Category: Thriller

The Safe Room by Sarah A. Denzil

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What would you do if you were fifteen and being stalked by a creep? What if that creep was someone you knew… or thought you knew? This is exactly the premise of the newest psychological thriller, The Safe Room by Sarah A. Denzil.

I was surprised to be accepted for an advance reader copy of this book, because on paper this thriller was exactly what I needed to get me through this week, and I was not wrong. I devoured it in 2 days, which is quite impressive, as I wanted to make sure I finished the book before its release (it releases on the 10th of September 2026, in case you want to snag a copy). Thank you so much to Sarah A. Denzil and the team for accepting my request and sending me an ARC of The Safe Room.

If you enjoy thrillers that are fast-paced and make your heart flutter in your chest, The Safe Room is the read for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single aspect of this book. It enveloped me from the first page, held me in a choke hold until the last page, and then spit me out. It was honest, it was scary, and it caused me heart palpitations (no joke, my Apple Watch has sent me twice… TWICE… a notification asking me if I was working out while reading this book).

We follow the story of Amber in a dual POV, Now and Then. The narrative is polished to perfection. There is not a single word that stands weirdly on the page. Every single letter seemed to have intention in this story, and I, as a thriller reader and review writer, found it a lesson in how every book should be written.

Without giving away too much of the plot, Amber is dealing with a stalker who has haunted her life for over two decades. The tone of the book is set straight away, and I don’t think there was a lull in the pace at all. The characterisation, and I will give here an honourable mention to the piece of s*** Peter, because I wanted to throw my brand new e-reader at a wall so many times, specifically in the second act, is simply perfection, and whilst I have never been to Leeds, I feel like I’ve been there now. Not only is the characterisation fleshed out to perfection, but it is also twisted and intertwined with greatly layered motivations and flaws that shine in a psychological thriller setting.

I can continue to gush about the characters, and probably will on Instagram and X, but I want to also talk about the pace. This book felt snappy. It was like I blinked and was already reading another chapter, and another, and after my first sit-down with this book I was already 40% through it because I couldn’t put it down. I think the pace is greatly helped by the Then and Now POVs, which worked in tandem to give us nuggets into how we got to where we are in the story, while also cleverly planting a cliffhanger in the last sentence or paragraph of each, making me want to know what happens next in both. Whilst this is happening, not even once did I feel that this was a crutch; and that is the brilliance of Denzil’s writing.

All in all, this is a 100/10 psychological thriller. If you do pick up The Safe Room, my only advice to you is: close the door and make sure it’s locked, and do not read this book at night, especially alone in your house. You will start to doubt every single noise you hear and feel like someone is watching you…

The Safe Room by Sarah A. Denzil is out on the 10th of September 2026, and you can pre-order it now or get it when it releases. At the time of writing this review, it’s still 99p on Kindle (unfortunately I have not found it in the Kobo library, but I’m sure it will be made available there too).

What She Did by Lauren Dykovitz

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Thank you to Inkubator Books Team for sending me an advance readers copy. All views are my own

“What she did” is an easy and enjoyable read, with a decent ending — a lesson in understanding that “love thy neighbour” comes with boundaries, that people often cross out of desperation to avoid dealing with their own misery. If you are a fan of “Desperate Housewives” then this book is for you if you are willing to accept that this book has some flaws.

As if ripped from the Desperate Housewives universe, What She Did by Lauren Dykovitz portrays what happens when you take “love thy neighbour” to a whole different level.

The book shines in its strong structure and quick pace. Where this book fails is also derived, I believe from the quick pace. Striving to maintain pace over story development, more often than not, it leads into a repetition of the same events across the two POVs. It quickly became confusing, as the characters’ words and opinions on events started to blur together, making me wonder more than once whether I’d already read a given chapter. This is most noticeable in the second act, where the necessary setup for the third act made the repetition especially apparent.

One thing I’d have loved to see developed further is the characters’ motivation. A reveal that was saved for the third act could have worked better as a first-act motivator for the obsession’s development, delivering a stronger payoff later. Alternatively, cutting this reveal entirely from the third act could have made the epilogue more believable. As it stands, it reads more like a statement of fact the reader is simply expected to accept, rather than something the reader has a feeling might be the case from the get-go and getting the confirmation in the end.

