The Housemaid Series by Freida McFadden

       

 

I recently read all three of the books in The Housemaid series by Freida McFadden and I enjoyed the series. I do have to say that I liked the first book better than the other two. I thought the series got weaker with each book. I also read book one in ebook form and really liked it that way. It kept me up into the wee hours of the night. It was just so hard to put down! I ended up listening to the other two books on a road trip, and while they kept me entertained on my long drive there and back, and was one reason I didn't mind the drive so much, I really didn't like the narrator at all. I am wondering if I would have liked those two books more if they had been eye reads instead. That being said, I know I would have still had most of the same issues with book three. 

 

The Housemaid (The Housemaid #1) by Freida McFadden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language, Physical and Psychological Abuse, Confinement

 

There's something about this author's writing style that grabs me and doesn't let go. I could not put this book down! You would think that it would be a 5 star read if that was the case, but there were some things that didn't come off as completely believable to me. Story wise it should probably get a 3 but it's getting a 4 for the sheer entertainment value of all those twists and turns, even the ones I predicted correctly. I'm adding a spoiler tag down below for things that didn't work so well for me. Be prepared for major spoilers if you look.

Things that seemed a bit unbelievable- The way Andrew allowed Nina to let Millie stay in the attic room. That didn't make sense. One of the reasons Nina gives him for allowing it is because if they make the guest room her bedroom his parents won't have anywhere to stay when they're visiting. But we are told his parents have kept their NY house after moving to Florida, so they wouldn't need to stay in the guest room. I have a hard time believing Andrew would have relinquished that much control regardless of the reason she gave him. The fact that Millie stayed when there was a chance Nina could make an accusation that would send her back to prison. I don't believe she would have stayed on after she realized that. She could have just told her parole officer that the employer was a mental case and mistreating her. I'm pretty sure the parole officer would have helped her find a place to stay until she got a different job. She helped her get a job before. Also, if she was bold enough to punch the bartender in the face when he was touching her inappropriately why couldn't she have just told her parole officer what he was doing in the first place? That Millie would have stayed in that locked room the whole time when she had the key. She could have escaped when he was gone. But I think we are supposed to believe that she plotted the whole thing so she could ambush him and lock him in the room. Andrew is given pliers at one point when he's locked in the room, so he can pull out his teeth. Something that I had a hard time believing he would do until the part at the funeral near the end when his mother told Nina she had pulled his baby teeth out as a punishment. So, knowing that I can maybe believe he would have done it. But I'm still not convinced. I knew the whole time that the things Andrew did to women probably came from the way his mother treated him, but I have a hard time believing his mother would ever have told Nina about anything she did to him. When Andrew has the pliers he could have used them to try to pull the pins out of the door hinges. It was mentioned they were on the inside of the room when he was trying to bust the door down. Also, why does no one try to break out the tiny window and yell for help? It wouldn't open but you could still break it. The huge coincidence that the police officer on the scene happened to be the father of the woman Andrew was engaged to in the past, and the fact that he was able to cover up what really happened so easily.

 

The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid #2) by Freida McFadden

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language, Abuse

 

In many ways this book followed the same formula as the first book, only with some twists. I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as book one. There's a time lapse of several years that I wasn't expecting but it worked fine. This was a very entertaining book that kept me listening and wanting to know what was going to happen next. I did predict most of the twists but it was still a fun read.

 

 

The Housemaid is Watching (The Housemaid #3) by Freida McFadden 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language, Abuse

 

The main character is married with two kids in book three and she's middle aged now. That didn't bother me, what bothered me was that she just seemed different. Maybe I should just blame it on her getting older and becoming a mother, but she felt more cautious, less willing to take chances, and the lack of communication between her and her spouse annoyed me. It didn't make sense that he wouldn't tell her these things. In fact, it felt contrived, just to add drama to the story. Overall I enjoyed this series though, and I want to read more books by this author. I think her books, while not always completely believable, are very entertaining.

Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language

 

Just before dawn in the hills near the Scottish border, a man murders a young woman. At the same time, a hot-air balloon crashes out of the sky. There’s just one survivor.

She’s seen the killer’s face – but he’s also seen hers. And he won’t rest until he’s eliminated the only witness to his crime.

Alone, scared, trusting no one, she’s running to where she feels safe – but it could be the most dangerous place of all . . .

 

I liked that this was a bit different from the other mystery/thrillers I've read. It starts out with people in a hot air balloon witnessing a crime being committed. I thought it was pretty harrowing for a while as they tried to escape the killer who was following the balloon to try to kill the witnesses. I enjoyed the way this unfolded, slowly revealing the secrets in the story, and it ended up being pretty different from what I thought it would be. Although I predicted all but the very last two twists, it's still a 4 star read, and I want to try other books by this author. 

While listening to this, there were a couple of times where I was confused at the way something happened in the story, but the fact that the story switched from past to present in a non-linear way is what caused that. You have to pay close attention while reading. I think that maybe actually reading this versus listening to it might make it a little less confusing at those parts.

 

 

 

 

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language; Kidnapping, torture, murder, and animal cruelty, although none of that happens on page.

 

Some doors are locked for a reason…

While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.

 

After reading the book description, I went into this wondering what was in Nora's basement. I don't think it's a spoiler at all to say this book is set up to make us wonder if we can trust Nora or not. What I really enjoyed about this book was that I could never be sure until the end. I think I followed every single misdirection the story sent my way. I'm not sure how I feel about some revelations at the end of the book but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I was completely glued to this flaws and all. I can see why this author is so popular. I'll definitely be reading more!

 

 

 

 

Girl Number One by Jane Holland

  

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Content: Strong language, One moderately descriptive sex scene

 

As a young child, Eleanor Blackwood witnessed her mother's murder in woods near their farm. The killer was never found.

Now an adult, Eleanor discovers a woman's body in the same spot in the Cornish woods where her mother was strangled eighteen years before. But when the police get there, the body has disappeared.

Is Eleanor’s disturbed mind playing tricks on her again, or has her mother’s killer resurfaced? And what does the number on the dead woman’s forehead signify?

 

I listened the audio of this and I wasn't crazy about the narrator. Overall this was just ok. Nothing surprised me and the main character annoyed me. She did some stupid things. She was also always thinking about how attractive the men she was acquainted with were. She was suspicious of one man but still slept with him, which didn't make any sense to me. Nothing in the book really surprised me at all. The person I suspected the most ended up being the present day killer, and I had also thought about the possibility of the other person being her mother's killer. 

I've noticed there are a few things most of the psychological suspense thrillers I've read by UK authors have in common. The police are inept at their jobs and dismissive, the parents of the main characters are downright mean and unsupportive, and lots of smoking that's portrayed as though it's sexy instead of a health hazard. This one was the same. I'm not sure if this is a trend or just a coincidence, but I'm a bit tired of it. I think I'm going to stick to authors in this genre that I know I like for a while.

 

The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Suspense
Content: Strong language

 

Her first love confessed to five murders. But the truth was so much worse.

Dublin's notorious Canal Killer, Will Hurley, is ten years into his life sentence when the body of a young woman is fished out of the Grand Canal. Though detectives suspect they are dealing with a copycat, they turn to Will for help. He claims he has the information the police need, but will only give it to one person - the girl he was dating when he committed his horrific crimes.

Alison Smith has spent the last decade abroad, putting her shattered life in Ireland far behind her. But when she gets a request from Dublin imploring her to help prevent another senseless murder, she is pulled back to face the past - and the man - she's worked so hard to forget. 

I'm so glad I discovered this author. I knew after reading The Nothing Man that I wanted to read more of her books, and this second one was also very good. This author is very good as writing character centered psychological suspense, a type of book that I love if done right. I enjoyed the slow build of this story and I thought the characters were very well written. It kept me guessing for a while, but I realized how things were going to end up somewhere in the middle of the book. That being said, it still kept me reading because I wasn't sure I was right. If you enjoy this type of book then I recommend this one and The Nothing Man. I'm looking forward to reading more of Catherine Ryan Howard's books.

