Remember Me This Way

by Sabine Durrant

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.

A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.

As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.

At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.

Lizzie loved Zach. She really did.

But she's starting to realise she didn't really know him.

Or what he was capable of . . .

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Crime

353 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 2014

About the author

Sabine Durrant lives in London, England, with her three children.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lizzie meets her husband Zach on the internet. He seems like that perfect man. He is good looking, talented, and completely loves her.

Then Zach is killed in an auto accident and Lizzie does her year of grieving, at the anniversary of his death she goes to the spot of his accident. Someone else had gotten there before her and left flowers. Lizzie begins to wonder about the relationship she had with Zach.

The book switches points of view throughout the story, you have Lizzie's present day and Zach's pages from his diary.
We find out that Lizzie had finally planned on leaving Zach, but would she have gone through with it?
The truth is, I would never have left him. Zach could be funny and confident and clever, but it was his darkness that drew me.

I wondered about Lizzie too. She spent most of the marriage convincing him that she wanted only him.


Then you have Zach's passages. Zach was a tad bit psycho.
But one slip and she knows I won't be responsible for the consequences. It's a game we play. I think she likes it.


Lizzie then realizes she is being followed and she starts looking into Zach's history. Nothing he told her was the truth. She didn't know him at all.


This book starts off slowly but once I got into the story I did not want to stop reading. Perfectly creepy and stalkerish. This is what I wanted that damn Gone Girl book to be.

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Just another sniveling woman who married a sociopath.

[Aestas Book Blog]

::: FULL REVIEW NOW POSTED!! 3.5 - 4 stars! :::


Ok, I wasn't planning to do a "full" review of this, but then I started writing a few thoughts down and... now it's a full review. So, here you go :)

This book is a psychological thriller. I'll be honest, I very rarely read this genre -- as you know, I'm a hardcore romance fan -- but I was just in the mood for something different today... and this blurb grabbed me.

A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place. As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again. At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband.

Someone has been there before her. Lizzie loved Zach. She really did. But she's starting to realise she didn't really know him. Or what he was capable of...

The story kept me guessing the whole way through and there was this surprising reveal at the end that was totally twisted (and quite disturbing) buuuuuut I do think that fans of Gone Girl would probably really enjoy this book. The writing was very good and it actually kind of felt like I was "reading a movie" if that makes sense. The scenes and the way it came together very much had the feeling of a "thriller-type" movie.

Even though it did keep my attention, I'll admit that it wasn't quite as 'gripping' as I'd hoped it would be and even though I did find some of the twists surprising, I felt a little unsatisfied in the end. There were no loose ends, but still... yeah. It's actually an issue I tend to have with a lot of thrillers (movies, too). I get drawn in by the mystery of the storyline and the set-up of the plot but... it's like I want the twists and the reveals to be kinda epic, y'know? I want them to make me go WOAHHHH!!! It's like I'm drawn to the potential of the mysterious 'unknown' factor and I want to be blown away by the twists, but I rarely am.

Oh, just a heads up for anyone outside the UK. This is written by a British author and it's full of "Britishisms" as I like to call them. Normally, I wouldn't bother mentioning this, but one in particular was a little shocking to me since I wasn't familiar with it. There's a scene where someone calls her a "slut" and I was all like O_O , but then I looked it up and I guess it means "slob" so very different meaning there. Heh.

The writing though was quite strong overall. The mood was ... almost quiet and chilling, but more in a way where it just messed with your mind -- getting you to keep looking for hidden clues everywhere. I have to say, this would make an awesome movie!! But, the story itself is actually quite hard to talk about it without spoilers. It's not a graphic or gory book, it really is accurately described as a psychological thriller. So instead of describing it more, I thought I'd just share some of the thoughts I had while reading...

Jeeezzzzzz, that prologue though!!! O.O
I have so many questions!!!
Ok, hating him right from the start. Asshole!
Is he really dead?
Who the hell is that woman?
Did I mention I hate him?
Sooooo many secrets!
More hate.
The books!!!! Omg. How?? Are they his? O.o
The blood O___O   Ummm??
Yes, keep digging into his past! I want answers!
What's the end game here?
Is she crazy? Or is she the only sane person?
I hate him.
Secrets. Lies. Half truths.... everything is coming out.
I HATE HIM.
Ok, that's creepy!
Is this paranormal?? (it's not)
Holyyyyyy. Appearances can be so misleading.
Creepy concept. Yikes.
It's always the quiet ones, huh.
Wait.... whaaaaaat?? OH MY GOD. *gags*
Glurk. That is so wrong.

