I Don't Like Mondays: A Twisty and Claustrophobic Thriller

by Maria Frankland

I don’t know who I am. I don’t know who to trust. But someone out there knows what really happened to me.
The faces staring back at me feel wrong, their voices uncomfortably distant. Ever since I woke from the coma, it’s like I’ve been locked in a stranger’s life. My memories are fractured – frozen at thirty, yet they insist I’m forty. A wife. A mother. But these strangers? They say they’re my family.

Daniel, my husband, swears he loves me, yet I can’t recall saying ‘I do.’ My children’s faces stir nothing but guilt. Even the wedding album feels staged. But I remember Brad, my first husband – and my last clear and carefree memory is of him.

Then there’s the train station. The tracks. That Monday morning.

I have too many questions, and nobody is giving me answers. The more I dig, the more the fear grows. Everyone in my life seems to be hiding something. Secrets. Lies. Grudges. One of them knows more than they’re letting on.

Nothing feels real, not even my own reflection. I just need to remember what happened that Monday.

It’s the only way I can piece my life back together.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense

278 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2025

About the author

Maria Frankland has a dubious internet search history and a very worried mother-in-law. However, neither of these things can stop her writing gripping psychological thrillers in which you’ll never find a happy-ever-after.

Her novels are mostly set in Yorkshire where you’ll hear the accent through all her characters. These are people you could live next door to, or closer still… don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Maria’s novels are fast-paced, down to earth and realistic. You never know what’s around the corner…

Find out more about Maria at https://www.mariafrankland.co.uk. Whilst you’re there, you can download your free novella – The Brother-in-Law.

Reviews

[Wendy Del Toro · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be so poorly written I almost felt embarrassed reading it. Shallow flat storytelling. A super predictable killer. Really cheesy.

[C.A. Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Don’t Like Mondays doesn’t just grab you—it slams you headfirst into the story and dares you to look away. That prologue? Absolute chaos—in the best possible way.
It's jarring, and unsettling, yanking you straight into the heart of the storm.

The story follows a woman, Cathy, waking up from a coma, her memories in tatters, and her life feeling like a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. The people around her claim to be her family, but the faces don’t quite fit. And looming over it all is a chilling incident tied to a Monday morning train station.

Maria writes like she’s lighting a fuse and walking away. Every page crackles with tension and dread, pulling you deeper into a story that’s as unsettling as it is unputdownable. If you live for twisty, heart-racing mysteries that mess with your head, I Don’t Like Mondays will own you. That opening alone will leave you wide-eyed—and the shocks just keep coming.

[Jennifer Bendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky and got an arc of this book from Maria herself. The lost memory storyline can be tricky. Often it’s boring and I end up not liking it. I don’t like Mondays ended up being a real page turner. What if you woke up from a coma and thought it was 10 years earlier? You can’t remember your kids or husband. You’re much older than when you last looked in the mirror. Then you learn that maybe you haven’t even been a good person. This book was a true rollercoaster. I thought I knew what was going on and who to hate and all of a sudden things start to change. I did end up guessing a big twist about half way in but it didn’t change how I was glued to my seat, flipping pages to see what was going to happen next. An excellent read.

[Sam R · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit predictable for me. There were so many characters I disliked so I think that made it more difficult for me to get through. The beginning was better than the middle and ending.

[Laura Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS BY THE FABULOUS MARIA FRANKLAND.
Release date set for the 31st of March 2025.
Unfortunately i can only give this book 5✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨s. I wanted to give it 10 ✨s.
By the end of the prologue I was hooked as I thought it was chilling.
I loved the story line and felt empathy towards the main female character.
Throughout the story I was thinking how it was going to play out and at times was suspicious of nearly every character.
I have been not so patiently waiting for this book so as I happily dropped everything I was reading and doing as soon as this landed on my kindle yesterday.
Talk about a bingeable, UNPUTADOWNABLE, brilliant and an amazing psychological thriller book
Thank you to Maria for the early copy I am honoured ♥

Merged review:

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS BY THE FABULOUS MARIA FRANKLAND.
Release date set for the 31st of March 2025.
Unfortunately i can only give this book 5✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨s. I wanted to give it 10 ✨s.
By the end of the prologue I was hooked as I thought it was chilling.
I loved the story line and felt empathy towards the main female character.
Throughout the story I was thinking how it was going to play out and at times was suspicious of nearly every character.
I have been not so patiently waiting for this book so as I happily dropped everything I was reading and doing as soon as this landed on my kindle yesterday.
Talk about a bingeable, UNPUTADOWNABLE, brilliant and an amazing psychological thriller book
Thank you to Maria for the early copy I am honoured ♥

[Maxine (Booklover Catlady) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. Predictable. Plot lines used far too many times in other books. Sigh…you know the story. Victim is in terrible accident, wakes up with partial amnesia, doesn’t remember key things but memories start to come back. Life is not as she thought.

