Fifteen years ago, three little girls were walking to school.  One of them was in a terrible accident that left her with a Traumatic Brain Injury that affects her memory and speech.  Living in an institution, Kitty James has trouble communicating, but that doesn't mean she doesn't remember the accident, at least on some level.  Alison Baker, Kitty's half-sister, has also never quite recovered from the trauma of that long-ago day.  She has no real life and relies on cutting herself in order to feel anything.  

With little money in the bank, Alison reluctantly decides to accept a job as an artist-in-residence at an open prison outside of London.  She's assigned to teach art to a select group of inmates.  Seems simple enough.  Then, she begins receiving threatening notes at work.  When her classroom erupts in violence, Alison becomes completely unsettled.  Someone is purposely tormenting her, someone who knows what really happened the day of Kitty's accident.  Alison's kept her secrets carefully guarded for over a decade, but now the truth will out ...

On its surface, Blood Sisters by Jane Corry seems like the kind of tense psychological thriller I enjoy.  Unfortunately, I had a big problem with the characters in this novel.  They're not at all likable.  Alison is cold, immature, and melodramatic, all of which made it difficult to feel connected to her.  The only cast member I felt anything for was Alison's poor mum.  Corry's prose is awkward as well.  As far as plot goes, Blood Sisters kept my attention, although I saw some of the twists coming.  Many of the situations seem contrived and the Big Reveals at the end drove me crazy, justifying my dislike and distrust of a certain character even more.  Not surprisingly, Blood Sisters is a sad, depressing story.  All of these elements combined to make the novel a rather unpleasant read.  So, while I liked the premise, I just didn't love this book.  Bummer.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other the-past-comes-calling psychological thrillers, although no specific titles are coming to mind)

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Blood Sisters with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

Erin and Danny are used to being "the help" at the private ski chalet they operate in the French Alps.  One pampered group of vacationers is pretty much like every other one with their flashy wealth, entitled attitudes, and ludicrous requests.  The duo notices tension among their newest guests—ten shareholders in a wildly successful social media start-up—almost immediately, but they brush it off as more petty squabbles between the rich and the privileged.  They've seen it all before.  Then a guest goes missing after an outing on the slopes.  The suspicious disappearance casts a disturbing pall over the group, making their inherent, unnerving distrust of each other seem suddenly more sinister than snippy. 

While guests launch a search party for their missing associate, the weather worsens by alarming degrees.  An avalanche is building outside the chalet while, inside, guest after guest is turning up dead.  With dawning horror, Erin and Danny realize that they're trapped in an isolated dwelling, cut off from any hope of rescue, with a cunning killer who wants everyone dead ...

As the title suggests, Ruth Ware's newest locked-room mystery, One By One, pays homage to Agatha Christie's most famous novel.  It's not nearly as clever, though, and the guilty party(ies) in Ware's story is/are fairly obvious from the get-go.  Still, Ware is famous for her edge-of-your-seat thrillers and her latest is no exception.  The plot of One By One drags more than it should and it isn't nearly as twisty as those in the author's other stories, but all in all, it's still pretty darn riveting.  Even though I could see where the tale was going, I still found it impossible to look away.  As with every other Ware book (I've read them all), I ended up devouring this one fast and furious and far into the night, desperate to know what was going to happen next.  Because it's a bit clumsy, a lot depressing, and features characters who aren't exactly likable charmers, One By One is probably my least favorite of Ware's novels.  It did keep me engrossed and entertained, though, so I give it kudos for that.  My enthusiasm for Ware isn't diminished either.  I'm still looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other Ruth Ware novels as well as those by Gilly Macmillan, Paula Hawkins, Lucy Foley, and Mindy Mejia)

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Em Moore has always been the quieter, less dynamic part of the successful writing duo, T.E. Blakemore.  Now that Teddy Blake, her business partner and only real friend, has died, Em's not quite sure how to proceed.  Unmoored but determined to finish T.E. Blakemore's latest project—a biography of famed actor and movie director Garrett Malcolm—Em convinces their reluctant publisher to let her continue solo.  If she can't prove her ability to carry on alone, she could lose what little she has left in her lonely life.

Determined to prove her worth, Em talks handsome, intimidating Garrett into letting her finish his book.  In order to gain closer access to her subject, she moves into a guesthouse on his property.  Although the celebrity is less than forthcoming, Em is managing to slowly get to know him.  Hints of skeletons in Malcolm's closet pique Em's interest even more.  Scintillating secrets will ensure the book is a bestseller.  When the police launch an investigation into Teddy's death, Em has to grapple with the shocking secrets of more than one man.  Can she make sense of it all while completing the most important project of her career?

Despite dragging a bit in places, The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes is a compelling novel which took at least one turn I didn't see coming.  I can't say I loved it, though.  The characters are almost wholly unlikable, the story is depressing, and I found the surprise ending unsatisfying.  All in all, then, I just didn't care for The Perfect Ghost much.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  You?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a half dozen F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, and sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

It has always been difficult for 15-year-old Nico Morris to live in the shadow of her older sister.  Beautiful, popular, and brimming with self-confidence, Sarah is everything Nico is not.  Even though Sarah has been gone for four years—she vanished from the Pennsylvania park where she was meeting her older boyfriend when she was 15—her presence still lingers.  The disappearance shattered the girls' parents; Nico, however, has felt only relief.  No one knows how cruelly Sarah treated her younger sister.  The daily taunting, the constant belittling, the never-ending bullying—no, Nico definitely does not miss Sarah. 

Then, a miracle occurs: Sarah has been found.  Suffering from retrograde amnesia, the 19-year-old can't explain where she's been.  She can't even remember the plot of her favorite book.  Obviously traumatized, this Sarah is malnourished, shy, and tentative.  Most shocking of all, she's nice.  Not sure what to make of the stranger beside her, Nico becomes convinced that the interloper isn't Sarah at all.  But if she isn't Nico's sister, then who is she?  If she is, then Nico has some serious questions for her.  What really happened to Sarah Morris?  Everyone is asking, but only one person knows the truth ...

I've read a couple books lately with the same premise as the one at the heart of The Stranger Game by Cylin Busby.  It's a fascinating idea, one different authors have explored in different ways.  Although the plot of The Stranger Game is almost identical to one of the "readalikes" I list below, I still found it to be a compelling page turner.  It's tense and twisty, with the kind of ending that makes you go, "Huh."  I'm still not sure what I think of it!  I do know that I whipped through The Stranger Game in a few hours, anxious to see how it would wrap up.  In the end, I liked the book, didn't love it.  Still, it's an engrossing psychological thriller that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware. 

*A couple interesting tidbits about this book and author:

—Busby has a disappearance story of her own, which she writes about in a memoir called The Year We Disappeared.

—The Stranger Game was inspired by the fascinating true case of Nicholas Barclay, a Texas boy who disappeared when he was 13.  Warning: to avoid spoilers, read about Nicholas only after you've read The Stranger Game.

(Readalikes:  Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch and Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a few F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, and depictions of underage drinking

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find