I read this book in two days, and if I’d been poolside with a margarita, I might’ve knocked it out cover-to-cover in one. If you’re willing to accept its flaws the same way you’re willing to accept a character’s flaws, this is a great way to spend your weekend. It delivers exactly (nothing more, nothing less) what it sets out to do: a story between two neighbours whose worlds are more intertwined than you might think.

The Quiet People by Paul Cleave

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Thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours and Orenda Books for allowing me to take part in this amazing blog tour. All views are my own.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Paul Cleave is an author, which much more to my amazement have not heard before reading The Quite People, that has tackled a story many claim to have read before in the thriller genre. A child abduction leads to the parents being suspected of harming the child and trying to cover their tracks by reporting him missing. But that’s just the beauty of the thriller genre and why I return to it. Its multifaceted layers allow authors to explore endless possibilities in a premise. Pair that with a brilliant mind that asks all the right questions in the wrong places and you end up with a recipe for success. That is The Quiet People.

From the outside, this might look like your ordinary psychological thriller. But it isn’t even that. Nothing about The Quiet People was ordinary; from the writing to the characters and structure. A better description of The Quiet People is to think of it as three novels in one. Take Camerons POV and you end up with a brilliant psychological thriller that has at its centre a heartbreaking story of a father that loses everything. Take DI Kent and DI Thompson and you have a deliciously painful police procedural that can be a stand-alone story of its own. And then there is the prologue which although breaks every boundary set on a novel, can be expanded into a full-blown series on how devious antagonists can actually be.

Cleave has managed to find the cure to reading slumps all readers have been seeking for in this melange of convincing psychological thriller and heart racing police procedural.

While reading The Quiet People I did have moments in which I thought that there was no way the story would get any worse for its main protagonist, I was wrong. Cleave takes the ‘what-can-possibly-go-wrong-next’ to the next level with every chapter resulting in a compelling and unputdownable read. Many would see in The Quiet People a character-driven story but to me, it wasn’t exactly that. It was more a life story where equal opportunities were given to both the characters and the story to shine. And how brightly they do.

If I was asked to describe what Cleave has accomplished to do with this novel I would simply say find a remedy for reading slumps. Paced to brilliance, there is no dull moment to be found in The Quiet People. The story flows through the reader’s eyes, invoking emotions from cover to cover. It’s a rollercoaster of a read that will make you appreciate both the psychological aspects of our main narrator but also feel your heart thumping in your throat as those police procedural chapters appear seemingly out of nowhere. Don’t believe me? Go ahead. Read it and tell me I’m wrong.

Reading has started for me as a hobby but now, after reading The Quiet People I feel like I am more appreciative of the novels that are being written. Because they are so good and if they wouldn’t exist I would be so much less than who I am now. Cleave has accomplished what I thought was the impossible. Cleave got me excited to get writing again. And for that, Cleave will forever hold a very dear place in my heart.

The Quiet People is published by Orenda Books on 25/11/2021 and can be preordered here.

Sleepless by Romy Hausmann

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Thank you to Joe Christie from Quercus for giving me the opportunity to join the blog tour and sending me an advance readers copy. All views are my own

Rating: 5 out of 5.

What if your friend would ask you for your help? Would you say yes even though you are in over your head? How far are you willing to go for your friendship? Would you help them cover up a murder?

Back in January I had come across a little book titled ‘Dear Child’. The cover was the first thing that drew me towards the novel, having never heard of its author, Romy Hausmann. January was a month where I wanted desperately to go back to my roots, to spending hours upon hours discovering the German literature in high school, reading the small printed Reklam Ausgaben that had the colorful covers that looked more like collectibles. I had instantly made a connection with Hausmann and after finishing Dear Child I had to write a review about it. Back then little did I know that Quercus probably had already started to work on Hausmann’s debut – Marta Schläft – and mentioned even in my review that I hoped this would be translated.

Of course I didn’t have any patience and had a friend of mine in Berlin go and buy the German edition of the book. ( I think that book got lost in transit since it never reached me in the UK -.-” ) But then I found out that Quercus was going to publish Marta Schläft (trans. Sleepless) and it was happening sooner than I thought. And I made myself a promise, that if a blog tour would be organised, I had to be part of it.

Thankfully and thanks to Joe Christie who was kind enough to make my dream come true, I was allowed to take part in the amazing blog tour for this novel and now the time has come for me to share my thoughts on Sleepless.

With a strong publishing debut, Hausmann solidifies her status as the Queen of German suspense; proving her skills and abilities as a writer.

