The Stranger

The Stranger
Author: Melanie Raabe
Publisher: Text Publishing
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1925410404

‘Full of suspense, right up to the final paragraphs...An edgy thriller.’ AU Review She doesn't know him. But he knows everything about her. Philip Petersen, a wealthy businessman, disappears without trace on a trip to South America. His wife, Sarah, is left to bring up their son on her own. Seven years later, out of the blue, Sarah receives news that Philip is still alive. But the man who greets her before a crowd of journalists at the airport is a stranger—and he threatens Sarah. If she exposes him, she will lose everything: her house, her job, her son...her whole beautiful life. Melanie Raabe began her working life as a journalist but secretly wrote books by night. Her debut novel, The Trap, was an international bestseller. Her second, The Stranger, remained on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list for almost six months when it was first published in 2016. ‘Another unsettling and slippery psychological thriller that keeps you guessing up to the last page.’ Readings ‘A classic domestic noir...Generates sustained psychological suspense that gets under the skin.’ Age ‘The fear is palpable... You’ll be engrossed every step of the way.’ Better Reading ‘Raabe cleverly sets up her story, inserting twists and red herrings so that the reader is kept guessing until the final, staggering reveal. Flawlessly translated from German by Imogen Taylor, this page turner is even better than Raabe’s debut.’ BookMooch ‘Raabe once again delivers an enjoyable, page-turning, high concept domestic noir thriller.’ PS News ‘This psychological thriller will keep you guessing until the end.’ Daily Life ‘After the initial suspense the novel cascades into an edgy thriller and the end is sweet and innocent and left a tear in my eye.’ AU Review, Top Ten Books of 2017

The Stranger Upstairs

The Stranger Upstairs
Author: Lisa M. Matlin
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2024-07-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593599977

Most people wouldn’t buy an infamous murder house to renovate for fun . . . but Sarah Slade is not most people. “This debut novel deftly explores our shadows—the dark parts of ourselves we don’t want others to see. I couldn’t stop reading.”—Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A therapist and self-help writer with all the answers, Sarah has just bought a gorgeous Victorian in the community of her dreams. Turns out you can get a killer deal on a house where someone was murdered. Plus, renovating Black Wood House makes for great blog content and a potent distraction from her failing marriage. Good thing nobody knows that her past is as tainted as the bloodstain on her bedroom floor. But the renovations are fast becoming a nightmare. Sarah imagined custom avocado wallpaper, massive profits, and an appreciative husband who would want to share her bed again. Instead, the neighbors hate her guts and her husband still sleeps on the couch. And though the builders attempt to cover up Black Wood’s horrifying past, a series of bizarre accidents, threatening notes, and unexplained footsteps in the attic only confirm for Sarah what the rest of the town already knows: Something is very wrong in that house. With every passing moment, Sarah’s life spirals further out of control—and with it her sense of reality. But as she peels back the curling wallpaper and discovers the house’s secrets, she realizes that the deadly legacy of Black Wood House has only just begun.

Lacy Eye - Free Preview (The First 4 Chapters)

Lacy Eye - Free Preview (The First 4 Chapters)
Author: Jessica Treadway
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 145553255X

A haunting, evocative novel about a woman who might have to face the disturbing truth about her own daughter. Hanna and Joe send their awkward daughter Dawn off to college hoping that she will finally "come into her own." When she brings her new boyfriend, Rud, to her sister's wedding, her parents try to suppress their troubling impressions of him for Dawn's sake. Not long after, Hanna and Joe suffer a savage attack at home, resulting in Joe's death and Hanna's severe injury and memory loss. Rud is convicted of the crime, and the community speculates that Dawn may also have been involved. When Rud wins an appeal and Dawn returns to live in the family home, Hanna resolves to recall that traumatic night so she can testify in the retrial, exonerate her daughter, and keep her husband's murderer in jail. But as those memories resurface, Hanna faces the question of whether she knows her own daughter-and whether she ever did.

The Stranger

The Stranger
Author: Camilla Läckberg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1639361227

A local woman is killed in a tragic car crash, but it isn’t a clear-cut drunk driving case. The victim’s blood contains high alcohol levels, but she rarely drank a drop. Meanwhile, a reality TV show begins shooting in the town, and as cameras shadow the stars’ every move, tempers start to flare. When a drunken party ends with an unpopular contestant’s murder, all eyes turn to the cast and crew. Could there be a murderer among them? The ratings spike as the country tunes into a real-life murder mystery. Detective Patrik Hedstrom finds himself increasingly unable to focus on the strange circumstances of the first case, but what if that holds the key to a series of other unsolved cases across Sweden? Under the unforgiving media spotlight, Patrik tackles his toughest investigation yet.

