LCChaosandhome

Tag: #psychological

  • Book Review: The Family Friend by Claire Douglas — 4/5

    Book Review: The Family Friend by Claire Douglas — 4/5


    Great concept, but it missed the mark — and ultimately didn’t live up to its promise.


    A gripping start
    I’m a long-time Claire Douglas fan, so this went straight to the top of my holiday reading pile, and for the first half it absolutely earned its place there. Douglas is brilliant at that slow creep of unease: a new friendship that feels a little too convenient, a family with more going on beneath the surface than they’d like to admit, and that constant nagging sense that someone isn’t being honest. The short, punchy chapters made it almost impossible to put down. “Bodies can be buried. But secrets never can.” — the tagline sets the tone perfectly, and early on the book delivers on it.
    Where it lost me
    Somewhere past the halfway mark, the plot started stretching credibility. The twists kept coming, but the more they piled up, the harder it became to believe the characters would realistically behave the way they do. A few decisions had me raising an eyebrow rather than gasping, and by the final act I felt like something was missing — more emotional depth, or maybe just tighter plotting. The premise was genuinely clever; the execution just didn’t quite get there.
    The ending
    No spoilers, but the resolution didn’t land for me. It felt rushed, with a couple of threads tied off too neatly and others left oddly unsatisfying. After such a strong build-up, I wanted a much bigger payoff.
    Final verdict — 4 out of 5
    Still a solid, very readable thriller, and I’d happily recommend it for a holiday or a rainy weekend. Douglas writes tension better than most, and even a weaker outing from her is more entertaining than plenty of others in the genre. Just don’t go in expecting the ending to be the best part.
    Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
    Have you read The Family Friend? I’d love to know if the ending worked better for you than it did for me — let me know in the comments.

    You can buy the book here https://link.amazon/B05TqPXyy

  • Book Review: Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins

    Book Review: Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins

    Rating: 4.5 / 5

    Some thrillers grip you with pace. This one grips you with people — and then pulls the floor out from under them.

    What it’s about (no spoilers)

    Jen Miller leaves her youngest child in the care of her two sisters while the family gathers at superstar Winter Kellaway’s beachside estate for a wedding celebration. The champagne is on ice, the decorations are flawless — and one split-second lapse turns the happiest day of the year into a tragedy the family will never recover from. What follows is grief, blame, an explosive court case, and a long-buried secret that refuses to stay buried. DC Saul Anguish is brought in to investigate.

    What I loved

    The twists. Plural. Every time I thought I had it worked out, Cummins shifted the ground and I was wrong again — and not in a cheap, out-of-nowhere way. The clues are there; you just don’t see them until she wants you to.

    The sisters are the real engine of the book. Winter, Jen and Alyssa are so believably written that the fallout hurts, and the shifting timelines and viewpoints mean you’re constantly re-weighing who deserves your sympathy. That’s the clever bit: your loyalties keep moving.

    It’s also genuinely emotional. This isn’t just a puzzle to solve — it’s about guilt, forgiveness and how far people will go to protect the ones they love. I read most of it in two sittings because I simply couldn’t leave it alone.

    What didn’t quite work

    My one real gripe is the subplot involving Saul. I never felt it earned its place. Every time the story cut back to him I found myself wanting to get back to the sisters, and I don’t think losing those sections would have cost the book anything — if anything the central story would have hit even harder. It’s not badly written, it just sits slightly apart from everything that makes the novel so compelling. Half a star off for that.

    The verdict

    A dark, twisty, surprisingly moving thriller with characters you’ll be arguing about long after the last page. If you like Lisa Jewell or Claire Douglas, or you enjoy a courtroom thread running through your crime fiction, you’ll fly through this one. It was also shortlisted for the CWA Twisted Dagger 2026.

    4.5 out of 5 — highly recommended.

    You can buy the book here

    https://link.amazon/B07Y7qejX

    Have you read it? Did you guess the twist? Tell me in the comments — and let me know if you agree with me about Saul.

  • Great Premise, Poor Execution: Why B.A. Paris’s The Prisoner Misses the Mark

    Great Premise, Poor Execution: Why B.A. Paris’s The Prisoner Misses the Mark

    B.A. Paris has built a reputation for delivering high-octane psychological thrillers, so expectations were understandably high for The Prisoner. The novel kicks off with an absolute killer of a premise: a young woman named Amelie wakes up in pitch-black darkness, kidnapped and held captive in a room she cannot see. It is a classic, claustrophobic hook that promises a tense game of survival.

    Unfortunately, while the book starts on a high note, it burns through its goodwill at a rapid pace, quickly devolving into a deeply frustrating and utterly unbelievable narrative.

    The Turning Point: A Character Contradiction

    The most glaring flaw in The Prisoner lies in the jarring disconnect within its protagonist, Amelie. In the initial chapters, Paris goes to great lengths to establish Amelie as a fiercely independent, street-smart survivor. Having been orphaned young, she is depicted as someone who relies solely on her own wits and caution to navigate a harsh world.

    Yet, this careful characterization is entirely thrown out the window when she crosses paths with the wealthy Ned Hawthorne.

    The decision Amelie makes to enter into a sudden, highly suspect marriage of convenience with Ned completely contradicts everything we were just taught to believe about her. It is a massive narrative leap that feels forced by the plot rather than earned by the character.

    Instead of the savvy survivor we were promised, Amelie suddenly acts with a level of naivety that strains all credibility. It is incredibly difficult to root for a heroine whose core personality traits are rewritten just to get her into the plot’s central predicament.

    From Compelling Hook to Unbelievable Spiral

    Once the initial mystery of the kidnapping is established, the book goes downhill fast. A good thriller requires a thread of logic to hold the tension together, but The Prisoner trades suspense for increasingly absurd plot twists.

    The mechanics of the marriage, the motivations of the captors, and the ultimate reveals require a massive suspension of disbelief. Rather than feeling like a clever web of deceit, the story feels contrived, relying on characters making baffling decisions simply to keep the plot moving forward.

    The Verdict: A Missed Opportunity

    The Prisoner had all the ingredients for a top-tier thriller: a strong concept, a vulnerable yet capable lead, and a terrifying situation. Instead, it serves as a textbook example of a great idea getting lost in poor execution. Because the central character relationships and choices are so unbelievable, the tension completely evaporates by the halfway mark.

    For readers looking for the tight, psychological realism of Paris’s earlier work like Behind Closed Doors, this one unfortunately misses the mark.

    Final Rating: ⭐⭐☆☆☆ (2/5) — A decent concept ruined by glaring character inconsistencies and an unbelievable plot.

    You can buy on Amazon

    https://amzn.to/43pGUJM