belief.  The actual writing had a special quality to it that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It made me feel like I was there; however, the writing style took me all over the place regarding timeline and who was speaking.  That drove me out of my mind!  I would give Johnston a try again, but only if I knew the story was told in sequential order and was grounded with one point of view.

Thoughts of Joy

My thanks go to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing me with the eGalley.