Do Not Disturb by Freida McFadden

 

My work friends had been raving about this author all school year.  We have  a book group on Facebook where people post recommendations and her books were consistently there so, with the start of summer, I decided to try one out and this was the first one that I read.  I loved Alfred Hitchcock movies when I was in high school.  Rear Window was my favorite one and this had a bit of a feel of that to me.  There is a woman in a window next door who is always watching who never comes downstairs.  The Baxter Motel where hte main character stops when the snow gets too bad to continue her trip reminded me of the Bates Motel.  The tensions was there, with Quinn on the run from a crime.  I loved, then, when the story changed to a different character, four different characters tell their side of the story from their point of view and with each one you gain an understanding of the story of the ones who came before.  Information that those narrators did not know, gaps in their knowledge being filled in for the reader as the full story emerged. Flaws being revealed to make them more real and to show the good and bad of many of them.

Later I read some articles about the author and this one was often rated the best or as one of the best of her books so I was glad that I decided to start with it.  Reading this one made me decide to jump on the bandwagon for Freida McFadden and I have since read some more.  I also found it inspiring that McFadden is a medical doctor specializing in traumatic brain injury.  That she can maintain a full time job and write and publish novels makes me feel more hopeful that I can go after my dreams as well, that the time is there if you want something bad enough you make the time to make it happen,

From Goodreads:

Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime.

To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she’s done.

But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night.

Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn’t the quiet, safe haven it seemed to be. The motel has a dark and disturbing past. And in the dilapidated house across the way, the silhouette of Nick's ailing wife is always at the window. Always watching.

In the morning, Quinn must leave the motel. She'll pack up her belongings and get back on the road to freedom.

But first, she must survive the night.

Do Not Disturb is a Hitchcock-style psychological thriller that will keep you tearing through the pages until you reach the shocking conclusion!

Buy on Amazon Here:  <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Do-Not-Disturb-addictive-psychological-ebook/dp/B09CN5LBGK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LWJPPGT82OZY&amp;keywords=do+not+disturb+freida+mcfadden&amp;qid=1690556547&amp;sprefix=do+not+disturb+fr%252Caps%252C114&amp;sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=booksbookseve-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=317297f19c46ad678986e25c267cb653&camp=1789&creative=9325">Do Not Disturb</a>

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

 

I listened to this book over the course of 24 hours, I just couldn't seem to walk away from it. It kept pulling me back in. According to Goodreads, "

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

I thought I had the twist figured out a time or two as I could recall the twist in Sometimes I Lie and Rock, Paper, Scissors which were a bit similar in their twists, but this one was not what I was expecting. I got some things right, but others all wrong which to me makes it an even better book, I like when the clues are there, but maybe not enough to come around to the totally correct solution.

I really liked Daisy and Nana, they were probably my favorites. Some of the others seemed a but like caricature at some points, but maybe that was so that I wouldn't feel bad as one by one the family members died at the stroke of the next hour.

The house was cut off from the mainland during high tide and only accessible by boat at that time. It had no cell service and Nana had recently canceled her phone line. The perfect recipe for a murder to come around, during a storm, when everyone is trapped in the house or nearby land and unable to reach anyone else.

It would be the perfect read on a cold winter night with the wind outside, you'd feel like you were inside the book with Daisy and her sisters trying to figure out who was picking them off one by one!

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

My thoughts:  This is the fourth Ruth Ware novel I've read.  There are definitely some similarities between books, but somehow the settings and the issues the characters encounter are varied enough to still be interesting.  This one may just be my favorite of the four or else it is just my most recent.

Hal is lost, her mother died a few years before.  She has no friends, still lives in the flat she shared with her mother and runs her Tarot Card reading table at a local pier.  Right after her mother's death she borrowed some money from a loan shark who is now demanding a repayment of 6 times what she borrowed, which she doesn't have.  Then, she receives a notice saying she has an inheritance from a grandmother.  Except the name of her grandmother is wrong, last name is good, but the names her mother told her were different.  But, she is broke and hopes that maybe she will get enough to pay back the loan and maybe take a small vacation or get ahead, so she boards a train to go to the funeral and will reading.

She meets her three uncles, but not uncles as she doesn't believe she is the daughter of their sister as they think, and finds herself in a drafty, huge country house relegated to an attic room with no heat and locks on the outside of the door and bars on the window even though it is on the top floor of the house.  A crusty old housekeeper who hates everyone and some odd events.

When the will is read and she has inherited the whole estate there are issues, guilt on her part and disbelief on the part of the uncles.  Then odd things happen, her light bulb and that in the hallway to her room are smashed.  The housekeeper warns her away.  Her uncle gives her an old  photo that contains the uncles as well as their sister and a distant cousin and her mother is in the picture!  Her mother was there, but it doesn't make sense.

Pieces keep getting put together and it is like you can almost feel her reaching an aha moment as calamities occur and you wonder exactly who is working against her and why. 

I enjoyed the suspense and found myself wanting to keep listing to see what she discovered next!  I owned a copy of this book and had in on my shelf for about a year,  but ended up borrowing the audio version from the library and finishing it in just a few days!