Meine Gütte did I enjoy Sleepless. Usually when it comes to debuts, I spot from the very first few pages that this is the first book someone has written. However with Sleepless, I never had that feeling; Hausmann brilliantly executing a complex narrative told from three points of view and on three different timelines.

The story follows the events in the life of Nadja who has been raised in Poland but now lives in Berlin. Her childhood wasn’t the best but she is now ready (or at least to a certain degree) ready to leave the past in the past and focus on her future. She is living a some-what normal life. Nadja has a job, and an apartament, however living is not as easy as it is for others. Battling with mental health issues and anxiety, Nadja finds it at times difficult to go on the subway, doesn’t like large groups of people and in the eyes of others her living conditions aren’t the best.

But to a certain degree Nadja is on the path of getting better. That’s until her friend one day appears at her work and tells her she needs her help. Nadja doesn’t hesitate to help her and why should she? Her therapist had told her she needs to make connections, and build friendships. But with what her so called friend needs help with isn’t opening a jar or help clean out the house of unnecessary things that she gathered without noticing. It’s with hiding a body.

The story from here on unravels in rapid successions. Multiple POVs contribute to fill in the picture about Nadja’s past and how she got to be who she is today. I’m not going to spoil the ending but all I’m going to let you know is that it is worth every moment.

The way Hausmann structured the novel I think is genius. We start somwhere in the middle of the story, without any context. We don’t know what’s happening only that things are happening. I found the moment to open the story perfect because it gave plenty of time and opportunity to give sufficient information to the reader whilst allowing for the current timeline to flow naturally. It also helped the overall ARC of the story to avoid any soggy middles by turning up the dial on the tension in the present moment and making the readers ask themselves how someone cold end in such a terrible position.

Sleepless, if I hadn’t known it was Hausmann’s debut, I would have been certain that it was written by an experienced writer that has penned many novels before. Simply from the structure adopted, I can only imagine how a difficult of a task it has been for Hausmann to strike the perfect balance that she has achieved. Now, thinking back to it, I should’ve known that Hausmann is a master storyteller from reading the intricate and yet effortlessly executed Dear Child.

Sleepless is definitely a great read for anyone who wants to see what German thrillers are all about. And paired with Jamie Bulloch’s translation, it is a perfect read for new readers of translated fiction as well as hard core lovers of the genre. Sleepless is now out everywhere where good books are sold and you should definitely check it out.

Please make sure you check out the other amazing reviewers who are part of this blog tour as well as check out Duncan’s review from Fiction from Afar who is my go to person when it comes to translated fiction reviews.

The Secret War by Louise Burfitt-Dons

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Thank you to Anne Carter for giving me the opportunity to take part in this blog tour and to Louise Burfitt-Dons for sending me an advance readers copy of this novel. All views are my own.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Where is the line you draw between fiction and reality? What if the reality to you’ve been told to believe isn’t actually the reality at all? What if what others would quickly dismiss as a conspiracy theory is in fact what truly happened?

These are only a few of the questions that I found myself asking myself as I turned page after page in The Secret War by Louise Burfitt-Dons. I had my reservations about this book when I first saw the invitation from the lovely Anne to join this blog tour but I told myself that I needed to step outside of my comfort zone if I wanted to discover more books to love and adore. And spoiler alert… I don’t regret that decision.

With a very close to anyone’s heart premise, I dived deep into this action packed thriller following characters that were very well fleshed out and made me take an interest in the overall Karen Andersen series that Burfitt-Dons has penned.

With a chilling premise and twists and turns at every page, The Secret War is definitely the perfect read for lovers of Dan Brown and Blake Crouch thrillers.

Without spoiling the books content too much, the story centers around one particular premise that I have found gutsy. What if one of the biggest nations in the world would develop a bio-weapon to further their plans for the world? But going off of only this idea, and why I find this idea so intriguing and gutsy is that if this is not done right, the repercussions could be immense.

Having now read The Secret War I understand just how well these types of books can be written. There were many times where I had feared that the characterization might go wrong but the thrill of discovering the narrative as well as the plot only added to the excitement and thrill. With a strong list of characters, I found myself often swept into the story and my hyperactive imagination made come alive in my mind. And I’m not kidding, I really got some big Mr Robot vibes (but not to the extend where I found it too similar).

The Secret War is a unique story that flips the ‘What If?’ plot theory on its head and delivers a strong story told from multiple locations and points of view. I highly recommend this book to the lovers of action thriller genre but also to readers who have been enjoying Dan Brown’s thrillers and Blake Crouch.

