Welcome to When a House is Not a Home

One of the biggest and most popular genres in the market today are thrillers. The umbrella term for this genre changes, depending on whose talking, but they tend to encompass everything from crime, mystery, and horror, with a lot of overlap between all of these genres.

This blog is dedicated to exploring this genre, both what came before and what's popular now. You can read more about what this blog is, why it was created, and how to use it here.

You / Caroline Kepnes

Kepnes, Caroline. You. New York : Atria / Emily Bestler Books, 2014.

Told from the second person,
You is a book you can't miss.

Perhaps most well-known for its Netflix adaptation of the same name comes You, a twisted story of a jealous, possessive stalker obsessed with ‘you’ – a girl named Beck who just so happened to enter his bookstore.

Having just started at a local university and aspiring to be a writer, Beck bonds with bookstore owner Joe Goldberg over literature and all things books. What she wasn’t expecting was to walk away with more than just a new tome – she also became the object of Joe’s obsession. He goes to great lengths to stalk her, from hacking her social media accounts to her emails. And for Beck, who’s little more than a deer in the headlights, she unknowingly walks straight into his trap.

What happens when Joe’s obsession spirals out of control? Will Beck realise who – what – Joe is before it’s too late?

Told from the second person, You is a disturbing tale of a stalker who knows no limits. Read the book before watching the series, or head straight for the show and come back to the original – there’s no rules, least of all when Joe Goldberg is involved.

Intrigued? Get started on your reading adventure by checking out the links below.

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: ebook
• Add You to your Goodreads shelf
• Caroline Kepnes' website
• Watch You on Netflix.

I let you go / Clare Mackintosh

Mackintosh, Clare. I Let You Go. New York : Sphere, 2014.

Now a master of the genre of domestic, psychological thrillers, Clare Mackintosh's first foray into the field is perhaps one of her best. I Let You Go was where it all began, and is the best introduction to her work.

Everything changed in Jenna Gray’s life in an instant.

One day she was a happy mother, living a comfortable life in the suburbs, and the next, her son was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Unable to cope with the reality of what happened, Jenna flees her life and everything she knew to take up residence on the coast of Wales. It’s there, in a run-down shack with little to no heating, that she tries to heal, if something like that is even possible.

While on her sabbatical, two determined policemen are still on the case, trying to find the driver of the vehicle that killed Jacob. In a twisting series of events that lead to shocking reveals, the killer is not who they think – or what they expected.

With gasp-out-loud turns and an intricately plotted story that is sure to stay with you long after you close the book, I Let You Go is a masterful debut from one of the defining authors of the genre to date.

Interested in this book? Find out where to get it and more about the author below.

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: large print
• Add I Let You Go to your Goodreads shelf
• Check out Clare Mackintosh's Goodreads page.

Her every fear / Peter Swanson

Swanson, Peter. Her Every Fear. New York : William Morrow, 2017.

How well do you know
your neighbours?

Kate’s been to hell and back. After having her ex-boyfriend stalk her, kidnap her, and kill himself while keeping her locked in a closet, she’s looking to escape the city and all its memories. Hoping to reinvent herself somewhere new, she switches apartment with her American cousin in Boston – a six month agreement that Kate prays will restore her sanity and her trust in the world.

But upon her arrival, she realises that Boston is no better than London – and that evil lives everywhere. From the murder that occurred next door to the fact that the victim might have been dating her cousin, Kate begins to regret having ever agreed to the apartment swap. The plot kicks up a pace when her cousin becomes the prime suspect in the murder, and Kate is forced to reconcile her place in all of this, including her insatiable curiosity in searching for the answers.

Her Every Fear is not Swanson’s first psychological thriller, and it shows. The novel is well crafted and maintains a relent pace, sprinting toward the conclusion – that maybe there’s a psychopath in every house. Thrillingly, mind-bendingly addictive, this is one story not to be missed.

Does Her Every Fear sound like your cup of tea? Check out the links below to get started.

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: ebook
• Wollongong library: audiobook
• Add Her Every Fear to your Goodreads shelf
• Peter Swanson's website

The wife between us / Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Hendricks, Greer. The Wife Between Us. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2018. 

She's being followed... but
why, and by whom?

Writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen burst onto the thriller scene in 2018 with The Wife Between Us and sufficiently took it by storm. Redefining what it means to craft a complex and suspenseful domestic thriller.

Richard is the kind of husband any woman would want: rich, protective, and well-connected. Nellie, a fledgling preschool teacher, is spoiled by him – raised out of barely scraping by to suddenly being at the top of the social echelon. And even if she’s giving up her old life to be with him, she’s gaining something infinitely more precious – or so she tells herself. But when her past anxieties prove themselves to be founded in the form of a stalker pursuing her through the streets of New York, Nellie wonders if there’s more to this than just bad memories.

Told through multiple perspectives that keep you guessing as to their true identity, Hendricks and Pekkanen deliver a twisting, mind-bending psychological thriller. With gasp-out-loud plot twists, The Wife Between Us keeps readers guessing, right to the very end.

Up for a scare? Check out where you can find The Wife Between Us today.

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: large print
• Wollongong library: ebook
• Wollongong library: audiobook
• Add The Wife Between Us to your Goodreads shelf
• Greer Hendricks' website
• Sarah Pekkanen's website

A stranger in the house / Shari Lapena

Lapena, Shari. A Stranger In the House. New York : Pamela Dorman Books, 2017.

She might very well be
a stranger to her own life.

The Krupps are doing well in life – newly married and with no kids to speak of, they’re enjoying being together and settled into a comfortable existence in suburban New York. But when Karen vanishes one day – car gone, purse and phone left in the house – their dream life is turned upside down. The police reveal to Tom that Karen’s been in a car accident, and though she’s okay, some of her memory has been lost: like where she was going, or what she was doing. Her return home should have been a celebration, but instead Karen senses that something is very, very wrong – and that maybe, their dream life was far from perfect.

With suspense and mystery in hand, Lapena crafts a domestic thriller that has become a staple of the genre. For those wishing to dive deep into the mind of an unreliable narrator, A Stranger in the House is the perfect psychological thriller to fill a weekend.

Ready for a thrill? Find A Stranger in the House at your library today.

• Wollongong library: large print
• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: audiobook
• Add A Stranger in the House to your Goodreads shelf
• Shari Lapena’s website

Watching you / Lisa Jewell

Jewell, Lisa. Watching You. New York : Pocket Books, 2018.

Always close the curtains
in this neighbourhood.

Everyone has a secret. Big or small, your own or someone else’s, secrets are always with us – but we all have one thing in common. We want these secrets to stay hidden, kept quiet, forgotten and buried.

In Melville Heights, secrets are beginning to surface. Hailed as one of the nicest places in Bristol, England, the suburb is full of the affluent, the intelligent, the well-to-do. But when a murder takes place, the town is turned upside down and all sorts of things start to fall out. Headmaster of the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam, finds himself the object of his neighbour’s affection. Tom’s son dreams of being an MI5 spy, and begins digging for clues in the neighbourhood, while teenager Jenna Tripp begins to suspect that her Headmaster is not all that he seems to be.

When secrets begin to come out and lies unravel, Melville Heights becomes a town of interconnected stories and decades-old mysteries. For fans of interconnected plots, a cast of characters with something to hide, and a big pay off at the end of the novel, Watching You is the domestic thriller you need to read this year.

Ready to dive in? Check out our links below to get started today:

•  Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: large print
•  Wollongong library: ebook
• Add Watching You to your Goodreads shelf
• Lisa Jewell's website

The woman in the window / A. J Finn

Finn, A. J. The Woman in the Window. New York : William Morrow & Co., 2018.

You'll never take your neighbours
for granted after reading this...

Agoraphobia: the fear of places or certain situations that might cause fear, panic, or helplessness. 

For Dr. Anna Fox, it means staying inside her house, every hour of every day. Everything she needs, she conducts over the internet or phone, including her marriage and relationship with her daughter, food, bills, and even her online therapy sessions with clients. Her days are spent binging movies and, with the help of a zoom lens and a camera, spying on her neighbours. She writes down every detail about them – their names, their jobs, their relationships.

Her routine is shaken up when new neighbours in next door, and just as Anna is settling in to learn all about these new tenants, she witnesses something no one was ever meant to see. As she begins to question what exactly she saw – was it real? Was it imagined? – her carefully constructed world begins to unravel around her. Fact and fiction begin to blur their lines until the truth is a matter of opinion.

