Creepy life of the perfect couple
PSYCHO THRILLERS
THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE by Riley Sager (Hodder & Stoughton £20, 368 pp)
OUR narrator, the recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher, sits in a lakeside house in Vermont peering through a pair of binoculars.
She is spying on the lives of her neighbours, a glamorous and seemingly perfect young couple. Casey, whose slightly detached, wry tone is one of this book’s great strengths, has just been fired for turning up drunk at work.
So her mother decides the family retreat, a house on the shores of the dark murky waters of the mysterious Lake Greene, is the perfect place for her to recover and to escape the paparazzi.
It is only when she encounters Katherine, the wife of the perfect couple, that she realises nothing is what it appears to be as seen through the prism of her binoculars. When Katherine suddenly disappears, Casey becomes obsessed with discovering what’s going on.
This decision upends her own life in ways she could never have contemplated.
An engrossing plot with well-observed characters and a deliciously creepy sense of place.
THE WOMAN ON THE BRIDGE by Holly Seddon (Orion £8.99, 320 pp)
IN A riveting scene perfectly pitched for a TV thriller, a young woman called Charlotte stops her car when she sees another young woman, Maggie, standing on a bridge wearing a drenched wedding dress and preparing to jump.
Despite being shaken by her own recent trauma — a betrayal and blackmail by her old friend and the death of her father — Charlotte summons the wherewithal to bring Maggie back from the brink.
The two women form an instant bond and Maggie feels compelled to help Charlotte with her problems in return.
Seddon’s plot successfully combines the intriguing backstories of both women and explores the differences between their responses to trauma and the dangers that damaged people can be, especially to each other.
The tension builds nicely to a satisfying conclusion that might make you think twice about stopping to help a stranger, and the value of old friends versus new friends.
KEEP THEM CLOSE
by Sophie Flynn
(Canelo £8.99, 368 pp)
THIS is a timely cautionary tale about the dangers of online forums wrapped up in a splendidly twisty psychological mystery.
Much of the success of the book is down to the relatability of the main character Emily, the troubled young mother of twins, who overshares her problems on a mothers’ forum.
At first the anonymous friend she makes a special connection with is a heavensent release for Emily, but when she tries to withdraw from the forum, trouble starts.
Before long, she realises her secrets are now being used against her to destroy her life. It’s a slickly told story with a sophisticated take on the perils of modern motherhood, and a real killer twist of an ending.