Obsession.
Lies.
Revenge.

So yeah, hopefully that should give you a bit of an idea of what to expect. Like I said, I ended the story feeling a bit unsettled... But I do think that fans of Gone Girl will like this. So if that's what you're looking for, check this out!

Rating: 3.5 -- 4 stars. Psychological thriller standalone.
_______________________________________

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[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent Psychological thriller by author Sabine Durrant. As always with this author, great characters, twisty fast paced plot and a real page turner.

Lizzie’s husband Zach died twelve months ago in a road accident. She is struggling to get over the tragic loss of her husband and she is now on the way to where the accident occurred to lay flowers to remember him. When she gets to the scene of the accident she spies a bunch of lilies tied to a tree with a note to her husband. Someone else had made that journey to remember him. Lizzie was madly in love with her husband Zach but she is starting to realise she didn’t really know him.

This is a really enjoyable read that I loved from start to finish. Fast paced page turner told from both sides of the relationship.

[Sapphir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, highly addictive mind game!
I guess every thriller fan has already read one or two (or more) books where a seemingly perfect marriage turns out to be anything but perfect, and terrible things, usually abysmal depths of the soul, are eventually revealed. Well, that’s actually the point where the author of this book starts in the first place!
Lizzie’s husband Zach died in a car accident – just after she decided to leave him …
The story is told from both character’s point of view, that is, Lizzie and Zach take turns telling the story as two first-person narrators. Reading the novel, you’ll soon realize that they see the world very differently and that they perceive and judge the same events in a completely different way. That’s why truth is always a very subjective matter in this story – his truth differs very much from her truth. In addition, both of them tend to lie from time to time, or even more often than not.
Many things in the book are not what they seem to be, and there are so many twists and turns in the plot that I started to feel dizzy sometime. Prepare to be surprised – and shocked!
This novel is breathtakingly suspense-packed and absolutely enthralling, and it kept me captivated from page one. And one thing is for certain: Sabine Durrant is my new British queen of psychological suspense.
5 stars, at least!

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark and intense psychological drama/thriller.
I was enthralled by the writing from the start.
The structure is brilliant and so is the development of the storyline, although I can see that some readers may find it too slow.
There are two alternating POVs, Lizzie’s in the present and Zach’s in the past, all written in first person. I did not like being inside of Zach’s head.
There was nothing remarkable or different, but I really enjoyed it, although I think that it could have been shorter.
There is a final twist that I did not see coming, but at least I did not think that it was far fetched, like in so many current thrillers.
If you need to like a character in order to enjoy a book then this is not for you.

[Esil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy of Remember Me This Way. I expect there are plenty of people who will really enjoy this book. It fits in the thriller genre -- touted as another Gone Girl type book. The narrative alternates between Lizzie and Zach -- a couple married for three years until Zach's death in a car accident -- or did he die. Lizzie's narrative starts a year after Zach's death and Zach's narrative starts around the time they meet. Decent concept, but it felt a bit flat until halfway through the book and then it took a really creepy turn -- a bit too creepy for me. So did I like it? I kept reading -- at times compulsively -- so it had me interested. But I can't say that I loved this book. I like the odd thriller -- but it has to be really good and preferably not fall into the subgenre of the many thrillers with couples who may or may not have done or intend to do terrible things to each other. But again for those who are more than fairweather friends to the thriller genre -- and judging from other reviews on GR -- Remember Me This Way will likely be good read indeed for many people.

[Jülie ☼♄  · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly one year after the fatal car crash that claimed her husband Zach's life, Lizzie feels she has finally found the courage to visit the crash site to place some flowers there and hopefully get some closure.
It has taken all of the courage she can muster to come to the decision to make this long drive into the country, and after, to drive on to meet an agent at the secluded bungalow which Zach used as his country painting studio. Her plan is to sell it as is...and as soon as possible...so that she can finally close that door.

The exact place on the country road where Zach's car swerved off and exploded on impact with a tree, is a bit tricky to access, but Lizzie is determined.
Leaving her car parked on an area beside the busy roadway, she walks several metres before crossing to the place she knows instinctively is the right spot. She climbs over the metal guard rail at the side of the road and negotiates the now overgrowing tracks of the cars' fatal trajectory into the tree that stopped its further descent into the depths of the dense bush.

