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Thrillers and Suspense December 2020
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The Wrong Family
by Tarryn Fisher
Starring: Juno, a retired therapist who moves in with Winnie and Nigel Crouch, whose seemingly idyllic life isn't quite what it seems.
What happens: One day, Juno overhears Winnie and Nigel whispering and discovers a sinister family secret, leading to a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
About the author: Tarryn Fisher's previous book, The Wives, was one of the most popular psychological thrillers of 2019.
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The Last Flight
by Julie Clark
What it's about: Working for months on a plan to escape her violent husband, Claire impulsively swaps airline tickets with a stranger whose circumstances are equally dire. Then, a fateful accident compels Claire to assume the other’s identity.
Book buzz: In addition to being a New York Times and USA Today best seller, The Last Flight is an Amazon Best Book of 2020.
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Eddie's Boy
by Thomas Perry
Starring: Michael Shaeffer, a retired (and highly skilled) contract killer.
What happens: Michael is living peacefully in England with his aristocratic wife, but her annual summer party brings strangers to their house, and with them, an attempt on Michael's life. He is immediately thrust into action, luring his lethal pursuers to Australia before venturing into the lion's den―the States―to figure out why the mafia is after him again, and how to stop them.
Series alert: This is the fourth entry in the series that began with The Butcher's Boy.
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V2: A Novel of World War II
by Robert Harris
Introducing: Rudi Graf, an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon—but instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis in occupied Holland. Meanwhile, Kay Caton-Walsh, a young English intelligence officer, volunteers to ship out for newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues hope to locate and destroy V2 launch sites.
Reviewers say: "Harris brings the past to life through vivid characterizations and clever plotting" (Publishers Weekly)
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| The Secrets We Kept by Lara PrescottWhat it is: a sweeping, richly detailed story about censorship and Cold War women inspired by the true story behind the publication of Boris Pasternak's classic novel Doctor Zhivago.
The key players: Russian-American CIA agent Irina Drozdova, who gets in over her head in more ways than one after taking the assignment; Olga Vsevolodovna, Pasternak's long-time partner who risks the gulag rather than betray the details of his emerging masterpiece to Soviet authorities. |
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| A Good Enough Mother by Bev ThomasWhat it's about: Psychotherapist Ruth Hartland finds her professional ethics tested by a deeply troubled new patient, a young man who bears a striking resemblance to her own long-missing son.
Read it for: the authentic portrayal of Ruth's professional life; the delicate balance between the intricate plotting of the story and its deeply moving tone.
You might also like: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, which also focuses on a therapist whose life is upended by a new patient. |
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| American Spy by Lauren WilkinsonWhat it is: a stylistically complex novel, inspired by the true story of an African American FBI agent who accepts a CIA "honeypot" assignment targeting Thomas Sankara, communist revolutionary and eventual president of Burkina Faso.
Mixed emotions: Although agent Marie Mitchell is an experienced intelligence professional, the longer her African assignment goes on the more she comes to admire Sankara, both as a politician and as a man. |
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