Thriller? No, absolutely not. This is lukewarm writing. SO many plot holes and unrealistic themes and events. Cue eye rolling. 🙄 It dragged on and on about well…not much.

I persevered hoping for an amazing ending and whilst a few pages of actual excitement pushed this to 2 stars from the 1 star that was it nothing saved it. I saw most of the “reveals” coming a mile off and the red herrings did not work. Characters are almost all incredibly unlikeable. Even the characters have been done to death in other books.

It felt like hundreds of similar plotted books I’ve read before and immediately forgotten. This had zero originality in it. Just nope. I was proud of myself for finishing it. Next please..

Thanks so much for taking a little time to read my review. Your likes and comments mean a lot to me. 😻 Feel free to add me as a friend or follow me for more book reviews.

If you are an Author or Publisher and you’d like me to consider reading and reviewing your book(s) please just message me.

[Ali O · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Don’t Like Mondays by Maria Frankland
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is an intense and exciting mystery/thriller story. I loved all of the twists and suspense that were all throughout the book! I was instantly hooked!
Cathy wakes up in the hospital only to realize she can’t remember the last 10 years of her life. She doesn’t know how she ended up in the hospital and didn’t even know she had kids! Her husband and others around her try to fill in missing pieces from her life, but some things don’t feel right at all.

What really happened to Cathy on Monday?

I truly enjoyed this book and all of the twists and turns that just kept coming!
I listened to the audio version and the narrator was excellent!!

*I highly recommend this fun listen/read!*

[Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeez wow wow, I read this in about 8 hours, just couldn't put it down. It's so pacy. I can't recommend it enough

[Sherri Thacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Maria Frankland and I was excited when I saw she has a new book out. I Don’t Like Mondays was really good and it hooked me from the very first page. I thought I had guessed the ending but nope, I was wrong. I recommend this thriller.

[Jenny Coyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the characters and plot, but the pacing was a little slow for me since a majority of the book takes place in the hospital. A large portion of the book is dialogue in the main character's head and amongst her visitors.

I do like the amount of distrust Maria builds amongst the secondary characters. By the time the main character gets out of the hospital, I was questioning whether anyone wants her to get better!

I love the main character and the growth she shows as the book progresses. At first she was wishy-washy, but by the end she was strong and self-reliant!

[Natalia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so confused by the rating here.

This was one of the worst books I've ever read.
Characters talking to each other like cartoon villains. Every single person in this is psychotic and evil in a mustache twirling "Muahahahaha" way.
Extremely unbelievable dialogue, behaviour etc.
Boring hospital room setting for much over half of the book.

Just super cheesy and lame. And daft twists. I think every single person was heavily implied to being the culprit at one point or another.

What an utter knob the main character must be for EVERYONE to hate her that much.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This was a very underwhelming book for me.

It was very fast paced which was good but pretty much every character was unlikeable and horrible for no reason.

The ending just seemed very convenient and there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

Also why did she never get her memory back.

[Naba Akhtar · Rating 2 out of 5]

felt slow, and I already guessed the “plot twist” about a third in.

[Yara’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★

Absolutely unputdownable. A chilling, twist-filled psychological thriller.

I Don’t Like Mondays had me hooked from the very first line. Maria Frankland delivers an emotionally gripping and claustrophobic mystery that had me questioning everything and everyone.

The premise is instantly compelling: a woman wakes up in a hospital with no memory, strangers insisting they’re her family, and a creeping sense that something is very wrong. The pacing is sharp, the atmosphere is eerie, and the twists? Let’s just say I gasped more than once.

Frankland does an amazing job blending suspense with emotional depth. You feel the main character’s confusion, fear, and desperation. It’s not just about what happened to her, but why and the truth is darker than I expected.

If you love books with unreliable narrators, hidden identities, and that feeling of tension you can’t shake, this is for you.

[Rachel Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love suspenseful psychological thrillers, this one is for you! “I Don’t Like Mondays" by Maria Frankland had me hooked from the very first page. The story follows a woman who wakes up after a terrible accident with no memory of the past 10 years. She doesn’t recognize the man by her bedside who claims to be her husband, nor the children he insists are her sons. As she struggles to piece together the truth, no one will give her a straight answer, and she has no idea who to trust. I couldn’t put this book down—just when I thought I had it all figured out, another twist completely threw me off!