As she places her flowers beneath the tree on this one year anniversary, Lizzie's eye is caught by something nearby. On closer inspection she discovers that the object is a nicely wrapped bunch of flowers with a card attached. The signature on the card is an unusual woman's name that Lizzie doesn't recognise.

This is where things start to get more interesting as Lizzie is now forced to ponder on the fact the husband she was convinced she knew so well, may have had some secrets.

This was a fascinating, clever, and well thought out story with lots of twists and turns, gradually adding layers of suspense, and building all the while to an anticipated big finale.
Though I really enjoyed the reading and was kept fascinated throughout, I felt this book lacked a lot of the edginess that was implied. It certainly had the potential to be a lot more gripping and nail biting than it was, and I kept waiting for that moment when I would be gripped by the expected 'anxious anticipation'.
The creep factor was great, but I think the fear factor could've been amped up a bit.
There was a big finale, and it was a good one...but it didn't knock my socks off as I know it could have.

This being only the second such novel from this author, I have to conclude that, here is a good writer of the thriller genre who just needs to finesse the scary bits! Imho.

Having said that, I still believe it earned 4★s and would definitely read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy to read and review.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping psychological thriller. The story alternates between the present with Lizzie's story and her relationship with her husband full of sociopathic tendencies who has recently passed. But many things that happen lead Lizzie to believe that Zach is still alive, but is he? Great ending which was satisfying.

[ReadAlongWithSue recovering from a stroke★⋆. ࿐࿔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant.

I adore a book that gets my attention straight away. Just take a moment to look at that cover, it reaches out and tells you something.
You wonder what is buried inside the pages of this cover.

As I dig my way inside the pages I see that the initial opening is skimming across deeper and darker issues. This intrigues me.

As I delve more inside, I can see that there is a lot of things to unearth. Zach tells one part of the story and Lizzie tells things too.

When you read Zachs chapters/paragraphs you get into his mind, his thoughts, his strange way or thinking, odd way of things, his reasoning, or......off reason.

Lizzie to me seems a down to earth sort of girl. She doesn't seem that deep, on the other hand, her husband Zach has hidden depths.

Zach 'was' an artist. Yes I said 'was'. He had a road traffic accident, burnt.
He died.

Or did he?

Lizzie reveals things that may look very suspect as to why Zach has planned his death. She thinks he is still very much alive. Or is he? Or is she just in denial.

I love how the author lead me to be thinking that Lizzie was trying her best to recreate Zach, that maybe that person she saw, that feeling she feels, that strange thing that happened was because Zach was alive. Was he alive and out to get her? Was he stalking her? Or was he simply ....dead.

Because Lizzie cannot accept he is dead, she tends to be uncovering things that she simply did not know.

We flip to Zach now and again and read what he is thinking, what his thoughts are, past.

We see Lizzie learning about her husband, and then we get explanations from Zach. Its very good, its well thought out, its well worded and its totally unexpected.

Although I have said these things now, I tell you, I've not give anything away really, there is sooooooo much more to this book.

There are hidden buried treasures in this book, emotionally, psychologically, it will keep you reading all day. Some things are darn right not rational.

I found myself laughing at times when reading some of Zach thoughts. He is sinister, but he has a sense of humor. [Unless mine is warped]

Its a brilliant read. I don't know how this author came up with the ideas in this book, but its sheer talent. I can't wait to read her other book I have on my list.

*I would like to thank Hodder & Stoughton via Net Galley for giving me the chance to read and review this book*

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really clever psychological thriller from Sabine Durrant- following one womans journey through both grief and release as she discovers there was more to her husband than meets the eye.

This was another gorgeously twisty turny tale as Lizzie comes up on the year anniversary of her husbands death in a car accident. Lizzie knows him all too well however and she cannot shake the feeling that somehow, somewhere he is still watching. Her friends, family and the police put it down to grief, Lizzie is not so sure.

Meanwhile we hear from Zach in the form of a diary he kept. An obviously dark and twisted individual, I very much enjoyed seeing things from his point of view as Lizzie remembers those same incidents - both of them making very different observations.

Cleverly done to keep you off kilter - is Lizzie simply imagining things or could Zach possibly still be alive - Added to that some great external characters muddying the waters and some genuinely creepy moments and you have a masterful and engaging tale which will keep you turning those pages.

