The best books with a twist you won’t see coming

Patricia Highsmith is the original queen of psychological thrillers. This book, later made into a film by Hitchcock, was the inspiration for my novel. I wanted to see how the story could play out in modern times with young women as the lead characters. While I used Strangers on a Train as the jumping-off point, my own story went in slightly different directions.

In Highsmith’s book, when the main character is pulled into what he believes is an idle question on how one could get away with the perfect murder, he has to determine how far he’ll go to escape being blamed for a very real crime. Highsmith excels at getting ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances and then pushing them to see how they will react.

As one who teaches plotting for writers, I can vouch this is a master class in twists and turns. McAllister turns a murder mystery upside down by having the main character go back in time after she witnesses her son commit a crime to determine what was the start of things going bad. 

I love a book that starts discussions. This book had me talking with friends about: How far would you go to save your child? What is the beginning of someone’s life getting off track? What in your own life would you go back and change if you had the opportunity, and what did you not see that you wish you had?

Lucy Foley excels at the “closed door”/ Agatha Christie-type mystery. She takes classic tropes and spins them for a new audience. As someone who loves to travel in books, the setting of this one on a remote island off the coast of Ireland pulled me in from the first page. (Who doesn’t want to run away to a manor home in Ireland? Well, except for the murder part.) 

The story is told in rotating points of view so you’re never sure who to trust. Each character attending this wedding has a secret and a reason to be behind the crime. I had fun trying to decide who was the guilty party.

Robyn Harding’s secret skill is peeling back the layers of a family to expose both the love and the possible darkness hiding inside. When a “perfect” suburban family begins to be harassed by a mysterious stranger they first chalk it up to random vandals, until they begin to suspect that it’s being done for a very particular reason. 

The trick that Harding does is to give each family member a reason to be the target. She unravels the myth of perfection and kept me turning pages to determine the motivation behind the crime. I am always much more interested in the why of a mystery novel than the who—and this book delivers exactly that.

The opening line of this novel, “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.” grabbed me, and the story didn’t let go until the final page. Nugent’s ability to write from the perspective of a compelling-can’t-turn-away villain reminds me of Patricia Highsmith. Her characters may be dark, but there’s no denying they’re fascinating. 

Also, as a writer, I always love a book that gives a peek behind the publishing business. The main character is a children’s writer whose wife illustrates his books. But there are many surprises for the reader about just where these book ideas originate.