[Donna Mallery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Cathy wakes up in the hospital, a week after being admitted, and quickly realizes she has partial amnesia. This is especially troubling as she doesn’t remember her husband or her kids! She there due to a train crashing into her. Is it suicide, an accident or attempted murder? Read at a fast pace, the clues eventually unfold. She doesn’t know who is own her side. These close friends and family members all have secrets to hide! Maria Frankland has another hit here. All of her books are entertaining!

[Jessica soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about a wife and mother named Cathy, who travels to London for work at a book publishing company. She wakes up after being in a coma for a week after being hit by a train, the last 10 years of her life are erased from her memory. It was first believed that she was attempting suicide, but then discovered she was actually pushed. Trying to remember her life, and who would even do this to her after discovering her many enemies.

An interesting read, and the many possibilities of who the person who tried to murder Cathy could be kept the book interesting.

[Amna H · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing about this book was the title and even that was click bait. The not liking Mondays had nothing to do with the plot line except for the fact that the incident happens on a Monday. Alternative title I DON'T LIKE ANYONE and rightly so.

The writing is pretty amateur and every single character is horrible and not in an interesting way.

The book is easy to read and it's not terrible. It's just almost terrible.

[Becky Lyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I can't remember if I have read any other books by Maria Frankland but she will be an author on my radar from now on! I was addicted to this, there were so many twists, I was guessing right until the end.

[Lucia Delves · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Gemma Swan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jessica Huntley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always race through Maria's books. They are so easy to read and thoroughly addictive. One thing I've noticed that apart from the MC, most other characters are absolutely horrible. And by horrible I mean horrible. So of course I suspected everyone! Really enjoyable though. The Perfect popcorn thriller.

[Cassandra Carruthers · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟's.

My first book by this author. I really enjoyed the story line and how easy it was to read. It kept me interested and guessing throughout. I was really hoping for some big twist at the end, but it fell short for me. It was easy to guess "whodunnit". It was an easy read, but nothing super special overall.

[Βίκυ Χ. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Gritty, Heart-Pounding Descent into Chaos

Forget everything you think you know about amnesia thrillers. This one grabs you by the throat in the first confused, disoriented moments and never lets go.

Waking up in the hospital is supposed to be the start of recovery. But for our lead, it’s the first click of a deadly trap. With a memory shattered into useless fragments after a catastrophic accident at the train station, she’s already vulnerable. Then the real chaos erupts.

The atmosphere is oppressively perfect! You can smell the antiseptic, feel the cold panic, and taste the metallic fear. Just as you think you’ve grasped the puzzle, the storyline wrenches sideways in the most unpredictable and heartbreaking ways. The characters are masterfully crafted, the kind of deliciously twisted, morally ambiguous players you love to hate.

And that ending? Mind. Blown. It recontextualizes everything in a single, breathtaking stroke.

Audiobook Note: The narrator’s performance is a tour de force. It’s not just reading; it’s a possession. I genuinely couldn't press pause! This is a one-sitting, heart-in-your-throat experience.

Verdict: This book turned me into an instant, lifelong fan of Maria Frankland! A gritty, emotional, and brilliantly executed thriller that deserves every one of its five stars. Auto-read status: EARNED.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on reviews, I had high expectations. 2.5 stars from me. I'm going to say this book is just average and the twist was figured out early. The ending lines were just odd. I don't think I would really recommend this.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman, Cathy, wakes up from a 7-day coma she suffered due to falling on train tracks in the path of incoming train, only to find that she doesn't recognize the man who's staring down at her, telling her that he's her husband Daniel. She's agitated and unable to speak because of the tube she had in her throat for a week making her voice scratchy and weak. She does recognize her friend and stepsister, Emma, and then finally her dad and stepmom. But all she wants is her husband Brad. When she asks for him, they all get funny looks on their faces.

Cathy learns that she has amnesia and it's as if the last 10 years hadn't happened. She thinks she and Brad are still together and has no memory of meeting and marrying Daniel, and then having two sons with him. (I kept thinking that there would be some kind of body changes due to having children and that could help convince her that it was true but ...🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️). After seeing photo albums, she starts to believe ...

But then learns that her fall on the train tracks was not suicide, as some in her family believe, nor an accident, but that she was pushed. Someone tried to kill her and she doesn't remember her life before the murder attempt. However, after weeping and whining a bit, her physio gives her the encouragement and push she needs to get stronger, get out of the hospital and find out who did this to her.

This was such a weird construct and tbh I kept thinking this was all a bit ruse, that she was never married to Daniel, the two boys are his from another woman. That he's taking this opportunity to get the woman of his dreams and he's paid everyone around them to help keep up the ruse. He figures he will get her to love him before her memory comes back. Oh and that Brad is still alive and that she actually has been married to him for the past 10 years. And Emma had a crush on Brad and that's why she's happy to push him out of her life so she can go after him. Anyway, that's what kept playing in the back of my head as I read this.

