What To Read If You Loved Gone Girl
Without a doubt, author Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl was one of last year’s blockbuster bestsellers. Suspenseful, a little dark, surprising plot twists, things not being what they appear – if these qualities of Flynn’s book are your cup of reading tea, here’s a list of other books that you will be sure to love. (Note: book summaries are edited versions of descriptions from Amazon.com)
Before I Go To Sleep (S.J. Watson)
A compelling, fast-paced psychological thriller, in which an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember her past or form new memories, desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is—and who she can trust.
In the Woods (Tana French)
One evening in the summer of 1984 in a small Dublin suburb, three children do not return from the playing in the woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, a murder squad detective and his partner find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery.
The Silent Wife (A.S.A. Harrison)
The Gilberts are at a bad place in their marriage. 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. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept, as the Gilberts rush haplessly toward murder.
Reconstructing Amelia (Kimberly McCreight)
Kate’s in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from her daughter’s exclusive private school: Amelia has been suspended and Kate must get her daughter immediately. But Kate’s stress turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police, fire trucks, and an ambulance. The school tells Kate her daughter jumped to her death, a story she believes until she gets an anonymous text, telling her her daughter didn’t in fact jump.
Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.
Defending Jacob (William Landay)
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his family. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
Defending Jacob is a story of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.
The Expats (Chris Pavone)
In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, Kate Moore’s days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a tremendous, life-defining secret. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; her husband is acting suspiciously; and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, increasingly terrified that her own past is catching up with her. As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of the people around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.
What the Dead Know (Laura Lippman)
Thirty years ago, the Bethany girls, ages eleven and fifteen, disappeared from a Baltimore shopping mall. They never returned, their bodies were never recovered, and only painful questions remain. Now, in the aftermath of a rush-hour hit-and-run accident, a clearly disoriented woman is claiming to be Heather, the younger Bethany sister. Not a shred of evidence supports her story, but she definitely knows something about that terrible day—and about the shocking fissures that the tragedy exposed in the foundation of a seemingly solid family.
Julianne Puckett is the creator of Yankee Kitchen Ninja, a blog about what she calls “stealthy homemaking” — healthy recipes that are quick and easy to prepare, DIY gardening tips and the occasional craft project. A designer, writer and former suburban-dwelling IT professional, she lives in rural Vermont, where she struggles to balance the siren call of her inner farmer with her love of cute shoes and cocktails.
