The Never List – Koethi Zan

Psychological Thriller
4*’s

Sarah lives in her pristine apartment rarely venturing beyond the safety of the front door.  Why?  Well ten years before the story begins she was one of four girls who were kept and tortured by Jack Derber in the cellar of his house. Having escaped from three years of hell Sarah now has a problem, Jack Derber is up for parole and together with the two other survivors from the time in the cellar, Sarah needs to engage with the board to keep him in prison where he belongs.  Do the letters that Jack has been sending from prison hold clues as to what his motive for keeping them really were?

This book has a fantastic opening, Sarah and her best friend Jennifer devise The Never List as children, a way to keep them safe from the vagaries of the world but by the time the two go to college it has become something of an obsession.  What is shocking after all the edicts on how to keep them safe is that they are captured by the Psychology Professor at their college.

This is a book full of suspense but what I enjoyed most was the psychological effects, not only after the girls are released, but how they behaved towards each other in captivity.  This is one dark book that illustrates the survivor mechanism in action.  As Sarah investigates she seeks out those who knew Jack and her trail leads her into a wide variety of characters, none of whom seem to be particularly pleasant. Some of these secondary characters seemed a little clichéd and two-dimensional but all had something to add to Sarah’s determined investigation.

I found the story slowed somewhat in the middle section, but the ending gets top marks from me as Sarah is determined to find out what happened to her friend Jennifer who has not been since she was captured….

A thrilling book with loads of action which has had the honour of being on Richard & Judy Book Club spring list.  I received this book from the publisher Random House UK in return for this honest review.

WWW Wednesday (January 29)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading The Book of You by Claire Kendal, if this book continues the way it has started it may well be my favourite fiction read of 2014 (so far)  I’m enjoying the two stories in one approach which Claire Kendal has employed for this book.

Blurb

His name is Rafe, and he is everywhere Clarissa turns. At the university where she works. Her favorite sewing shop. The train station. Outside her apartment. His messages choke her voice mail; his gifts litter her mailbox. Since that one regrettable night, his obsession with her has grown, becoming more terrifying with each passing day. And as Rafe has made clear, he will never let her go.
Clarissa’s only escape from this harrowing nightmare is inside a courtroom–where she is a juror on a trial involving a victim whose experiences eerily parallel her own. There she finds some peace and even makes new friends, including an attractive widower named Robert, whose caring attentions make her feel desired and safe. But as a disturbingly violent crime unfolds in the courtroom, Clarissa realizes that to survive she must expose Rafe herself. Conceiving a plan, she begins collecting the evidence of Rafe’s madness to use against him–a record of terror that will force her to relive every excruciating moment she desperately wants to forget. Proof that will reveal the twisted, macabre fairy tale that Rafe has spun around them . . . with an ending more horrifying than her darkest fears. Goodreads

I have just finished The Never List by Koethi Zan

This is one of those books that could scare you stupid if you aren’t careful. Two friends find themselves trapped in a cellar despite having a list of things to keep them safe, The Never List. My review will follow later this week.

My next read is going to be The Child’s Child by Barbara Vine

Blurb

What sort of betrayal would drive a brother and sister apart?
When Grace and her brother Andrew inherit their grandmother’s house, they surprise few people by deciding to move in together. But they’ve always got on well and the London house is large enough to split down the middle.
There’s just one thing they’ve not taken into account though. What if one of them wants to bring a lover to the house? When Andrew’s partner James moves in, and immediately picks a fight about the treatment of gay men, the balance is altered – with almost fatal consequences. Amazon

I’m approaching this one with a degree of trepidation as I have a feeling it will disappoint, but I can’t not read this one as I have such affection for Barbara Vine, the author who first introduced me to psychological thrillers; Asta’s Book, The Brimstone Wedding and the Dark Adapted Eye, comfort reads that have served me well over the years!

WWW Wednesday (January 22)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Stone Bruises by Simon Beckett

Blurb

Sean is on the run. We don’t know why and we don’t know from whom, but we do know he’s abandoned his battered, blood-stained car in the middle of an isolated, lonely part of rural France at the height of a sweltering summer. Desperate to avoid the police, he takes to the parched fields and country lanes only to be caught in the vicious jaws of a trap. Near unconscious from pain and loss of blood, he is freed and taken in by two women – daughters of the owner of a rundown local farm with its ramshackle barn, blighted vineyard and the brooding lake. And it’s then that Sean’s problems really start…NetGalley

I have just finished a really enjoyable read The Last Winter of Dani Lancing by P.D. Viner


Review to be posted later this week!

Blurb

Twenty years ago, college student Dani Lancing was kidnapped and brutally murdered. The killer was never found, and the case has long gone cold. Her parents, Patty and Jim, were utterly devastated, their marriage destroyed. While Jim fell apart, Patty was consumed by the unsolved case. She abandoned her journalism career and her marriage to spend every waking hour searching and plotting. She keeps contact with Tom, Dani’s childhood sweetheart, who has become a detective intent on solving murders like Dani’s. When he finds a lead that seems ironclad, he brings Patty in on it. After years of dead ends, her obsession is rekindled, and she will do anything for revenge, even become a killer herself-dragging her whole family into the nightmare once again, as lies and secrets are uncovered..Goodreads

Next I will be reading The Never List by Koethi Zan which I have on good authority is an excellent read, published by Random House on 1 January 2014

Blurb

NEVER GO OUT ALONE AFTER DARK
For years, Sarah and Jennifer kept the Never List: a list of things to be avoided at all costs.
NEVER GET IN THE CAR
But one night, they broke their own rules – with horrifying consequences.
NEVER TAKE RISKS
Sarah has spent ten years trying to forget her terrifying ordeal. But it seems the killer has not forgotten her…
NEVER TRUST ANYONE NetGalley