I’m very thankful to Anne Carter and Louise Burfitt-Dons for allowing me to take part in this blog tour and if you haven’t already make sure you check out Varietats review form the 21st of June here. Also tomorrow is BooklyMatters turn over on instagram to share their thoughts on the book, so make sure you head over to her instagram account (@booklymatters) and give them a follow to check out their review.

The Secret War is now available to be order on Amazon and even is free to read on Kindle if you have a KindleUnlimited subscription. So there’s no reason why not to check this thrilling read.

The Girl on the Platform by Bryony Pearce

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Thank you to Avon Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views are my own.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Today (23rd of May) it is my turn in the blog tour of The Girl on the Platform to let you guys know what I thought about this book. When I dived into it, I didn’t know if I knew what to expect.

From the outset we follow Bridget, who has had her daughter together with her husband Tom not long ago and who is battling what at first I thought to be postpartum depression.

On her way back from work, Bridget witnesses how a girl is snatched from one of the platforms. The train doesn’t stop on the platform and Bridget questions the other passengers to see if they saw the same thing as she did. Defeated, she realises that no one else saw the kidnapping of the little girl.

From there everything spirals out of control for Bridget. She can’t think of anything else but the girl that has been kidnapped. Although she reported the kidnapping, the police seem to not make any progress in finding out who has taken the girl. And she even doubts that they believe her claims.

Has Bridget really seen a kidnapping? Every one else tells her she had dreamt it, imagined it but she feels that there is more to it than a bad dream.

Uncomfortable and gut-clenching, The Girl on the Platform provides an important insight on mental health of mothers and the repercussions of not addressing these when they arise. 

Neglecting her marriage and neglecting her daughter, Bridget can only think of the girl who none except for her, it seems, will try to find her. She lies to Tom, she is exhausted being riddled with nightmares as a side effect of the drugs she is taking to battle her anxiety and depression and when things couldn’t get any worse, Social Services, appear at her house threatening to take her daughter.

In a culmination to the story we learn that Bridget’s own mother has made a case to Social Services to take her daughter for her own good. But why would she do that, and what would she have to gain from it? Well, I will not spoil the ending and would definitely recommend you to check out this book because the ending is something different from what you would expect from this sort of book.

If you pick up this book, be ready for an uncomfortable read that will make you feel sorry and confused at the same time (confused in a good way). The unreliable narrator in Bridget makes you the reader doubt everything you read to the degree of starting, even to doubt yourself of what you are reading. Pearce has done an outstanding job bringing the spotlight on mental issues and repercussions of them if we do not address them in a thrilling psychological novel that punches you in the gut with raw and uncomfortable scenes that feel a bit too real. 

The Girl on the Platform is out everywhere where excellent books are sold and I hope you will pick it up and share your thoughts with me. 

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

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Thank you to Viper Books for an advance copy of this book. All views my own.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

What if the person you love disappears one day, leaving you behind with only a note? A note in which he doesn’t even justify his actions, but instead leaves you with only two words.

Protect her.

From the very first page, The Last Thing He Told Me jumps out of the page. The voice that Laura Dave has channeled and managed to imprint in the pages of this book is clear and strong although filled with sorrow, frustration and an adventure guided by the need to understand who the person that you thought you knew, was.

Told from the point of view of the protagonist of this story, Hannah, the story begins as harmless as the title is. We learn fairly on in the story that Hannah has been raised by her Grandfather and has left New York for the comfort of Sausalito, California where she lives with her husband, Owen and her step daughter, Bailey.

With a voice that gets tattooed into your mind, The Last Thing He Told Me is the most un-put-down-able book you will read this Spring.

Hannah embarks on a journey of discovery that takes her to Austin Texas after her husband Owen is caught in a scandal of fraud at his workplace called The Shop. Nevermind getting through such news, but having to learn the news from a strange girl that shows up at her door leaving Hannah with a note from her husband, is such a heart wrenching moment that I couldn’t even imagine what she goes through.

The message from her husband doesn’t offer Hannah any explication. Just a simple instruction. Protect her. So Hannah embarks on this unknown journey as best as she can. In a whirlwind of events, Hannah finds herself being visited by Grady, a US Marshal from Austin, Texas that tells her that the best thing she can do is lay low and get a lawyer. Shortly after the US Marshal pays her the visit, FBI visit her at her office.