A twisted narrative that crackles with suspense and mystery, The Woman in the Window is the archetypal unreliable narrator novel whose plot has been planned with a fine tooth comb.

Sounds like something you'd like to read? Check out our links below to find it today:

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: ebook
•  Wollongong library: large print
• Wollongong library: audiobook
• Add The Woman in the Window to your Goodreads shelf

Lock every door / Riley Sager

Sager, Riley. Lock Every Door. New York : Dutton, 2019.

How good are you at
following the rules?

Nothing has been easy for Jules of late. Still reeling from a break up and the loss of her job, she’s floundering and looking for something – anything – to hold on to. That’s when she sees a job advertised at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most mysterious and infamous apartment buildings. They’re seeking an apartment sitter with a generous stipend to follow only a few simple rules.

One: you may not have visitors.

Two: you may not spend a night away from the apartment.

Three: you may not disturb any of the other residents.

To Jules, this seems easy enough, and she’s too eager for the pay check to think twice. But once she’s settled in the apartment and rubbing shoulders with some of the Bartholomew’s rich and famous residents, she wonders if all is not quite what it seems. And then there’s Ingrid, an apartment sitter who reminds Jules strongly of her lost sister. Digging into the history and supposed rumours of the Bartholomew turns up more questions than answers, and when Ingrid goes missing, Jules’ search turns frantic.

A nail-biting thriller that bends the rules of what it means to craft a psychological suspense, Sager’s latest foray into the genre delivers an experience to readers seeking a true chill.

Interested? Why not give the library's listings a look today:

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: large print
• Add Lock Every Door to your Goodreads shelf
• Riley Sager's website

The widow / Fiona Barton

Barton, Fiona. The Widow. New York : New American Library, 2016.

"A loving husband or a
heartless killer...
She'd know, wouldn't she?"

There’s a lot Jean Taylor has never said out loud. Things she kept quiet for her own good, or that of her family. She wanted so badly to have the perfect marriage and to create the perfect life with her husband Glen – to take care of one another, to live peacefully.

But the abduction of two-year-old Bella Elliot starts to raise questions, and the police come knocking. They suspected Glen, and though Jean held her silence, she found she was no longer required to bite her tongue after his passing. His death brought the journalists and detectives swooping down onto her door, and Jean realised that although she may have never said some things out loud, it doesn’t make them any less true.

Told through gripping alternating perspectives and diving head-first into the case of a missing child and the prime suspect, The Widow is a psychological suspense novel that questions everyone and everything you hold to be true. For those seeking a deliciously un-put-down-able story, look no further than this.

And if you like this book, be sure to check out the rest of the series: The Child and The Suspect, all part of the Kate Waters series.

Desperate to read The Widow? Check out the links below to find it.

• Wollongong library: print
• Wollongong library: large print
• Wollongong library: audiobook
• Add The Widow to your Goodreads shelf
• Fiona Barton's website

The silent wife / A.S.A Harrison

Harrison, A. S. A. The Silent Wife. New York : Penguin Books, 2013.

Looking for something to
read that will have you
addicted to every page?

Happily married couple Jodi and Todd live in a beautiful waterfront home in Chicago. Both are succeeding in their respective jobs – Jodi, a psychotherapist, and Todd a property developer. But what once seemed a stable bedrock for another peaceful 20 years together is shaken when Todd’s eye catches Natasha. Young and vivacious, Natasha injects something into Todd’s life that he hadn’t realised he was missing with Jodi – excitement; the thrill of the chase.

What Todd doesn’t count on is Jodi fighting back. Turning the tables on her husband, Jodi realises that she has nothing left to lose by going all in. None of them are going to have a happy ending if she has a say in it.

With alternating point of view chapters that show two sides of the story, as well as a lifetime of secrets and lies coming to the surface, The Silent Wife is a psychological suspense novel that focuses more on the psychological more than ever. Readers will be committed to seeing this marriage through to the very end.

Is your interest piqued? Why not check out the links below to get started today:

• Wollongong library: print
• Add The Silent Wife to your Goodreads shelf
• A. S. A Harrison's website