Before everyone on planet earth read and recommended Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, I wasn’t really in to suspense-type (see also: scary) books. My mood gets really affected by whatever book I am currently reading and I am already a huge chicken, so why add to my anxiety, right? (This also goes for super sad book. Don’t ever ask me to read a Jodi Picoult book because it’s never going to happen.) Well, now that I’ve gotten on said train, I can not get off. Like, someone please help me because I’m almost preferring them to my usual super upbeat chick lit these days and I don’t even know who I am.
If you too drank the Girl on the Train Kool-Aid I think you would really like these, also:
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
If you are looking for something suspenseful, but not super intense, you should start with this one! I liked it a lot. A little far fetched at times but what book isn’t?! TCND is about a set of parents who go to the neighbors house for dinner, leaving their baby asleep by herself next door, and she is taken out of her crib. They become the main suspects and are vilified in public for leaving her alone. Lots of secrets they thought were buried in the past come out over the course of the investigation – it’s very twisty and just good!
From Amazon: Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.
What She Knew
Someone tell me why all these books have to do with children being taken? Oh, because that’s the most terrifying thing that could happen to a parent, duh. This one is about a single mom who’s son goes missing on one of their regular walks. She lets him run ahead a few steps and then he vanishes (worst. nightmare.). Almost everyone around them has some reason to look suspicious and it really hooked me in wondering who it was going to be in the end.
From Amazon: Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes. Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion. As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
When you read a bunch of the suspenseful/thriller/mystery type books sometimes they can all start to seem similar and predictable, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that not to be the case with this book! This is probably my favorite on this list. It kept me on my toes and I really enjoyed it. It’s about a travel journalist who in on a luxury cruise with just a handful of other people when she sees someone thrown overboard in the next cabin over but when they start to check it out, everyone is accounted for. Definitely highly recommend!
From Amazon: In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
To be honest, this book straight up terrified me. I read it on the drive back from our Florida trip, and I kept wanting to stop, but could not because I really needed to know what happened. And it did not disappoint. It’s about a marriage that looks like one thing from the outside but is something completely different and shocking on the other side. It’s good, but proceed with caution because it is intense.
From Amazon: Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better. But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable. Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Since I like The Woman in Cabin 10 so much, I decided to give another Ruth Ware book a chance and it did not disappoint. In a Dark, Dark Wood is about a writer who is randomly invited on a bachelorette weekend of a friend she hasn’t seen or talked to in years. They go out to a beautiful cabin in the middle of no-where where strange things start to happen. It goes back and forth between the weekend and present day as the main character tries to figure out what happened. Loved it!
From Amazon: When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.
There you go! Five more books to read if you liked The Girl on the Train. Do you all read suspense novels? If you have any suggestions send them my way! I really had no idea they were such a thing until a few years ago. I love listening to the audio version of them (borrowed from the library with the Overdrive app) and can take a book down in just a couple of days if I really put my mind to it ;). Happy reading!
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