The Upstairs House

The Upstairs House
Author: Julia Fine
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062975846

Winner of the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award A Good Morning America Book of the Month Selection • A Popsugar Must-Read Book of the Month • A Buzzfeed Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year “Provocative…. [An] assured, beautifully written book.” —Sarah Lyall, New York Times In this provocative meditation on new motherhood—Shirley Jackson meets The Awakening—a postpartum woman’s psychological unraveling becomes intertwined with the ghostly appearance of children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown. There’s a madwoman upstairs, and only Megan Weiler can see her. Ravaged and sore from giving birth to her first child, Megan is mostly raising her newborn alone while her husband travels for work. Physically exhausted and mentally drained, she’s also wracked with guilt over her unfinished dissertation—a thesis on mid-century children’s literature. Enter a new upstairs neighbor: the ghost of quixotic children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown—author of the beloved classic Goodnight Moon—whose existence no one else will acknowledge. It seems Margaret has unfinished business with her former lover, the once-famous socialite and actress Michael Strange, and is determined to draw Megan into the fray. As Michael joins the haunting, Megan finds herself caught in the wake of a supernatural power struggle—and until she can find a way to quiet these spirits, she and her newborn daughter are in terrible danger. Using Megan’s postpartum haunting as a powerful metaphor for a woman’s fraught relationship with her body and mind, Julia Fine once again delivers an imaginative and “barely restrained, careful musing on female desire, loneliness, and hereditary inheritances” (Washington Post).

The Wife Upstairs

The Wife Upstairs
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0008377537

The Top 10 New York Times bestseller ‘I was completely blown away by The Wife Upstairs. This is a compulsive, irresistible retelling of Jane Eyre with a modern, noir twist – and wow, does it work’ Samantha Downing, bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

Dear The Man Upstairs

Dear The Man Upstairs
Author: Maytal Female Booth
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2021-08-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781637303177

Dear The Man Upstairs is the captivating story of a young girl named Amber who begins writing to the "Man Upstairs," not realizing that the name is a euphemism for God. Someone writes her back and that person is not God. The series of letters that follow explore family dynamics, societal expectations, mental health, and the truth about growing up. Amber's unique experiences and gift for storytelling shows readers that there is more than one way to be a healthy, happy child; that families don't have to be perfect to stick together. Dear The Man Upstairs grapples with the tough issues surrounding parenting, behavioral health issues, and terminal illness through the mind of a creative genius. Author Maytal Booth brilliantly combines two genres, epistolary and realistic fiction, in a compelling story that focuses on theology in a way that is both subtle and thought-provoking. Using her experiences as an educator and child, this work of fiction helps to redefine what makes a happy and healthy child. If you enjoy heartwarming coming-of-age stories and innovative but realistic fiction, Dear The Man Upstairs is this season's must-read.

Stranger No More

Stranger No More
Author: Annahita Parsan
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9781400207510

There will be pain ahead, and trouble and problems that I won't be able to fix on my own. But in them all, I know God will be there, calling me to look to him. Inviting me to take the next step toward his open arms. And I will say yes. And yes. And yes. Annahita Parsan was born into a Muslim family in Iran and grew up with the simple hope of one day finding a good husband, having children, and doing some good in the world. Married and a mother before she turned eighteen, Annahita found herself unexpectedly widowed and trapped for years in an abusive second marriage that she later fled-discovering instead a God who might love her. Stranger No More is the remarkable true story of Annahita's path from oppression to the life-changing hope of Jesus. Fleeing Iran across the mountains into Turkey, she spent months in the terrifying Agri prison before a miraculous release and flight to Europe, where she and her two children knelt in a church and prayed, "God, from this day on we are Christians." Filled with unthinkable circumstances, miraculous rescues, and the quietly constant voice of Jesus, Stranger No More leads readers deep into the heart of God and draws them toward the same call that Annahita heeds today: using her past to save others from theirs. As the leader of two congregations in Sweden, Annahita has baptized hundreds of former Muslims since her own conversion, has seen firsthand the powerful ways God is at work among those who have left Islam behind, and is reminded every day that saying yes to God is always worth the risk.

The Trap - FREE PREVIEW (First Three Chapters)

The Trap - FREE PREVIEW (First Three Chapters)
Author: Melanie Raabe
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 17
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1455540722

Now in paperback, the twisted debut thriller about a reclusive author who sets the perfect trap for her sister's murderer--but is he really the killer? The renowned author Linda Conrads is famous for more than just her bestselling novels. For over eleven years, she has mystified fans by never setting foot outside her home. Far-fetched, sometimes sinister rumors surround the shut-in writer, but they pale in comparison to the chilling truth: Linda is haunted by the unsolved murder of her younger sister, whom she discovered in a pool of blood twelve years ago, and by the face of the man she saw fleeing the scene. Now plagued by panic attacks, Linda copes with debilitating anxiety by secluding herself in her house, her last safe haven. But the sanctity of this refuge is shattered when her sister's murderer appears again--this time on her television screen. Empowered with sudden knowledge but hobbled by years of isolation, Linda resolves to use her only means of communication with the outside world--the plot of her next novel--to lay an irresistible trap for the man. But as the plan is set in motion and the past comes rushing back, Linda's memories of that traumatic night--and her very sanity--are called into question. Is this man really a heartless killer or merely a helpless victim?