Definitely recommended for fans of this genre and a good one to try if you are only just dipping your toes into the world of psychological thrillers.

Happy Reading Folks!

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I find myself sneaking my kindle into the loo with me, I know I have found a darn good book. I could reel off a whole string of words to describe it: Twisted, devious, controlling, passionate, lies, calculating, deceitful, vengeful to name but a few.

Twelve months after her husband Zach was killed in a car accident, Lizzie goes to lay flowers at the scene, only to find out that someone has beaten her to it. Who has already left flowers at the scene? It seems she didn’t know as much about Zach as she thought she did, but over the course of the book she is going to discover a lot more about him.

The story is told partly in the present from Lizzie’s perspective, from the moment she goes to the accident site onward, deciding to delve into Zach’s past to try and solve the mystery of the flower giver. As she does this, a string of strange events leaves her doubting what she has been told about Zach’s death. Something is not right, someone is messing with her – or are they? Could her sister and friend be right and it just be that her mind is unsettled because of the grieving process?

It is also told from Zach’s point of view. He tells us the story of how they met and their marriage. I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone else, but Zach’s testimony made chilling reading.

The two strands of the story eventually converge and all the little clues that the author dropped subtly into the book all suddenly make sense. Although my mind had been working overtime trying to piece the puzzle together, I was still surprised by the ending.

This read is highly recommended and I have to thank the publisher for a copy of the book in return for a review.

[pearl. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's kind of hard to rate this one...

Pros: The suspense was on point. My heart raced nearly the entire time.

Cons: Zach turned me off. I've never read of a more disgusting character. His constant abuse of the dog enraged me and that seemed to be the least of his anger issues. Ugh, people like this need to go to hell.


Edited to include full review.


I received and Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.


First Thoughts

It's hard to rate this one because I can't pinpoint the exact way I feel about it. I loved the suspense. My heart raced throughout the entire book and I read it in one sitting. I hated Zach. What a monster. His behavior toward people and animals was disgusting. I stayed up late reading Remember Me This Way because I had to know if Zach was really dead. Ugh.


What I Enjoyed

The mystery. It all starts when Lizzie goes to lay flowers at the spot of her husband's fatal car crash. She notices that flowers have been left behind by another woman. Lizzie spends the entire book trying to piece together who this mystery woman could be and all the while, strange incidents happen that make Lizzie believe Zach is still alive.

The dog. Only a dog would still love a human being even though that sack of crap human being keeps physically abusing the dog and even plotting to poison it slowly. Wake up, Lizzie! Your husband was a complete psycho. Jealous because she loves her dog? Give me a break, Zach. Go to hell.


What Could Have Been Better

Just leave animals out of it. Lizzie is a human being. She can find her independence. She can leave Zach. I don't have to feel too sorry for her (especially when I think she enjoyed Zach's dark side). Animals, though? An animal is dependent on its owners. They love unconditionally. I don't care if the abuse of the dog was supposed to help portray Zach's mental instability. It enraged me.

Father/lover plotpoint. I'm not even going to explain what this is. If you read it, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Disgusting. It seemed to be an unnecessary addition to the story.




TL;DR

Still not sure how I feel about this one. Suspense and mystery was on point. I can't sympathize with Lizzie. Zach was an abusive psycho. You will keep reading until you know whether or not Zach is dead because you will be hoping for him to be dead. Best character in the book was the dog. Unnecessary plotpoint seemed to be added to make book longer.




Pearl @ AsteriskPearl's Book Blog

[Erin (from Long Island, NY) · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES!! Now THIS is a psychological thriller!! (& absolutely yes to the AUDIO👍🏼 version!!) I know it's fun to find fresh plots & experience stories for the first time. & maybe the cover blurb makes this sound like just more of "the same.." But no!! I was drawn in immediately & was hooked on every word. Obviously i won't say what but there was 1 "twist" i was really hoping it wouldn't do... I was almost scared to finish! But it didn't! Man it was genuinely tense & wonderful through the last page! Its a book about a husband and wife, but you go deep into their private thoughts.. Both sides are absolutely addicting.. Complicated & so real.. At times dark & downright scary... But whether you loved them or hated them, you could understand them. & it was a rollar coaster.. The twists kept coming but in a natural way, not forced or contrived. I didn't even know i was in a (book) slump until i read this book! I couldn't put it down! I know it's a few years old that's why i wanted to review it immediately! Don't let the description fool you, this is a stand out thriller! Now I'm off to see what else this author has in store for me! 😊

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so this book isn't breaking any new ground as far as plot but the fact that I absolutely couldn't put this book down gives it a 5 star rating from me. The suspense never let's up. The story centers around married couple Lizzie and Zach. It starts one year after Zach's death in a terrible car accident. It's told through alternating chapters; Lizzie's point of view and Zach's diary entries. To say this is a twisted story is an understatement. I always dig a good sociopath in my fiction and this book delivers. Highly recommended!