[Cheyenne Joy Mijdam · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Don’t Like Mondays by Maria Frankland — and honestly, after reading this, same.

This book sucked me in faster than my kids spotting me trying to pee alone. The emotions, the questions, the confusion, the secrets — it’s like Maria handed me a ticket to a rollercoaster I did not sign up for, but still willingly sat in the front row, hands up, screaming.

It’s fast-paced, easy to read, and I inhaled it in one sitting. Not because I’m disciplined, but because I physically couldn’t leave without knowing everything. And somewhere around chapter whatever, I started spiraling:
What would I do if I woke up one day and couldn’t remember the last ten years?
Would I be proud of myself? Horrified? Slightly amused?
Would you be happy with you?

And of course, being a mother, it hit me right in that soft part of my chest — the one your kids use as a trampoline. It reminded me how your kids honestly don’t care if you live in a wooden cottage, a shiny mansion, or a cardboard box as long as you’re there with them. Time > luxury. (Look at me, turning a thriller review into life advice. Somebody stop me.)

Anyway — I’m drifting, which is exactly what this book made me do inside my own head.
Maria did it again. She made me feel like I was part of the struggle. I was right there, trying to get well, trying to piece together the truth, trying not to throw hands at certain characters.

Sure, I figured out who did it early on — but the drama, the guessing, the trust issues, the “wait… WHAT?” moments? Delicious. Absolutely delicious.

Four stars because it was emotional, chaotic in the best way, and made me think about identity, motherhood, and the questionable things we’d do just to be seen, heard, understood… or to protect what we love.

Loved it. Even the parts that stressed me out.

[Pheadra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been told I'm a tough reviewer with high standards because I don't give 5 stars often. It's not that I'm a tough reviewer or unwilling to give 5 stars because I certainly do give 5 stars when deserved. It's that the book or story needs to be deserving.
This credible story is a page-turner about Cathy, who works for a book publisher. She is pushed or jumps in front of an oncoming train one Monday morning.
Her injuries are substantial, particularly in terms of skull damage resulting in amnesia which sees her waking in ICU with no recollection of what happened. Equally concerning is her inability to recognize her husband, Daniel, and her two sons, not to mention her obsession with her ex-husband, Brad.
A lot of dialogue fills the pages of this story, which I enjoyed and found most revealing, unlike many psychological thrillers, which become implausible and far-fetched with long descriptions that reveal little. Dialogue paints a very clear picture of each of the characters, with lots of tell, not just show!
In all honesty, I had guessed who the perpetrator was early on, but this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. A blend of family saga, whodunnit, and thriller, this is the type of book you'll enjoy whether at the beach or filling me-time. I received an advance copy of this book and am leaving this review voluntarily. 5 stars. Congratulations to the author.

[Gary Dowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

After being a victim of an attempted murder, Cathy wakes in hospital after being in a coma for a week, however she soon discovers that not only has she no recollection of the event, but also no memory of the last decade! Gradually through friends, family, dreams and flashbacks, her fragmented memory begins to recover but its obvious that things have changed drastically both regarding her family and Cathy personally and she doesnt like any of it or the person she's apparently become.
I loved this and although the premise of memory loss is nothing new, this is done so well that its like a big jigsaw puzzle and as the pieces look like they are coming together, you realise that one piece is different which changes the whole thing.
It's also told entirely from the narrative of Cathy and the reader isn't privvy to anything thats she unaware of so her surprises and shocks arrived at the time for the reader.
The characters are largely unlikeable, making pretty much everyone a suspect at one time as Cathy tries to makes sense of her forgotten decade and the attempt on her life.
All told, a really enjoyable read with plenty of twists and turns and another great read from Maria Frankland.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read a few books by this author and usually have enjoyed them so when I saw a new book just got released I jumped to read it right away. A quick-paced psychological thriller with some twists, it is about a woman who wakes up from being in a coma and has amnesia so she can’t remember most of her current life or any of the events leading up to what happened to her, which by the way was being pushed in front of a train. Fortunately she survived and most of the book is about her trying to figure out who did this to her and wants her dead and who she can trust. I realized who was responsible way before she did and was not surprised that person was the culprit after the reveal about their real lineage. There was a lot of family drama throughout the book and there were a few reasons to believe it was possibly someone else a few times but one positive thing that came out of this happening to the main character is that she realizes she’s not always the nicest person and she vows to do better to change the negative parts of her life and focus on those who matter to her. Overall, another good quick read that was still enjoyable even though I figured out parts of it early on.