 

“Did he really think I’d escaped all this intact? That I could love him and he could kill people and then I could just go on and live a normal life? That I could have those things now, no harm done? Didn’t he realise what he’d done?” 

 

 

 

 

 

The Missing Sister by Elle Marr

  

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Strong Language

 

In Paris, her twin sister has vanished, leaving behind three chilling words: Trust no one.

Shayna Darby is finally coming to terms with her parents’ deaths when she’s delivered another blow. The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela—the possible victim of a serial killer—has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone…

Alive. Trust no one.

Taking the warning to heart, Shayna maintains the lie. She makes a positive ID on the remains and works to find out where—and why—her missing sister is hiding. Shayna retraces her sister’s footsteps, and they lead her down into Paris’s underbelly.

As she gets closer to the truth—and to the killer—Shayna’s own life may now be in the balance…

 

This book was a mess. There were so many things that didn't make sense. The protagonist, Shayna does things that are at turns silly, stupid, and dangerous. She was one of those too stupid to live characters. It was very obvious to me who she shouldn't trust. There were also dumb things like her being worried about someone thinking she was her sister and finishing the job, but then she wears her sister's clothes when all her laundry is dirty?  Also, she goes to questionable places, putting herself in danger and won't tell the police what's going on. 

I kept wondering why her sister couldn't have just told her what was going on in the coded message she left, or at least who she shouldn't trust, or where she was. Why leave a whole trail of them instead of just one with more details? And why didn't the police find this coded message and think it was worth looking into? It didn't make any sense.

The reason behind her sister's disappearance was crazy. I guess serial killers are either crazy or evil, but this was absolutely bonkers. In the end some things were left unexplained, like who tried to kidnap Shayna. I have to say that the most interesting character was Madam Chang, and boy was she full of surprises.




 

    
 

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

  

 My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Strong language, The unpleasant recollections of a serial killer that include raping and torturing his victims (although not much detail is given)

 

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man. Now I am the woman who is going to catch him...


At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man —the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. Jim soon begins to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first …

 

This is the first book I've read by this author and it definitely won't be my last! I found this book to be a very compelling read with a couple of twists I didn't see coming. That being said, I did figure out some of it ahead of time, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book at all. Going into this we know who the killer is, the mystery lies elsewhere here, and the thrills lie in the fact that you're in the killer's head reliving the killings as he reads the book that's written about him. The whole time I was anticipating when he would finally go after Eve. 

The Perfect Nanny by Karen Clarke, Amanda Brittany

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Nothing I can remember

You trust her with your home, your husband, your baby… but she is about to destroy it all.

Sophy Pemberton is struggling to cope with the pressures of becoming a new mother. Her nine-month-old son never settles in her arms and the unrelenting tiredness from late night feeds is all-consuming.

So, when Liv Granger from the mother and baby group offers her services as a nanny, Sophy is overcome with relief. Now she can finally get some sleep… She can stop failing at being a mother.

But Liv has a secret.

She is convinced that Sophy was accountable for her brother’s tragic death and she has been searching for her for years.

And now that Liv’s found her, she’s outraged Sophy seems oblivious to the pain she has caused her family.

Sophy’s perfect house, perfect husband and perfect baby are too much for Liv to bear… and she’s going to make her pay.

'An utterly gripping and suspenseful novel that will have you turning the pages long into the night! Fans of The Mother-In-Law, Lies Lies Lies, and The Babysitter will love this heart-racing read.'

 

A while ago I found the author Karen Clarke through her book My Best Friend's Secret and just thoroughly enjoyed her storytelling. I've gone on to read every one of her mystery thrillers and I'm sad that for now, this was the last one. I hope she writes more. This was one of three that she co-wrote with author Amanda Brittany, and I think it's the best of the three. I had issues with the other two books that brought my ratings down to 3 stars. This one I confidently gave 4 stars to. 