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you know a book is for you from the very first page and for me, this was one of those books.

Valentine’s Day 2012 was the date of Zach Hopkins accident; tragically his car turned into a fire-ball after hitting a tree. It takes Lizzie a whole year before she is strong enough to visit the site of his death and his cottage in Cornwall. Reaching the tree which he’d hit with a bunch of flowers she notices another offering to Zach from Xenia, someone she has never heard of.

… and so the story begins. Told in the years running up to his death by Zach and in the present day by Lizzie, his widow. After finding the flowers Lizzie realises there was a lot about Zach that she didn’t know and when she starts her own investigations she realises there were far more gaps than she could have imagined. To make matters worse Lizzie is sure someone is following her and. Lizzie’s sister Peggy believes that this is because she is grieving, the problem was that Lizzie hadn’t been entirely honest with anyone before Zach’s death.

Sabine Durrant has created a truly terrifying character in Zach and Lizzie’s revelations about what life was like with her husband are all the more chilling because of the matter of fact way they are relayed. Zach’s own assessment of his relationship with Lizzie is even more disturbing. With Zach’s narrative echoing Lizzies many chapters later is an excellent device that allows the reader to see two sides of the same story without it appearing repetitive.

I rarely mention the ending of a book in my review because I don’t want to spoil the book for others but I’m going to break my own rules here by saying: the ending wasn’t what I expected but it wasn’t a disappointment either. That doesn’t give anything away as along the way there were enough twists and turns to make my head spin and I am notoriously bad at predictions!

I’d like to thank the publisher’s Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me to read this fantastic book for this unbiased, though glowing, review.

[Authorjen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Long-winded un-thriller, not particularly well-written

Big disappointment! Remember Me This Way seemed like it might be a nail-biting thriller, but instead it was a poorly-written, drawn out camp fire spook story that turns out not to be even remotely spooky.

Lizzy is a sad-sack protagonist who is hard to care about. The story is meandering and hard to follow. Zack is a psychotic narcissist and pathological liar. He should have been institutionalized. He was impossible to tolerate, let alone like, so it was difficult to see what Lizzy saw in him.

If this had been written better, maybe this could have made an interesting short story. But most of the writing was so uninteresting that I found myself skipping entire passages just to get through.

I flat out would not recommend this book.

[Judy Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A special thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

REMEMBER ME THIS WAY by Sabine Durrant is a chilling psychological suspense thriller, a mystery of intrigue, leaving the reader pondering . . . which character is more twisted?

“You can love and hate someone at the same time. You can so pity them it’s like a fist in your stomach, be so resentful you want to hit them. They can be the best thing that ever happened to you, and the worst. You can have thoughts of leaving them, and yet the memory of their skin, the pads of their fingers across your rib cage . . . these can take your breath away, even for a year.“

Lizzie’s husband Zach was killed in an accident and a year later, on Valentine’s Day, after everyone has told her to move on, here she is walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way. When she arrives, she finds flowers and a note. Someone else cares about her husband, plus she feels someone is always watching her? Stalking her? Who is Xenia?

All the self-help books with their formal stages from grief, shock, disbelief, bargaining, anger, depression, and final acceptance. She thinks she has pathological grief. No one is out to get her, it’s pathological. Survivor’s guilt, Leaver’s guilt. Unfinished business.

“Thank God he died before he read the letter. That’s one thing to be grateful for. He never learned her betrayal. When I get there I will burn it. She had decided to leave and written a letter which would be waiting for him in Cornwall. She had spoken to him an hour before he died.”

If Lizzie had to face the truth, she most likely would never have left him, as it was his darkness that drew her in, his obsession and insecurities. Everyone thought he was such a catch and she was so lucky.

