Book picks similar to
The Maidens: Chapter Sampler by Alex Michaelides


thriller
mystery
psychological-horror-thrillers
beyond-ugly

The Final Girl


Kenneth Preston - 2021
    One survived.Seventeen-year-old Jill Turner is the final girl, the lone survivor of a campsite massacre. Now, a killer is on the loose, and Jill holds the key to catching him. But this killer is no ordinary man. He is a monster, both alive and dead, and Jill knows this all too well. She knows what the monster is. She knows where he comes from. And she knows that he will kill again.For veteran homicide detective Darlene Moore, this case is personal. Having lost her daughter two years ago, she finds herself drawn to Jill, and she will stop at nothing to protect her. But there is something strange about Jill’s story, something that leads Darlene to wonder if the girl knows more about the killer than she is letting on.Jill is keeping a secret, one that has cost the lives of four of her friends. As Jill struggles with her past and the knowledge that her actions may have created a monster, Darlene races against time to stop a killer before he strikes again.

Just Like You


Alison Percival - 2019
    What does she have that she doesn't? Isabel isn't prepared for the online vitriol from rising star Iain's obsessive fans. Is he being totally honest about his past? As both women's lives begin to unravel, they will realise that you can't always get what you want, and sometimes, love can turn into obsession... A dark psychological thriller about break-ups, jealousy and obsession, from the winner of Psychologies' thriller writing competition.

The Girl Who Came Back


Kerry Wilkinson - 2017
    Now she’s back… or is she?When six-year-old Olivia Adams disappeared from her back garden, the small community of Stoneridge was thrown into turmoil. How could a child vanish in the middle of a cosy English village?Thirteen years on and Olivia is back. Her mother is convinced it’s her but not everyone is sure. If this is the missing girl, then where has she been - and what happened to her on that sunny afternoon?If she's an imposter, then who would be bold enough to try to fool a child’s own mother – and why?Then there are those who would rather Olivia stayed missing. The past is the past and some secrets must remain buried.

Prime Target


Ellis Vidler - 2014
    Madeleine Schier heeds her husband's panicked call and runs home, only to witness his brutal murder by a crime boss and become a target herself. Under police security, she vows to testify. But when the police protecting her are killed, the last of her NYC life disintegrates, leaving her no place to hide. She flees, relying on her wits and imagination to survive on a dangerous journey to become someone else. Who can she trust? The helpful widower who advises her on farming? The damaged recluse who's always near? The neighbor who brings cherry pie? With the murderer still searching, one wrong move could be her last.

The Locker


Adrian Magson - 2016
    The time is 9:15. Your cell phone is dead, your home phone won't answer and your daughter, Beth, is alone with her nanny.It will take you eighteen minutes to get home. If you drive fast.Shame. You're already eighteen minutes late . . .The kidnappers' only stipulation is that Nancy must tell her husband, Michael.Her only problem is, she doesn't know where he is. But she recalls him mentioning a number she must call if anything unusual happens. This triggers a Code Red at specialist security company Cruxys Solutions, who send investigators Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik to track him down.But they can't find a single trace of him.What do you do when a child's life depends on finding a man who doesn't seem to exist?Praise:"Gonzalez and Vaslik make an appealingly mismatched investigative unit."--KIRKUS REVIEWS

The Girlfriend


Michelle Frances - 2017
    A boy. His mother. And the lie she'll wish she'd never told.The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances is a gripping and chilling debut psychological thriller, based on the fall-out following an unforgiveable lie. It looks at the potentially charged relationship between girlfriend, boyfriend and his mother, which most women can identify with, and locates it in an extreme but believable setting.Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a twenty-three year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome, and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but she hasn't had the same opportunities as Daniel. And she wants Laura's life.Cherry comes to the family wide-eyed and wants to be welcomed with open arms, but Laura suspects she's not all that she seems. When tragedy strikes, an unforgiveable lie is told. It is an act of desperation, but the fall-out will change their lives forever.

The House Next Door


Tom Coleman
    Spaulding looks like an ordinary old grumpy neighbor with a penchant for growing roses, but he has a dark secret hidden deep inside of his house. A secret no one knows about. Sarah decides to find out if he is just a sweet lonely widower or a twisted man with a mysterious past. What she encounters at his house is beyond her wildest dreams, but this is a nightmare which she can’t wake up from.

The Passenger


Lisa Lutz - 2016
    I didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s death. I don’t have an alibi, so you’ll have to take my word for it...Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time.She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?

The Killings


J.A. Whiting - 2015
    Arriving at a Halloween party with her friend Melissa, the young women discover a gruesome crime scene in the hosts' living room. As Olivia and her friends try to uncover clues that will lead to the serial killer, their investigation into the murders may be putting their own lives in danger. This is a prequel to the Olivia Miller Mystery series. Each book is a standalone mystery.

The Four-Night Run


William Lashner - 2016
    Scrbacek has just won the biggest trial of his career, but even as he crows to the press, his entire life blows sky-high. Was the bomb meant for him, or for his mobster client? In this seaside casino town where the tables run hot and the tensions run high, the odds say the attorney is a marked man.Alone and on the run, Scrbacek flees into the city’s forgotten underbelly, a ruined corridor called Crapstown, where he is forced to confront the ghosts of his past, his present, and his future. Somewhere in the sordid stream of his own existence lie the answers he needs. But in order to emerge from the depths of Crapstown, Scrbacek must argue for his life before a jury of the forgotten and the damned. Is he lawyer enough to save his own skin?From the bestselling author of The Barkeep comes a raucous tale of reckoning, racketeering, and revenge.

The Last Flight


Julie ClarkJulie Clark - 2020
    But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets ― Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

The Widow


Fiona Barton - 2016
    One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage. The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…