Tag: #murdermystery

The Sanatorium

Another lengthy and laborious read from the thriller stack of Reese Witherspoon’s book club, Hello Sunshine. With this, I am beginning to doubt her choices when it comes to thrillers. Even her previous picks were duds. In this book, the protagonist, Elin, a detective in the UK, who is battling PTSD associated with the death of her younger brother; is now on a vacation with her boyfriend, Will, in a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. The hotel has a dark and sinister past. Before the renovation, it used to be a sanatorium for Tuberculosis patients where some questionable practices were carried out. However, Elin and Will are here in the hotel for the engagement party of her other brother Isaac with Laure. As the weather becomes increasingly harsh with an impending blizzard, Laura disappears suddenly on the eve of the engagement. This is followed by a spate of brutal murders and Elin takes it upon herself to find the murderer.

Elin, does the most shoddy job as a detective. Also her intuitions are forever wrong. Her obstinacy to remain deliberately difficult because of the traumatic past, makes her the most annoying character. Will comes across as a narcissist who keeps gaslighting Elin. It’s appalling to note that the author, Sarah Pearse, has allowed it and has shown Elin to be accepting of it.

It’s become a trend to put troubled and damaged women as protagonists of thrillers. Very few authors are able to do justice to it and hence assimilate the personal traumas with the thriller plot line. This story should have been buried in the blizzard itself. It’s so ridiculous and drab, which makes me wonder at my own weird compulsion to having completed it.

Avoid!

~ JUST A GAY BOY. 🤢

A Slow Fire Burning

Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water, is back with another edgy and disturbing murder mystery-cum-psychological thriller. A young man, Daniel, gets brutally murdered in a London houseboat and now there are three suspects. Laura, his one night stand, who was last seen with him; Carla, his aunt; and Miriam, his nosy neighbour living on an adjacent houseboat. As the story unravels, so does the dark and damaged lives of the three women, intersecting and intertwining, ultimately leading to a grim climax.

The author is proficient at putting unlikeable and troubled women as her protagonists. In this book too, Laura who suffers from disinhibition, comes across as extremely unhinged. She is a victim of various childhood traumas due to which she has trouble managing her anger, emotions and behaviour. Through the various characters and plot lines, the book highlights the repercussions of PTSD, grief, loneliness and revenge.

Despite it being a page turner, the book still left me a tad underwhelmed. Maybe it’s because of the invariable comparison to the brilliancy of the author’s previous books. Nonetheless, Hawkins does create an atmospheric and creepy narrative. Do read!

~ JUST A GAY BOY. 👀

The Maidens

Absolute page turner! This next psychological whodunnit thriller from Alex Michaelides (his previous was the brilliant, The Silent Patient) is gripping and riveting to say the least. The story is set in the prestigious Cambridge university. Mariana, a group therapist, in London, is struggling to cope with the sudden demise of her husband. Whilst she’s going about balancing her emotional state and conducting her group therapy sessions, she gets a frantic call from Zoe, her niece, who’s studying at Cambridge, about the mysterious and gruesome murder of her roommate. Mariana, immediately, sets off for Cambridge, to comfort her niece. During her visit, Mariana gets sucked into the sinister developments going on in the university. She gets especially intrigued about a secret society of female students called “The Maidens” led by a charismatic Greek tragedy professor Edward Fosca. When another one of “The Maidens” gets brutally murdered, Mariana gets convinced that it’s Fosca who is the murderer and she takes it upon herself to prove it so.

While keeping the story taut and chilling, the author throws some insight into Mariana’s psychology. Raised by a father who abandoned her emotionally and left her yearning for his love and attention, Mariana struggles to come to terms with her own issues. This juxtaposed with her trying to be an emotional anchor for Zoe, makes her feel depleted of her bearings. The way the author constructs this psychological arc of Mariana, intertwining it with the current sinister scenario and various characters and situations from Greek mythology, makes the book remarkable and exceptional.

The fast-paced narrative leads to a shocking climax, that’s bound to make you dizzy.

I finished this book in three days. It’s simply unputdownable!

~ JUST A GAY BOY. 😶‍🌫️