I love a good plot twist. The best twists are the ones I never see coming—the ones that make me gasp out loud. Ever since Gone Girl exploded onto the crime fiction scene, readers, myself included, are perpetually hungry for a book with the Big Twist. Big with a capital B. That said, one of the things that made Gone Girl so amazing was the fact that the characters had so much to hide. While getting to that big plot twist toward the end of a book is always exciting, as a reader, I get just as much satisfaction when I find a great read that is layered in scandalous secrets, with each one adding just a little more intrigue and suspense to the reading experience. As a writer, I try to provide my fans with the same enjoyment. In my upcoming book, The Girl With No Name, there are secrets aplenty. Detective Josie Quinn first responds to a call for a missing infant which leads her to the home of her fiancé, Luke. He’s disappeared and in his place is a woman who claims she has no memory of who she is or how she arrived at Luke’s house. As Josie tries to piece together the disparate cases, she uncovers one shocking secret after another. I’ve done my best to keep the revelations coming till the very last page, just like the amazing books listed below. Here are ten of my favorite novels that will keep you gasping for air till the very end:
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
Hillier’s latest is due out this month. If you only have time to read one book this year, read this one. Marin’s perfect life is shattered when her son, Sebastian is abducted. A year later, all clues in Sebastian’s abduction have dried up, and Marin is left hopeless and destroyed. When she finds out her husband is having an affair with a younger woman, she is sparked to action. She lost her son. She’s not going to lose her husband. As her obsession with her husband’s mistress grows, things spiral out of control. Every character in this amazing novel has secrets—as the title suggests—and some of them are little, yes, but some of them are big, terrible secrets that you’ll never guess. Just when you think you’ve reached the end of the trail of little secrets, Hillier drops another in this brilliant, gut-wrenching, powerful read.
The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan
When she is seven years old, Jocelyn Holt’s beloved nanny disappears in the night without a word. Jocelyn grows up bitter and angry with her parents and leaves her family estate at the first opportunity. Then her husband dies, and she and her daughter are forced to return and live with her mother. Their relationship is strained, to say the least. When remains are found on the estate, things only get worse. This novel will leave you breathless with all its revelations. Every character is harboring some secret and each one is deliciously shocking.
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
B.A. Paris is a master of stunning twists, but this book takes that skill to new levels. Jack and Grace are the perfect couple—or are they? Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? In Paris’ twisted tale, what goes on behind the doors of Jack and Grace’s perfectly appointed doors is nothing at all that you would expect. It was certainly more chilling than anything I could have imagined. I read this in a night, addicted to the secrets revealed throughout.
Wreckage by Emily Bleeker
Emily Bleeker’s Wreckage is a gripping and suspenseful read with a big emotional punch. Lillian and David survive a plane crash, living on a deserted island in the South Pacific for two years before they are rescued to much fanfare and press coverage. As the press begins to pick apart their stories, it becomes clear that both of these castaways are harboring some major secrets—one of which is so astonishing it will rock the lives of everyone they love. I never saw any of these secrets coming which was extremely satisfying to me as a reader.
The Missing Ones by Patricia Gibney
The Missing Ones features Irish Detective Lottie Parker, hot on the trail of a killer who left a woman for dead in a cathedral and then hung a man from a tree outside of his home. If you think this is a simple case of a couple of murders, you are sorely mistaken. With each page, Detective Parker unravels a disturbing web of secrets and lies going back decades. An exquisite crime thriller packed with gasp-worthy revelations.
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
Rachel Childs used to have a successful career as a journalist but now she’s trapped in her apartment, plagued by agoraphobia. She’s incredibly lucky to have a wonderful husband—or is she? On one of her rare forays into the outside world, she sees something very puzzling, and she is forced to face that not everything about her life or her marriage is what it seems. Lehane keeps the secrets bobbing to the surface one after another—to the very last page—in this masterfully written thriller.
The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney
Reeling from a recent loss, Jane has the opportunity to move into a unique architectural jewel at One Folgate Street. Jane moves in and quickly learns that the previous tenant met an untimely death. As Jane tries to uncover what happened in the house before she moved in, things take a dangerous turn. This is another fantastic read where nearly every character is keeping a shocking secret. Just when you think you know where this story is headed, Delaney deftly steers the narrative in a new and unexpected direction. Brilliant!
Greetings From Ventnor City by Jane Kelly
This gem is the latest entry in Kelly’s wonderful Meg Daniels mystery series, but it can be read as a stand-alone with no trouble at all. Meg is a reluctant private sleuth trying to relax at the Jersey shore when she is asked to look into the decades-old disappearance of a local girl. As Meg begins to track the last known movements of the missing girl, she uncovers one surprising secret after another taking the reader on a delightfully twisty journey to the book’s shocking conclusion. Don’t miss this one.
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Every day Christine wakes up with no memory. Her long-suffering husband, Ben, has to start anew each day bringing her up to speed on their lives and terrible accident that stole her memory. Christine begins keeping a secret notebook detailing each day and becomes convinced that not everything is as it seems. Turns out, she needs a notebook to keep track of the deep wealth of secrets surrounding both her previous life and her present-day life. You’ll never see the twists and turns coming in this wonderfully creepy debut.
Redemption Road by John Hart
You can always count on Hart for lush, riveting prose and complex characters whose pain you are sure to feel on a visceral level. In Redemption Road, we meet a large cast of characters including a young boy lying in wait to murder the recently released man convicted of killing his mother and a police detective whose recent shooting of two rape suspects has come under scrutiny. At first these characters and their plights all seem tenuously connected, but as Hart slowly and skillfully peels back the veneer covering the large swath of secrets these characters hide, you begin to see the big picture—and it will leave you breathless.