Feeling unable to answer the questions that Hannah feels everyone wants her to answer (Where is your husband?) and left with only her memories with Owen to pick at to find clues, Hannah takes Bailey and make a trip to Austin, Texas in the hopes that the city will give them some answers. Once there, Hannah learns something about her husband that she never thought she was going to have to deal with: her husband, Owen Michaels, doesn’t exist and has never existed since the moment he arrived in Sausalitos.

Why would he lie to her? Why did Owen disappear without a trace and no explanation? And who is Owen actually?

Filled with an intricate plot line and a strong voice, The Last Thing He Told Me is one of my favorite reads in a while. Refreshingly unique but also filled with moments that made me second guess what I was reading, this book is excellent for anyone who is looking for a book that will not allow you to rest until you finished it.

The Last Thing He Told Me is out now everywhere where good books are sold. I think that Viper has done a brilliant job this year to bring to the forefront interesting and unique stories having had published in the span of a few months two of my new instant favourite books (I’m talking of course about The Last House On Needless Street being the other one).

The Liar’s Daughter by Rona Halsall

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Thank you to Bookouture Publicity Team for the advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. All views are my own.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

When Eva learns that her parents had been keeping away secrets from her, she embarks on a journey of finding the truth and at least understand why her parents would keep the truth from her.

That is how The Liar’s Daughter by Rona Halsall starts. Written in three parts, the story develops before the reader’s eyes from mainly two points of view. Eva and Nancy. Eva, who has been brought up by her father and her stepmother, and Nancy, Eva’s sister, who was presumed to have committed suicide after their biological mother’s death.

The decision taken by Halsall to award a part to each character was smart looking back at the story. Initially, as I was reading the story, I was a bit reticent because I was afraid that this might take away from the experience of discovering the story. But it wasn’t anything like that. It made perfect sense why Halsall chose to relay the story this way. If she had written it in any other way, I don’t think that the story would have been as enjoyable as it was.

The Liar’s Daughter is a thrilling read with many twists and turns that punch you in the gut, exploring how much one can rely on what you are being told versus what you are seeing is happening.

The story starts with Eva, who founds out from her stepmother that her sister had been admitted into the hospital and would require someone to take care of her. Eva agrees to go and help her out for a few days. On the road there, Eva struggles to understand why her stepmother had lied about her having a sister when she knew she was still alive. When she gets to the hospital, she meets her sister and takes her home to a remote, old farmhouse.

Strange things happen there. Food starts to go missing, windows are open, and the house seems alive with creeks and noises. Eva has a strong feeling that she is being watched, and as she explores the house and the surroundings, she has a strange feeling that something is not adding up. And when Eva discovers a body buried in the garden, she is convinced that she needs to go as far away as she can from this place. But before she can do it, she is caught by her sister and locked in a room. 

Then we get Nancy’s story, and we understand that after she ran away from home, she didn’t actually commit suicide but was actually taken in by a nice and welcoming woman. But appearances aren’t always what they seem, and the woman suddenly starts to manipulate her into believing that if she leaves, she would be arrested for the murder of her mother. Things spiral out, and in an attempt to escape the farmhouse, she knocks the woman out and leaves her behind.

Having read the first part as a reader, we know that the woman who says is Nancy isn’t actually Eva’s sister. But the woman who kept Eva’s sister hostage. I won’t spoil the ending, so if you want to find out how it ends, definitely check out the book.

The Liar’s Daughter is out today (26/04/2021) in e-book and paperback from bookouture. I would highly recommend this to fans of psychological thrillers and anyone who wants to dive into a story filled with twists and turns. 

The Vatican Secret by Peter Hogenkamp

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Thank you to bookouture Publicity team for offering me a copy of this novel in advance of its publication. All view are my own.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Dubbed as James Bond but with priests, I was pleasantly surprised by The Vatican Secret. Although it is the second novel in the series and the story picking up right after where the first one ended, I asked myself if I would be able to pick up the pieces and understand what was going on. In true BooksTechnica fashion, reading a series out of order seems to be the staple, but I’m happy once again to report that this book can be enjoyed out of order but probably not as much as reading it in order.

Having now finished The Vatican Secret, I have a new appreciation for the action-thriller genre. And here’s the thing: I don’t usually reach for books with a conspiracy at its core. I don’t know if it is necessarily because I feel like they would disappoint me or why I shy away from reading these types of thrillers, but I do realise now that there is a whole new unexplored area for me to dive in to. Because if The Vatican Secret has left me with something, it was with an appetite for action thrillers. And I’m eager to pick up the first novel in the series to see where the characters started.