What comes next is twisted, and chilling making Lizzie wonder who Zach really was (or is)? Strange things begin happening, leading her to second guess Zach’s death – the body was hardly unidentifiable, what if he is really still alive and watching her?

Zach was always so controlling, possessive, and jealous… narcissistic behavior—stating she better never leave him. Zach is clever…what about the painting, the message, the breakin, the diary, the lies, his past, Sam …Evil can be attractive- she is haunted and possibly mad, or PTSD? She wanted to escape him. Did his love for Lizzie, lead him to his death? Lizzie’s mind since he died has her twisted and manipulated; dreaming of hauntings and revenge, waiting for violence?

Switching from Zach to Lizzie, from past to present, the author keeps you glued to the pages with intensity of solving the mystery, if Zach is alive or dead, and more about each personality; if the accident is a charade of torment in the event he had read her letter, or if there is someone else trying to drive her nuts.

Zach is one mind-blowing psycho guy, (thriller readers will love his sadistic, mind, mixed with humor), as Lizzie digs further into this past, she begins to wonder if anything he said or did was real? However, both Lizzie and Zach are complex, leaving you pondering if Lizzie is wacko.

We also meet some secondary characters which add some deliciously evil and scandalous suspense and secrets, as well as the poor dog Howard. Can she move on with a new life with someone else? Does Zach still hold power over Lizzie even from the grave? Will she ever be free of his hold over her? Will she always be looking over her shoulder, hoping he will be there?

My first book by Durrant and looking forward to reading more. Well-developed characters and twists and turns, for a compelling psychological suspense crime thriller. Loved the mysterious front cover depicting the road, the accident, and what lies behind the fog, the curve, the tree, the person behind the wheel—drawing you in. Gone Girl fans will love this one!

“Four percent of the population is supposed to fit the definition of sociopath. That’s one in twenty-five of us living without a conscience.” ---darn scary!

Judith D. Collins Must Read Books

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I’d read Under Your Skin previously I was ready for a twist this time. The best twists come when you think you’ve a thriller that doesn’t quite thrill, where everything seems adequately motivated but routine, where you think you’ve made a mistaken choice - & then wham, it’s like all of a sudden you're enfiladed from cover by a horde of Apaches or Taleban. Here Sabine Durrant gives us a story that a Greek tragedian would love & she indeed took me by surprise tho’ all the clues were there. Yet I have a serious problem with the premise of the book. Lizzie’s husband Zach is supposed to have died in a car crash, but a year later Lizzie tells us she is afraid he is still alive & stalking her. We are supposed to accept that because the car had a full tank of petrol, as well as Zach’s paints & solvents in the boot, & his stash of whisky, that when the car hit a tree, it turned into a fireball so no identifiable remains could be recovered. Is that at all likely in these days of CSI? I felt the author shirked her prep. As Zach’s widow, Lizzie should have attended the coroner’s inquest, & she should give us an account of the evidence presented & the verdict, especially as we discover that someone else could have been driving the car. So I have to dock Sabine Durrant one star. Fortunately hospital chaplains get around, & I know the Chief Investigator for the Linn County Medical Examiner & shall ask her if she's seen any cases of car fires so intense that no identifiable bodies could be recovered. If she does I’ll add a comment & apologise to the author even tho’ I think she should have told us what the coroner found in any case.

The backstory is related over time by Zach, who is one of the most detestable villains I have encountered in fiction. He is so monstrous that if you had to chose between Lee, from Elizabeth Haynes’s Into the Darkest Corner, & Zach as a brother-in-law, you’d think your sister better off with Lee. Zach is a total narcissist, insanely jealous, controlling, & a neat freak scarcely this side of OCD, as well as a congenital liar & fantasist. As I already mentioned in an update, it seemed hard to accept that Lizzie could possibly have lived with such fiend, much less mourned for him. But we know that sociopaths can be very plausible & as Lizzie has had no previous experience with relationships, she might well believe that she herself was a sloven & Zach just a high-maintenance artistic type who needed to be cosseted. (I don’t think I’ve ever had a chance to use ‘cosset’ before.) So I felt sorry for her. But I wanted Lizzie & the teen-aged Oonie to become friends, even though Lizzie has good reason to resent her, Oonie’s a tragic character whose intentions are good, & had very negligent parents. I found Oonie easy to sympathise with & thought she & Lizzie needed each other - they were both victims. (Tho’ I should like Sabine Durrant to know that not all her readers are Guardianistas; we Daily Telegraphers don’t swallow the line that simply being a Conservative Party MP renders one ipso-facto a child abuser.)

