If you liked Gone
Girl by Gillian Flynn, you might enjoy one of these books:
Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton
The school was on fire, and Grace's last memory is of trying
to reach her daughter, Jenny, trapped inside. Afterwards, they learn that
someone purposefully set the fire, and Jenny may still be in danger from
someone who wants her dead. Grace may be the only one who can discover who
might be responsible, and the police are looking at Adam, Jenny's younger
brother, who is struck mute by the horror he witnessed and can't defend himself
when he is accused of the arson.
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
This relentlessly suspenseful novel features a fractured
narrative, complicated plot, and uneasy discrepancies between what appears to
be happening and what is really going on. Without her husband's knowledge,
Christine, whose memory is damaged by a long-ago accident, is treated by a
neurologist who helps her to remember her former self through journal entries
until inconsistencies begin to emerge, raising disturbing questions.
Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster
When Grace’s husband inherits an isolated North Yorkshire
cottage, they leave London behind to try a new life. A week later, he vanishes
without a trace, leaving their baby daughter in her stroller on the doorstep.
Returning to the tiny hamlet a year later, Grace searches for the truth as
dreams begin to warn her of danger. Are the villagers hiding something, or is
she becoming increasingly paranoid? This is a vividly written, emotionally
complex tale.
The Breaker by Minette Walters
In another character-driven and intricately plotted
psychological suspense story, a seemingly devoted husband becomes the prime
suspect in his wife's disappearance and investigation reveals disturbing
secrets. Here, a three-year-old girl is found wandering the streets and hours
later, her mother's body is washed up on the beach.
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
In her novels, Kelly provides keen insight into troubled
characters with plots that reveal layers of deceit. Leading a cozy life of
upper-class privilege, altruistic private school headmaster Rowan and his three
grown children gather for the first time since the family matriarch Lydia's
passing and are torn by years of secrets when a vengeful stranger arrives,
claiming that Lydia was a murderer.
Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman
In this compelling, intricately plotted debut novel, a
woman uncovers her dead husband's secrets. In the wake of her stalwart police
officer husband's shattering suicide in their otherwise peaceful Adirondack
village, house restorer Nora Hamilton notices strange inconsistencies in her
husband's past and in the behaviors of his police force co-workers before
stumbling on deadly local secrets.
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Looking for family secrets? Andy Barber has been an
assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than
twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and
happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime
shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next. His
14-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Like Gone Girl,
The Dinner mixes literary prose with
taut suspense and dark humor. It also features an unlikeable, unreliable
narrator. Meeting at an Amsterdam restaurant for dinner, two couples move from
small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' act of
violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to
which each family will go to protect those they love.
Drowned by Therese Bohman
This is a novel of subtle psychological suspense by
Swedish author Bohman, in which betrayal and the relationship between sisters
play a key role. Marina travels from Stockholm to rural Skêane for a summer
visit to her sister Stella, she feels an uncanny combination of fascination and
unease toward Stella's partner, the enigmatic, charismatic, violent, and
unpredictable Gabriel. The reader will anticipate the worst but will still hope
that disaster will be averted.
The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black
Two families are inextricably linked by tragedy and time
in this lyrical novel of psychological suspense. Returning to the insular
Galveston home town of her youth in the wake of a family tragedy, photographer
Clare Porterfield is drawn into a century-old mystery involving a woman who
drowned during the Hurricane of 1900.
Heartbroken by Lisa Unger
Dysfunctional families and their twisted relationship
dynamics are at the heart of this novel, in which a woman returns home after a
long absence, exposing buried secrets and long-hidden lies. While Kate pens an
evocative historical novel based on family journals, her neighbor, Emily, flees
a volatile relationship to an island in the Adirondacks where she, Kate, and
Kate's mother, Birdie, face the consequences of their pasts.
In the Woods by Tana French
French also writes dark, literary suspense stories in
which extremely flawed narrators draw the reader into an emotionally charged story.
Their protagonists also tend to be intimately involved with the crimes they are
investigating. Here, 20 years after witnessing the violent disappearances of
two friends from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a
chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area.
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth
Haynes
For thrillers with well-voiced characters and tautly
suspenseful plots, look no further. Lee's flattering attentiveness to Catherine
turns to jealousy as his controlling behaviour becomes frightening and he
reveals his darker side; four years later, Catherine has escaped the relationship
when she receives a phone call saying that Lee will soon be released from
prison, prompting her to fear that he will come after her again.
The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura
Lippman
Lippman's character-driven, disturbing novels (which
mostly take place in Baltimore) are a good choice for Flynn's readers. Once the
best of friends until a terrible secret tore them apart, a group of friends are
suddenly brought back together under tragic circumstances and wonder if their
long-ago lie is the reason for their troubles today and if someone is out to
destroy them.
Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay
For another suspenseful missing person tale, try this
novel by popular Canadian author Linwood Barclay. Small-town reporter David Harwood
takes his wife and young son to an amusement park for a much-needed break. A
sudden disappearance has David frantically trying to restore his family, and
his investigation into the disappearance leads to a web of lies and deceit.
A Perfect Crime by Peter Abrahams
Abrahams excels at placing flawed protagonists into what
the reader knows is a bad situation. Readers are held in uneasy suspense for
the duration as they watch things go from bad to worse. In A Perfect Crime, a
cuckolded husband conceives a brilliant, deadly plan to exact revenge and
simultaneously restore his flagging career.
Places in the Dark by Thomas H. Cook
Cal Chase watches his younger brother William follow his
wandering soul, never expecting him to find true love, but when a stunning
woman walks into William's life, Cal begins to worry about his safety as well
as his heart. This disturbing, character-driven novel of suspense should be a
good choice for Flynn fans.
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
Lippman's intricately plotted, compelling suspense should
appeal to Gone Girl fans.
Interviewing a distressed and disoriented woman who has fled the scene of an
accident, Baltimore County police department detective Kevin Infante is amazed
when she claims to be the younger of a pair of sisters who were abducted thirty
years earlier.
Also by Gillian Flynn:
Dark Places
For a price Libby Day will reconnect with
the players that murdered her mother and two sisters in "The Satan
Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas." Having testified that her brother Ben
was the murderer on that fateful night twenty-five years ago, now she is
not so sure as, piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and
Libby finds herself right back where she started--on the run from a
killer.
Sharp Objects
This is Flynn's 2006 debut novel.
Returning to her hometown after an eight-year absence to investigate the
murders of two girls, reporter Camille Preaker is reunited with her
neurotic mother and enigmatic, thirteen-year-old half-sister as she
works to uncover the truth about the killings.
