It’s All Relative: Twisted Sisters and Family Secrets in Psychological Thrillers
How well can you really know anyone? Think about it. Even with your best friends, your closest family members—even your twin sibling, if you have one—there are things you’ll never know about another person. It’s just a fact. You can’t know everything. That’s what makes mysteries in psychological thrillers so exciting and realistic! Sure, sometimes the storyline is over the top and full of shocking details and scary suspense, but the idea that you can never truly know another person is what makes suspense books truly frightening.
Maybe it’s a mom with a long-buried secret from when she was in college. Maybe a husband has a secret family he hasn’t told his new family about. Maybe a brother is involved in organized crime and he can’t find a way out. There are so many secrets. Whatever secrets the families are hiding in these 5 great psychological suspense novels, they are sure to keep you reading on the edge of your seat.
The bonds of sisterly loved are tested in this shocking thriller about a serial killer and her sister! Carrie Lawrence made a decision a long time ago: she helps her sister, Becca, a serial killer, cover up her crimes instead of reporting her to the authorities. (A little blackmailing on Becca's part might have something to do with it.) When a new group of bodies is discovered in their small town, Becca swears it wasn't her, although can a serial killer be believed? But the longer Carrie stays silent, the more it seems like whoever the new killer is, they're gunning for her.
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One of the ways cult leaders manipulate followers is by leading them to believe they are part of a big family. That's the case with the Clearing, the only home—or family—Amy has ever known. But then a new girl is brought into the group, and she starts making waves. She doesn't want to be there, and she's going to disrupt their world in ways that they never expected. Freya has been trying to live an ordinary life under the radar with her young son. But when a young girl goes missing, it brings a person from Freya's hidden past back into her life. It's a taut story about dark secrets in a small town and how the past is never truly behind you.
Flora Zhang and Kirsten North's husbands didn't know each other, but they died together, violently, in Austin, Texas. Without any suspects in their murders, suspicions turn to the new widows, even though Kirsten claims she received an anonymous call informing her of her husband's murder just after it happened. As the two women begin to realize that their husbands were keeping secrets from them, they also realize that to get to the bottom of the whole horrible affair, they will have to team up and be stronger than they ever thought they could be. But is it strong enough to scare a murderer out of the shadows and into the light? The mystery and suspense just might kill them...
Related: Browse the Latest Books in the Psychological Suspense Genre
And this is a psychological thriller by one of the 21st century queens of crime, Megan Abbott, also known for Dare Me (now a television series) and most recently The Turnout. In this sinister thriller, an unknown epidemic has taken over a group of girls at a small town high school. Deenie Nash and her brother, Eli, attend the high school where her father is a teacher. When Deenie's best friend is struck down by a mysterious illness, it is perplexing, but not alarming. But then other girls at the school start to exhibit the same symptoms, and hysteria runs high. Is it mob mentality or a deadly contagious? As the town begins to unravel, so do the friendships and closely-guarded secrets at the school.
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