[Gina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very interesting at all. Didn't hold up to my expectations or to the book description at all. I never got very interested in any of the characters or the plot. I usually love British fiction but this really fell short of my expectations. I rarely give a book 1 star but I basically got to the point where I just had to skim through the book because it was so boring for me. There are so many better books out there...this was just a waste of my time. An unfortunate 1 star.

[Paula Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I swear, there's just one book out there being written over and over again!

Exactly how many pitifully naive women are going to marry psychotic, horrid men before this subgenre runs itself into the ground?

The main character was so annoying. Of course nobody is going to believe her when she acts like a complete twit at every given opportunity! She needed a good shake.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts off tremendously well, builds up into a crescendo (where my heart was pounding and I was literally holding my breath and had my hand over my mouth) and then (for me) fizzles out like a damp firework.

Lizzie is a wonderful character who I really liked. She had been married to Zach who died in a terrible road accident a year previously. The book then goes between the past and the present and we learn of how Zach engineers his meeting with Lizzie and his more than shady past, with which Lizzie is totally oblivious to as she is madly in love with the handsome Zach.

This is extremely creepy, to say the least. We know the Lizzie is being watched by someone and she feels she is being followed wherever she goes. She then becomes convinced that Zach had faked his own death and her life becomes a mission to uncover the truth and to meet him head on before he actually kills her.

Lizzie has a wonderful dog, Howard, who is treated very cruelly at times by the hateful Zach and I despised Zach for his treatment of this gentle creature, along with other people in his past.

I couldn't read fast enough to get to the final outcome but sadly I felt very let down by the ending. Up to that point it was a definite 5 star book for me. There were a lot of unanswered questions and I felt very frustrated as I turned the final page.

Great, for the most part.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

My overriding thought throughout this book was " Christ, just bloody get on with it". Sorry but a long predictable boring yawn from me!

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This whole "time shifted parallel narratives of a murder/suspense novel with surprise twist at the end" thing is getting old...

[Sophie Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well-written psychological thriller that contains one extremely ingenious mystery-and-solution combination - the resolution of the 'Xenia' part of the plot is brilliant and I totally didn't see it coming.

I'd have given this novel four stars if it weren't for the fact that an important part of what ought to be the mystery/suspense is given away on page one. I find this a baffling editorial decision. Page one basically tells us WAY too much, and then nothing we find out subsequently particularly contradicts that - so we feel we're reading towards what we've already kind of been shown/told. I don't get it - it would have been so easy to delete that very first section.

Still, this might not bother other readers, particularly ones more interested in character than plot/suspense.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story starts with a rather chilling prologue in Zach’s voice. It then continues on Valentine’s Day, one year exactly after Zach’s death, with Lizzie making her first visit to the site of the crash, which is where she finds the flowers with a note for her husband…”For Zach”, and the name Xenia, draw in a large heart. Who is Xenia and why is there a SUV parked up tightly against the bumper of her car in the layby? When she then arrives at his remote cottage in Cornwall, she has the strangest feeling that all is not right.

I do love a suspense filled thriller and this one has different themes running through it – psychopathic behaviour and domestic abuse being just two. We are told at the outset that Zach has been killed in a car crash however things keep happening which concern Lizzie - her flat door being open when she thought she had locked it and also items missing from their flat. Is Zach really dead…or was the accident an elaborate charade and he is actually still alive, tormenting Lizzie in a macabre act of revenge.

The chapters alternate between Lizzie and Zach. Zach’s voice is recalling events from the past and it is through his narrative that we learn the real Zach, or we think we do. His twisted thoughts and actions are quite chilling. He appears to be a very insecure, possessive and controlling person and we must surely have sympathy with Lizzie for bearing the brunt of his abusive behaviour. However Lizzie has a secret of her own – and which gives rise to her increasing belief that Zach is still alive and is following her. As Lizzie delves into Zach’s past for the truth, the more deceit she uncovers. Did she ever know Zach at all?

Zach and Lizzie are complex characters and both are very well written. Zach is good looking, very confident and capable of great charm however his moods can turn on the spin of a coin whereas Lizzie is dowdy and has very little self-confidence. She has a passive character and rather than confront, she prefers to take the easy way out which can make her seem rather weak. However she is not completely in the dark about Zach’s behaviour and a little part of her quietly enjoys the thought of him being jealous and possessive – this surely means that her loves her….