I enjoyed the characters in this book, even though one of them did things at times that were pretty mean. I liked the growth in this character by the end of the book and that she ended up having a conscience. I felt incredibly bad for Sophy in this book and everything she went through. There were a couple of times I thought she was a little dumb to not see what was obvious, but I still liked this book enough to give it 4 stars. I thought I had this one all figured out and some of it I was right about, but there was a twist that I did not see coming, and of course there was that ending that sent chills up my spine but also had me thinking that character totally deserved what they got. I'll be looking for more psychological thrillers by Karen Clarke.

The Narrator by K. L. Slater

  

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Strong language, Kidnapping, Psychological torture

 

What if the chance of a perfect life… put your daughter in grave danger?

Being a single mother is tough, but I’d do anything for my little girl Scarlet. I’d given up on my career as a voice actor when the call came, but suddenly I was the new narrator for a secret book from bestselling author Philippa Roberts, who has been missing for eight months. It was a lifeline for me and my daughter.

I hated that it meant leaving Scarlet with my ex in his perfect new home with his perfect new girlfriend. But I knew it was the right thing to do.

But as I start reading Philippa’s new novel, I start to wonder if it’s no coincidence that I’ve been chosen to narrate it. There’s something hidden in the pages of this book, I’m sure of it. Some clue to Philippa’s disappearance. And I don’t feel safe. I think I’m being watched. My room has been searched.

And then my ex’s girlfriend calls in tears and everything starts to click together. If I don’t find answers fast, I’ll lose more than my second chance. I’ll lose my daughter.

 

First off, I want to point out that the book description is very misleading. There are multiple things in the description that didn't happen in the book, or at least not the way they are described. I've never felt so lied to by a book description.

As for the book itself, it was suspenseful, but highly improbable. In the beginning I felt like I was reading something very dark. I was worried about what was going to happen to this lady that was kidnapped. I was picturing all sorts of terrible things. Then it took a different turn, one that was kind of absurd.

As far as the characters went, I mostly liked the main character, but I didn't care for any of the others. The main character's ex-husband was so despicable, I was grinding my teeth at one point, and her mother wasn't much better. I couldn't believe they were being such pushovers to this guy. Then there's the kidnap victim. She, at one point did something so dumb during this ordeal, that I found it unbelievable.

And that brings us to the whole kidnapping in general. WHY? I was very surprised at the twist in this book, and that's probably because there weren't enough clues given in the book to point me in that direction. I mainly don't understand why this person did all this. WHY? It didn't really make much sense. The motivation was flimsy for the ends this person went to.

Initially, I was going to give this 3 stars, but as I've thought about it more and more I've decided on 2.

The Secret Sister by Karen Clarke, and Amanda Brittany

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Strong language, off page sex

 

Can you trust a sister who is a stranger?

Ella Matthews has it all. A beautiful house, a charming husband and a precious baby daughter – her life has pretty much turned out exactly as she planned.

But when Ella’s mother tragically dies, her perfect life starts to crack. Her mother had been harbouring a life-long secret. Ella has a sister – an older sister – called Colleen.

Excited by the thought of no-longer being an only child, Ella can’t wait to find her.

But Colleen has a whirlwind past of her own. Desperate to escape her troubles, she is ready to go to any length to start afresh.

As their paths collide, someone is keeping secrets… and when Colleen mysteriously disappears without notice, Ella can’t help but question if she should have started looking for her at all…

 

This is the second collaboration I've read by these two authors and I liked it better than the first one, The New Wife. I liked the characters better in this one and I read it instead of listening, so I didn't have narrators I didn't like adding to the overall experience. I docked half a star from my rating because there's a character—Ella—that was yet again, too stupid to live. Thankfully it wasn't throughout the whole book. I liked Ella except for when she didn't use her brain a few times. Her sister, Colleen was one of those characters that I kept wondering if I could trust or not, and I liked that aspect of the book a lot. 