With deliciously flawed characters and paced from cover to cover with heart-racing scenes, The Vatican Secret is an excellent introduction to the action-thriller genre.

Going into the book, I was instantly swept into the story. It feels to me that there is no break, that as a reader (regardless if you have read the first book or not), you are carried away by the story. Written from multiple points of view, following both the antagonists and the protagonists, it feels to me that Hogenkamp chose an easily accessible topic that everyone would find appealing. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know the politics and what goes on behind closed doors in the Vatican?

The characters are perfectly flawed. I loved how Hogenkamp ensured that we spend enough time with each side to the point that I started (at least a part of me) rooting for the bad guys. I wanted to see what would happen if things didn’t go to plan for both the protagonists and antagonists, and I’m glad to say that things don’t go as planned multiple times throughout the story.

There was one thing that did disappoint me, and that is mainly the ending. I think this is also because we got to spend time with both sides–the ones trying to protect the Vatican from nuclear destruction and the ones trying to ensure that the Vatican will go down–that I found myself at the end conflicted. I would have wanted to see a dramatic ending because this book is packed with action from cover to cover. Instead of the somewhat happy and peaceful ending, I wanted to get the gritty and gory. This is, in the end, just a personal preference from someone who hasn’t read much in the genre but definitely is open to get more insight into it.

Overall I think The Vatican Secret was a perfect introduction for me to the action-thriller genre. I’m excited to see what Hogenkamp has next in store for his readers, and I will keep my eyes peeled on his writing journey. The Vatican Secret is out now from bookouture and is available to be ordered in either paperback or e-book everywhere you shop for your books.

The Sister-in-Law by Pamela Crane

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Thanks to Avon Books UK for an advance copy of this book. All views are my own.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Note: Initially I had given this book a 4 star rating but as I wrote my thoughts on digital paper I realized that I was wrong to give it a 4 star rating and have upgraded it to a 4.5 star.

Nothing beats a book that start guns-blazing. Throwing its reader in the middle of what other books aim to have as the climax. But the question I kept asking myself as I started reading this book was: Where does this book go from here?

The Sister-in-Law by Pamela Crane is a domestic thriller novel that brings to the forefront the dynamics of families and especially the dynamics between siblings. But what happens when the person you thought you knew best does something out of the ordinary? What do you do to maintain your relationship? Do you try to make the person see that they are going in a direction you don’t want them to go? Or do you allow them to go on their path as you stand on the sidelines and watch?

Pamela Crane crafts tension out of the triviality of every day life, positioning her characters at opposites sides of the spectrum.

Captivated by the premise of this book, I stepped into the world that Crane created for her readers. I was skeptical after reading the heart pounding first chapter of this book because I didn’t know if the set up was going to work. I’m happy to say that I was both wrong and right at the same time.

The biggest issues I had with the story wasn’t actually with the story itself. I know, it sounds confusing, but please bear with me. I think that every single scene that Crane has penned needed to be in the book. However there was such a strong pacing split between the chapters that were character driven and the ones that were plot driven that at times the scenes that I wanted to focus on the character, to make me understand why the characters were doing things the way they did, came up short, making me feel that some decisions or reactions were uncharacteristic to the persona I was reading about.

Nonetheless, The Sister-in-Law still managed to grip my attention, simply through the tension created between Harper and Candace. Cane manages to create stellar intrigue between her characters by positioning them on the opposite sides of the spectrum. On one hand you have Harper who wants to protect her brother and ensure she maintains her relationship dynamic as it was whilst Candace wants to make a life for herself and ensure that she retains the comfort of home life at all costs.

In the end Harper and Candace have the same goal. They both want to retain what they have with Lane. And there’s nothing that builds tension better than two characters having the same goal that sit on opposite side of the spectrum. Crane strategically starts the novel with a bang to ensure that it builds conflict in the readers at least on a moral level, having them rooting for someone who looks and acts despicably. And it worked with me.

The Sister-in-Law is a great read that suits fans of domestic thrillers but also is a great light read for people who are looking to make a start in the domestic thriller genre. Avon Books has been and will be a perfect place for readers looking for chilling crime novels and heart racing thrillers and Pamela Crane‘s The Sister-in-Law fits their portfolio like a glove.