Spooky Reads To Send Summer Off With Thrills And Chills!
While I have not personally had the most “thrilling” summer, I have read quite a few nail-biting novels this season that have kept me on the edge of my seat and sweating with fear! Or maybe it was the 110-degree heat… Either way, a good summer thriller should be on everyone’s TBR (to be read) list. It is just the excuse you need to stay inside on a hot day or keep out of the ocean because you never got over JAWS and prefer to stay far away from the water thank you very much. Here are just a few of the mysteries that kept me chilled and clammy this summer!
Summer Thrills and Chills
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
Nora Spangler is a successful attorney but when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor appointments, knows where the extra paper towel rolls are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband works hard, too… but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder?
When the Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help with a resident’s wrongful death case, she is pulled into the lives of the women there. She finds the air is different in Dynasty Ranch. The women aren’t hanging on by a thread. But as the case unravels, Nora uncovers a plot that may explain the secret to having-it-all. One that’s worth killing for
This gender-bent Stepford Wives has been my top recommendation to all of my friends this summer. I am not a mother nor am I married, but I felt seen and understood as a woman. This story not only draws you in despite the relatively predictable plot but also encourages readers to challenge the workload we expect mothers to carry down to the smallest detail that many authors do not talk about. Between Nora’s shame, stress, and resentment toward her husband and child, Baker exposes the ridiculous double standard that modern mothers encounter. Despite the facade of the “modern father” that Nora’s husband presents, he has a long way to go before he can be on Nora’s level.
The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc., for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge. But the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently. This time, when they find out Ames is making an inappropriate move on a colleague, they aren’t willing to let it go. This time, they’ve decided enough is enough.
What began as an all too familiar cautionary tale morphed into a highly detailed exploration of a multitude of perspectives of women in the workplace facing a male-dominated world. Told from the perspective of a new mother, custodian, divorcee, and boss who all have life-altering experiences with a man in great power. Despite their vastly different nature of relationships with Ames, each woman is manipulated to serve his various “needs”. Baker creates an incredibly raw and honest depiction of the perspective of different women in the world of the “Me Too” movement.
The Inmate by Freida McFadden
As a new nurse practitioner at a maximum-security prison, Brooke Sullivan is taught three crucial rules:
1. Treat all prisoners with respect.
2. Never reveal any personal information.
3. Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But nobody knows that Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary's most notorious and dangerous inmates. They certainly don't know that Shane was Brooke's high school sweetheart―the star quarterback, the golden boy who's serving a life sentence for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke's testimony was what put him there.
While this story was predictable, I was still engaged in the story and was anticipating the grand unfolding of the mystery. Although McFadden seems to aim to create complex characters, it is evident that her strength is in deception. While this is not my preferred style of writing or characterization, I was sympathetic towards our main character.
Gray After Dark by Noelle W. Ihli
When a tragic accident sidelines Miley's dreams of Olympic gold, she takes a summer job at a mountain guest lodge. The Frank Church Wilderness is remote, but it's the perfect place to train and recover. Local lore about a staffer who died years ago doesn't scare her. But it should.
Miley's plans take a terrifying detour when she's abducted during a morning run. Held captive in a desolate off-grid cabin, she'll have to use her athletic prowess, cunning mind, and courage to survive. As the nightmare at the cabin escalates, Miley is forced to form an unlikely alliance and attempt a risky escape.
Can she outwit her captors and survive the wilderness before it's too late?
Easily my favorite book of the summer, Gray After Dark is a harrowing tale of human survival, resilience, and overcoming all odds. Ihli was Inspired by the true tragedy of Olympian Kari Swenson who was kidnapped in 1984 while training in the mountains of Montana. This absolute rollercoaster of emotions and terror is simultaneously awe-inspiring and heartbreaking.
You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace
The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink—even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces—something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.
Imagine if Dexter Morgan was a British lady who is trying to get her art career off the ground. Complete with blackmail, childhood trauma, and interesting daddy issues. Unlike Dexter, Claire kills whomever she wants. Despite this, Wallace still creates a character that readers can mostly sympathize with. As lies and secrets are uncovered, readers may be surprised to find that Clair may not be the worst villain of the bunch.
Never Lie by Freida McFadden
Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They think they've found it when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace years ago. But when a violent winter storm traps them at the estate, the house begins to lose its appeal.
Stuck inside and growing restless, Tricia stumbles on a collection of audio transcripts from Dr. Hale's sessions with patients. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to the doctor's mysterious disappearance.
With each tape, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and a web of lies slowly unravels. But by the time Tricia reaches the final cassette, the one that reveals the entire horrifying story, it will be too late…
McFadden once again uses deception of character to her advantage in this story. Perhaps taking the “unreliable narrator” trope to an extreme in the sense that the reader has no idea the narrator is unreliable and thus believes everything our narrator says. Because of this, the ending came as a great surprise and disappointment. In my opinion, the reader was not able to genuinely attempt to figure out what was going on in the mystery and was purposefully completely misled from page one. Despite the disappointing ending, the atmosphere of the abandoned home and impassible snowstorm was effective in creating extreme hopelessness and isolation.
The Coworker by Freida McFadden
Dawn Schiff is strange.
At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant.
When Dawn doesn't show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell―beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running―is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything...
It turns out Dawn wasn't just an awkward outsider―she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who's the real victim?
Perhaps the most enjoyable of the three McFadden books I read this month, The Coworker uses the personal perspective of the narrator to alter the opinion of the reader and deem our narrator unreliable. The mystery was engaging and just outlandish enough to make it fun. Reminiscent of a Dwight and Jim dynamic from “The Office” with murder and Gone Girl mixed in. Although McFadden created sympathetic and complex characters, I was disappointed in her portrait of Dawn as someone that everyone agrees is “strange”. It was incredibly obvious that Dawn had many autistic tendencies that her coworkers would say were “strange” like her obsession with turtles and unfailing punctuality. However, I feel as though McFadden used these different behaviors as a way to make her seem “creepy” and “weird” rather than just part of her personality.
With the rise of “Booktok” and the growing popularity of reading, the popular “must read” lists are full of romances or mystery/thrillers. While I am glad to see the joy of reading growing and being shared by many, it is often disappointing to see the same author being recommended and climbing the best seller’s list when it is fairly obvious they are following a formula that they know sells books. It is difficult to find a mystery that feels new and offers something unique and creative to the genre. I am hoping to see more
As this mystery-packed summer draws to a close, I look forward to going full horror mode as we welcome the pre-Halloween season. Happy Almost Fall Y’all!
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