There was a twist that surprised me in this one, so that was a real plus for the book. There was one minor plot hole that I found that I'm still wondering about, but overall I found this to be an enjoyable story that once I got going, I had a hard time putting down.

After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong language; Sex that is not described in detail

 

Originally titled Crossing the Lines

If you get lost in a book, be sure you can find your way back . . .

Madeleine d'Leon doesn't know where Edward came from. He is simply a character in her next book. But as she writes, he becomes all she can think about. His charm, his dark hair, his pen scratching out his latest literary novel . . .

Edward McGinnity can't get Madeleine out of his mind--softly smiling, infectiously enthusiastic, and perfectly damaged. She will be the ideal heroine for his next book.

But who is the author and who is the creation? And as the lines start to blur, who is affected when a killer finally takes flesh?

After She Wrote Him is a wildly inventive twist on the murder mystery that takes readers on a journey filled with passion, obsession, and the emptiness left behind when the real world starts to fall away.

 

I enjoyed reading this author's book The Woman in the Library, so I was excited to give this one a try. From the description it sounded pretty unique, and the first thing I thought when I finished it was that this book was wild! Apparently this is called metafiction, and it's the first book I've ever read like it. I thought going into it that it would alternate points of view in each chapter, and I would be trying to guess who was real and who wasn't until the end. What I wasn't expecting was the way the points of view flowed from one character to the other in the same paragraphs. It was interesting the way it was done. This was definitely a slow burn of a book, and it took me a little while to really get into it, but there was a point somewhere in the middle where I was glued to it. My one big complaint is that the ending was very unsatisfying. I enjoyed reading the author's comments on the book at the end, and how she got the idea to write it. Apparently she put a lot of herself into Madelyn, which I found interesting. Would I recommend this? Yes, even with the unsatisfying ending, I'm still glad I read it. 

The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Content: Strong Language including several F bombs, Moderately descriptive sex scenes, Sexual innuendo and crude language, Drug use

 

When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence. 
 
From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination spirals into an addictive obsession met with a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account without so much as a warning. 
 
Frantic and desperate to reconnect with her daughter, Autumn applies for a nanny position with the McMullens, manipulating herself into Grace's life under false pretenses. And it's only then that Autumn discovers pictures lie, the perfect family doesn't exist, and beautiful people? They have the ugliest secrets.

 

A couple of years ago I read The Watcher Girl by Minka Kent and enjoyed it. Then I found out that it was sort of a sequel to this book, The Memory Watcher. Even though both books are standalone stories, I wished I had known that so that I could have read them in the right order. Now, two years later I've finally gotten around to reading this after it was chosen as my "pick it for me" book for November. 

This book was very engrossing and I had so much empathy for Grace as a child. I just wanted to give her a hug. I also wanted to slap some sense into the adults in her life. This book isn't really about Grace so much as the adults around her, but her character really stood out to me, partly because she's the main character in The Watcher Girl as an adult. I had forgotten a lot of what happened in The Watcher Girl so, because of that there was a twist that I wasn't expecting in this book. I was glad that I had forgotten so much because it enhanced my reading experience of this book.

I found the main character in this book very interesting, even though from the beginning we know she has an unhealthy obsession and that she's off mentally, I also felt sorry for her at times. One thing I really liked about this book were the layered characters. No one is what they seem, they have good and bad sides to them, and I found most of them both sympathetic and deplorable at the same time. I thought the author did a good job of showing how the people in the story had different perspectives on what was happening, and how that wasn't necessarily the whole story. I do want to add that this book had a lot more sex in it than the other books I've read by this author. I don't really remember any at all in her other books, but it wasn't really done in a sexy way, it was uncomfortable and at times seedy.

After I finished this book I decided to go back and read The Watcher Girl again because I had forgotten so much about it. When I read it the first time I didn't find Grace all that likable, but on my second read I felt like I understood her and liked her a lot more. 

On a side note, I really liked the author's forward that she included in this book about how she came to write this story in the first place.