The best page-turning books to pass the time during a global pandemic

Why am I passionate about this?

I write thrillers and read thrillers, so naturally, I’m drawn to dark, twisted stories. That said, because I have become adept at spotting plot twists, it takes a really great book to hold my attention. I also love a strong psychological or emotional component that keeps me reading. Give me your damaged, complex, and morally challenged characters and I will follow them anywhere! The books I’ve chosen all have one or more of these qualities and achieved the task of providing a few precious hours of blissful escape from worry over (nothing less than) an ongoing global pandemic!


I wrote...

Don't Look for Me

By Wendy Walker,

Book cover of Don't Look for Me

What is my book about?

They called it a “walk away.” The abandoned car. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family. But what really happened to Molly Clarke? When a new lead comes in after the search has ended, Molly’s daughter, Nicole, returns to the small, desolate town where her mother was last seen. As secrets creep from every corner, Nicole comes closer to finding the truth – and to the danger that is all around her.

For Molly, the nightmare began with a violent storm and a ride to town from a kind stranger. But when the doors close, locking shut, Molly suspects she’s made a terrible mistake. Told in a split narration, Don’t Look for Me is an emotional and explosive page-turner.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of We Were Never Here

Wendy Walker Why did I love this book?

Andrea Bartz’s twisty tale about two friends (aptly compared to Thelma and Louise), dead bodies piling up around them, and secrets they hold from the past is a fresh backdrop for a genre that has been dominated by domestic set-ups. Delving into the complexities of female friendships and how they can control and define us, I found this to be a thoroughly engaging read. A New York Times Bestseller and Hello Sunshine Book Club pick, you can’t go wrong with We Were Never Here!

By Andrea Bartz,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked We Were Never Here as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “This book is every suspense lover’s dream and it kept me up way too late turning pages. . . . A novel with crazy twists and turns that will have you ditching your Friday night plans for more chapters.”—Reese Witherspoon

A backpacking trip has deadly consequences in this “eerie psychological thriller . . . with alluring locales, Hitchcockian tension, and possibly the best pair of female leads since Thelma and Louise” (BookPage), from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.

A Marie Claire Book Club Pick •…


Book cover of The Marsh King's Daughter

Wendy Walker Why did I love this book?

Soon to be a major motion picture, this novel was an instant bestseller and for good cause. First, it takes us away to another place – the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Dionne weaves atmosphere into every scene. Second – the set-up is emotionally compelling and fraught with personal and moral dilemmas. A woman who is the product of abduction and rape. A father who escapes from prison twenty years later. And now he’s fled back to the one place he knows how to evade capture - unless his estranged daughter can track him down in the remote wilderness where he raised her to survive. With dilemmas this deep, it is impossible not to become completely immersed. Plus, Dionne is a beautiful writer, and who doesn’t love that?

By Karen Dionne,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Marsh King's Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Published in ebook and paperback as Home

You'd recognise my mother's name if I told it to you. You'd wonder, briefly, where is she now? And didn't she have a daughter while she was missing?

And whatever happened to the little girl?

Helena's home is like anyone else's. With a husband and two daughters, and a job she enjoys. But no one knows the truth about her childhood.

Born into captivity and brought up in an isolated cabin until she was 12, Helena was raised to be a killer by the man who kept her captive - her own father.…


Book cover of The Silent Patient

Wendy Walker Why did I love this book?

I am a sucker for a twisted first person narration so I knew this was the book for me after three sentences. It’s hard to write about this novel without spoiling the brilliant twist so I will just say that it is one of the finest executions of a psychological thriller twist I have ever read (and I’ve read a lot!). Aside from that, the writing is just flawless. Not one sentence made it to the page that didn’t move the plot along, create a diversion, or draw us further into the mind of our narrator. As a writer, I know how hard this is – deleting words which then requires that better ones be found. This book is meticulous, which probably explains why it was a monstrous bestseller.

By Alex Michaelides,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked The Silent Patient as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

"An unforgettable―and Hollywood-bound―new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy."
―Entertainment Weekly

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five…


Book cover of Behind Closed Doors

Wendy Walker Why did I love this book?

Say what you will about highly commercial fiction, but no one – and I mean no one – keeps pages turning better than B.A. Paris. She is the only author whose books become glued to my hand until I know what happened. I have kept reading while making dinner, attempting to fold laundry, answering emails, walking the dog, taking out the garbage. I don’t know what her pages are laced with, but it goes right into my brain and hijacks all decision-making. Do not stop reading! Plus, who doesn’t love a story that goes behind the closed doors of a seemingly perfect marriage and finds something completely twisted? 

By B.A. Paris,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Behind Closed Doors as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING DEBUT PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER YOU CAN'T MISS!

The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?

“A hair-raising debut, both unsettling and addictive...A chilling thriller that will keep you reading long into the night.” ―Mary Kubica, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Good Girl

“This is one readers won’t be able to put down.” ―Booklist (starred review)

"A can’t-put-down psychological thriller.” ―Library Journal (starred review)

“This debut is guaranteed to haunt you...Warning: brace yourself.” ―Bustle (10 New Thrillers to Read This Summer)

“The sense of believably and terror that engulfs…


Book cover of Falling

Wendy Walker Why did I love this book?

This recent phenom took the book world by storm with a premise that mainlines into a secret fear every one of us harbors – the plane going down! Rumor has it, this former flight attendant wrote this story in the jump seat on her flights, imagining what would happen if the pilot was forced with the decision to crash the plane or have his family killed. From there, it was honed and fine-tuned to be nothing short of riveting – each chapter doling out a teaspoon of satisfaction but ending with a new cliffhanger. The perfect recipe for addictive suspense. No wonder this debut landed Newman a seven-figure book deal, with movie option to boot. The perfect escape!  

By T.J. Newman,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Falling as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Amazing . . . Intense suspense, shocks and scares plus chilling insider authenticity make this one very special' LEE CHILD
'FALLING is the best kind of thriller (for me as a reader anyway). Characters you care deeply about. Nonstop, totally authentic suspense' JAMES PATTERSON
'Attention, please: T. J. Newman has written the perfect thriller! GILLIAN FLYNN, #1 bestselling author of Gone Girl

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped.

For his family to live,…


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A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

Book cover of A Diary in the Age of Water

Nina Munteanu Author Of Darwin's Paradox

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Ecologist Mother Teacher Explorer

Nina's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto in the grips of severe water scarcity.

Single mother and limnologist Lynna witnesses disturbing events as she works for the powerful international utility CanadaCorp. Fearing for the welfare of her rebellious teenage daughter, Lynna sets in motion a series of events that tumble out of her control with calamitous consequence. The novel explores identity, relationship, and our concept of what is “normal”—as a nation and an individual—in a world that is rapidly and incomprehensibly changing.

A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

What is this book about?

Centuries from now, in a post-climate change dying boreal forest of what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, discovers a diary that may provide her with the answers to her yearning for Earth’s past—to the Age of Water, when the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity in hatred—events that have plagued her nightly in dreams. Looking for answers to this holocaust—and disturbed by her macabre longing for connection to the Water Twins—Kyo is led to the diary of a limnologist from the time just prior to the destruction. This gritty memoir describes a…


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