All the way through there are twists and turns and little hints which make you think “hmm, I wonder if….?”. The story is cleverly plotted with structure and pace and there is plenty of tension throughout with no loose ends left hanging. I rarely guess the ending correctly, and I didn’t in this case although I had part of it figured out. This was a book that kept me up late at night just to get to the truth - but it was worth it.

My thanks to Bookbridgr and the publisher for the copy to review.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 out of 5 stars -- "Perhaps I needed it, one last maelstrom of madness before I could move on."

Lizzie and Zach met on the Internet and began a passionate relationship that led to their marriage. Things weren't always so rosy, however, as time went on. Zach was possessive and jealous and, as a struggling artist, had little to do except to keep tabs on Lizzie. He follows her, watches her at work, checks her phone -- but she sees it all as signs of his devotion. After all, he had a horrible, abusive childhood and is a bit needy and insecure. When Zach is killed in a horrible fireball of a car accident, Lizzie spends a year grieving through her life one step at a time. On the anniversary of his death, she finally goes to the site of the wreck to place flowers by the tree where he died. She is shocked that there is another bouquet already there -- signed, Xenia. Who was Xenia and did Lizzie really know Zach as well as she thought she did? Bizarre events trigger her fear that Zach is not dead after all, but has come back to torment her or for revenge. As Lizzie traces Zach's past, she finds that things were not what she thought and starts to wonder if she has gone off the rails.

Let's just say that I needed something that would really keep my interest after a couple of ho hum books. This was it -- I opened to the first page and didn't put it down again until I'd reached the last page! It was an addictive psychological thriller that kept me guessing -- just when I thought I had it figured out, there was a new twist or different dimension. The narrative is told from the points of view of both Lizzie and Zach and each person's perspective definitely changes the direction as the story moves forward. Once again, what's the truth, what really happened -- is Lizzie reliable or incredibly traumatized?

I'd recommend this to fans of psychological suspense and I thank NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-book ARC to review.

[Widala · Rating 4 out of 5]

May contain spoilers.

After dousing myself with diabetes inducing sweetness of fairy tale wedding romance by binge read three out of four books from Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet series, I decided that I just can't take it anymore (that's why I didn't read the fourth book) and I needed to balance my universe, so I read a psychological thriller book.

The story was told from Lizzie's perspective and Zach's diary. The book started slowly, but it picked up the pace once Zach revealed his true nature. It was obvious that Zach was mentally ill, something in him was not wired right so he didn't feel what normal human usually felt. The common rules didn't apply to him, he lived by his own sense of right and wrong. So whatever he did, no matter how extreme, didn't come as surprise for me.

The more questionable character here was Lizzie. She's kind hearted if a bit unconfident and a pushover. Her low self-esteem perhaps came from how her mother treated her. She loved Zach when he was kind and charming. She still loved Zach when he was insulting and abusive. She loved Zach even when she knew who he really was. Was it truly love? Or is it because Zach showed her how it felt to be wanted? She's definitely enjoying Zach's jealousy and possessiveness.

But I think she's kind of romanticizing Zach's "love" because he's gone (for now or for ever?). If somehow Zach is still alive and comeback to her, she will soon see the reality of Zach's feelings, and it won't be pretty.

I must say Lizzie didn't develop much as a character. It showed in the way she dealt with Onnie. Her kindness was genuine, one reason her difficulty to say no to Onnie, but it was more to cowardice and pushover-ness that already deeply ingrained in her.

The writing was gripping enough for me,
and I like the not so conclusive ending.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first I've read from this author and I was pleasantly surprised. A psychological thriller that was filled with twists and turns and actually kept me guessing until the end. I really didn't see a big part of the plot coming towards the end!!

Told with two narratives from the leading characters it paced through quite nicely and held my interest throughout. Characterisations, plotting, settings were all good and believable, especially the two leads. Lizzie, the bereaved widow, who appears to be falling apart at the seams, and Zach, the now deceased, telling his story from the past. A creepy character who became more and more chilling as the book went on.

This came to me highly recommended and I can see why. I really did enjoy it and wouldn't hesitate in recommending it. I will definitely be reading an earlier work and subsequent ones to come.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the copy.