Fabulous Fridays

This week on Fabulous Fridays I have made a list of 'thrillers' that I have enjoyed. I would really like to read more of this genre but I struggle to find authors that I enjoy, some of them are too predictable and some are too complicated and I lose interest. These ones however were just right, if you can recommend anymore then please let me know in the comments below. If you click on the title of these then you will be taken to my original review.

Have a lovely weekend

Dot

xxx

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, Harper, August 2013, 416 pages- The Girl Who Wouldn't Die. Kirby is lucky she survived the attack. She is sure there are other victims less fortunate, but the evidence she finds is...impossible. Hunting a serial killer who shouldn't exist.

Harper stalks his shining girls through the years- and cuts the spark out of them. But what if the one that got away came back for him?

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Phoenix, January 2013, 496 pages-  Who are you?

What have we done to each other?
These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison, Headline, November 2013, 384 pages- Todd and Jodie have been together for more than twenty years. They are both aware their world is in  crisis, though neither is willing to admit it. Todd is living a dual existence, while Jodie is living in denial. But she also likes to settle scores. When it becomes clear their affluent Chicago lifestyle could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows everything is at stake. It's only now she will discover how much she's truly capable of...

Poppet by Mo Hayder, Bantam, February 2014, 528 pages- The Maude is outside. It wants to come in.

It wants to sit on your chest.
The mentally ill patients in Beechway High Secure Unit are highly suggestible. A hallucination can spread like a virus. When unexplained power cuts lead to a series of horrifying incidents, fear spreads from the inmates to the staff. Amidst the growing hysteria, AJ, a senior psychiatric nurse, is desperate to protect  his charges.
Detective Inspector Jack Caffery is looking for the corpse of a missing woman. He knows all too well how it feels to fail to find a loved one's body. When AJ seeks Caffery's help in investigating the trouble at Beechway, each man must face a butter truth in his own life. Before staring pure evil in the eye.

The Killing Place by Tess Gerritsen, Bantam, January 2011, 448 pages- Something terrible has happened in the snowbound village of Kingdom Come, Wyoming. Twelve, eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. The people who lived in them appear to have vanished, seemingly into thin air.
Maura Isles is driving through the area with a group of friends when they find themselves trapped in a snowstorm. They stumble into the abandoned village to take shelter. Their nightmare has only just begun.
Days later, Jane Rizzoli flies to Wyoming to search for her missing friend. A crashed vehicle has been found with four badly burned bodies still inside. Can one of the corpses be Maura's?
Jane's hunt for the truth leads her to Kingdom Come. Where the person who was watching Maura now lies waiting for her...

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson, Black Swan, January 2012, 384 pages- Memories define us.
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?
Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love- all forgotten overnight?
And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.
Welcome to Christine's life.

Book Review: The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison

Todd and Jodie have been together for more than twenty years. They are both aware their world is in  crisis, though neither is willing to admit it.
Todd is living a dual existence, while Jodie is living in denial. But she also likes to settle scores. When it becomes clear their affluent Chicago lifestyle could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows everything is at stake. It's only now she will discover how much she's truly capable of...

The Silent Wife is being talked about a lot and after reading it, I can see why.
The beginning feels a little slow but once I had got into the book I could see how clever the beginning was. A.S.A. Harrison paints Todd and Jodie's domestic life in great detail. As we learn of Todd's infidelity you can understand why he has strayed yet also why he doesn't want to lose everything he already has.
Jodie is a fascinating character, she is very cold and calculated and although we learn a lot about her, I can't say that I grew to like her in any way. We learn of Jodie's past through the transcriptions of her therapy sessions. I don't this necessarily explains Jodie's behaviour though. I was left wondering if Jodie really was in control of her actions.
I loved the atmosphere that A.S.A Harrison creates in the book. There is an impending sense that something awful is going to happen, I couldn't stop reading as I needed to know how events would unfold.
The Silent Wife swaps between the perspectives of Jodie and Todd. Todd's narration felt a little more helpless though. His behaviour is inexcusable but as a reader I saw him as being quite vulnerable. He is going about his daily life with no idea as to what Jodie is thinking and working herself up to; you almost want to warn him to watch his back.
The Silent Wife is such an interesting read, I felt that it really explored the nature of relationships; the roles we fulfil and what we are capable of when hurt by those we love. I think that A.S.A Harrison has written a strong, psychological thriller. It's a great legacy but also a great shame that this will be her only book.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5

Pages: 384

Publisher: Headline

Many thanks to the lovely Ben at Headline Review for sending me a copy of this book, The Silent Wife is out now.

GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

The winner of my giveaway of The Silent Wife is:

Sonya Kemp

Congratulations! Can you please email me with your address so that I can pass it on to the lovely Ben at Headline Review.

Giveaway: The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison

There is  a lot of hype at the moment about The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison:

A chilling psychological thriller portraying the disintegration of a relationship down to the deadliest point when murdering your husband suddenly makes perfect sense.
Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett are in a bad place in their relationship. They've been together for twenty-eight years, and with no children to worry about there has been little to disrupt their affluent Chicago lifestyle. But there has also been little to hold it together, and beneath the surface lie ever-widening cracks. HE is a committed cheater. SHE lives and breathes denial. HE exists in dual worlds. SHE likes to settle scores. HE decides to play for keeps. SHE has nothing left to lose. When it becomes clear that their precarious world could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows she stands to lose everything. It's only now she will discover just how much she's truly capable of...

The very lovely and generous Ben at Headline Review has kindly offered one copy of The Silent Wife to be given away on Dot Scribbles. Simply leave a comment and I shall pick a winner at random, this giveaway is only open to UK residents and you have until midnight on Thursday 20th June to enter!

Good luck!