Article contributed by Suya Chry
Who doesn’t love reading a book that has the author’s hand snaking into their body with a knife and twisting it into their organs? If you do, then here are a list of few mystery/thriller books with plot twists that will make your jaw drop with shock!
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
Memories define us.
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?
Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight.
And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.
Welcome to Christine’s life.
When Christine wakes up, she wakes up with the memory of her younger self and realises she had a one-night stand with a much older married man. And she is even more shocked when he –Ben, reveals that she cannot remember him and their life because almost twenty years ago, she had an accident that left her with hopeless brain damage. But a call from Dr. Nash, who claims she’s been seeing him for a few weeks and informs her about her journal that she’s been writing –and reading- each day makes her wonder about whether or not her husband is being completely truthful. With a very compelling writing style, Watson has the reader completely engulfed in the book and makes one wonder, who is Ben?
The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz
When Cooper McQueen wakes up from a night with a beautiful stranger, it’s to discover he’s been robbed. The only item stolen—a million-dollar bottle of bourbon. The thief, a mysterious woman named Paris, claims the bottle is rightfully hers. After all, the label itself says it’s property of the Maddox family who owned and operated Red Thread Bourbon distillery since the last days of the Civil War until the company went out of business for reasons no one knows… No one except Paris.
In the small hours of a Louisville morning, Paris unspools the lurid tale of Tamara Maddox, heiress to the distillery that became an empire. But the family tree is rooted in tainted soil and has borne rotten fruit. Theirs is a legacy of wealth and power, but also of lies, secrets and sins of omission. The Maddoxes have bourbon in their blood—and blood in their bourbon. Why Paris wants the bottle of Red Thread remains a secret until the truth of her identity is at last revealed, and the century-old vengeance Tamara vowed against her family can finally be completed.
On her sixteenth birthday, Tamara Maddox, heir to the Red Thread asks Levi Shelby for a kiss. When her mother catches the stable boy and her daughter kissing, she is horrified and sends Levi away. Then, Tamara’s grandfather trying to force himself on her leads her to kill him and discover a letter from her late father stating that she is not a Maddox, but Levi is. With this shocking revelation, Tamara makes a plan. She was going to take revenge on the Maddoxes. Tiffany Reisz has produced an amazing tale revolving around racism, powerful family scandals and the deadliest secrets. The twists in this book are many and unexpected, that you will not see coming.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
Cadence Sinclair goes to Beachwood, an island owned by her grandfather, each summer, along with two cousins and Gat, a family friend. These vacations usually involve family troubles among parents of these ‘Liars’ as they are called, which makes them unhappy. During summer fifteen, an accident happens rendering a fifteen-year-old Cady mentally unstable. Summer sixteen comes by and she doesn’t go to Beachwood because her mother wanted her to spend time with her father, and during this summer, she emails the three other ‘liars’ but is ignored. The next summer, Cady goes to Beachwood determined to find why her closest friends ignored her and what exactly happened there two years ago. We Were Liars has the most unexpected twist by the end of the novel that you will not see coming.
My Sister’s Secret by Tracy Buchanan
Willow’s memories of her parents are sun-drenched and full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that’s been buried since a tragic accident years ago. Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she’s lived with since she was a child.
How was the enigmatic photographer connected to Willow’s parents? Why will Hope not break her silence? Willow cannot move forward in her life without answers. But who can she really trust? Because no one has been telling the truth for a very long time.
My sister’s secret is narrated by two point of views, Willow and her late mother, Charity some decades ago. When Willow discovers Niall Lane, twenty years after her parents’ death, she is determined to find out why her mother was carrying a necklace with his and her initials carved on it at the time of her death. This story is a gripping and emotional one and along with suffering the most unexpected plot twists, the reader is engulfed into the lives of the characters.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
Flynn did an amazing job in producing a masterful psychological thriller with great depth into each of the two main characters, Nick and his wife, Amy. When nick finds his wife missing, he does not know what went wrong in their relationship. Amy’s diary shows the story of her meeting nick and how his actions became detestable as their relationship progressed. Nick swears that it isn’t true, but the increasing evidence arising against him says otherwise. Maybe the perfect wife isn’t so perfect and the hated husband isn’t so lurid!
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all–a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.
Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family–a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.
One mistake. One mistake from Anne and Marco’s stead has their six-month-old daughter, Cora missing. To attend their neighbors’ party, they leave her at home. Sometime after midnight, Cora is taken. Detective Rasbach suspects the parents but what loving parents would kidnap or murder their own child? That leaves them wondering, who would take their lovely Cora? Don’t try to guess. You’ll be wrong!
