The past few weeks, I’ve mainly been reading mysteries and thrillers. Here are a few short reviews of some recent ones.

The Hunting Party and The Guest List by Lucy Foley

I’m happy to have learned about Lucy Foley, but sad that she only has two thrillers out so far. Both are solid suspense novels, the first set at a remote Scottish cabin during a New Year’s Eve party attended by a group of old college friends, and the second on an island during the wedding of a reality tv star and a social media influencer. Foley gives me some Ruth Ware vibes in her depictions of places and creation of interesting, complicated characters with secrets (though Ware remains my favorite current thriller writer). She’s especially good at plotting; everything a character reveals to the reader matters. I love a mystery novel that rewards that kind of close reading.

One By One by Ruth Ware

This is Ware’s take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, though only in the most basic plot sense: a group of people are murdered one by one in a remote location (in Ware’s case, a ski retreat attended by a tech start-up’s staff during a winter storm). Though more than one person does survive in Ware’s book, it’s not a whole lot more. This kind of storytelling helps the reader to narrow down the suspect list rather quickly! Ware is great at creating atmosphere, and while some readers have complained that she revealed the murderer too soon in the novel (it’s maybe an hour before the end, if you’re listening), I felt it happened at just the right point, and what followed was super suspenseful and completely riveting. With the exception of one character, Ware’s cast is maybe a bit more irritating in personality than those in her other books, but (unusually for a lot of thrillers), they do experience some personal growth, which was a nice surprise. And as is always the case in my favorite thrillers, the revelation of the murderer is only one of many secrets revealed throughout the course of the story.

Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris

I’ve read two of Paris’ other books – Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown – and remember very little of either of them, even after re-reading their synopses and my very brief Goodreads reviews of each. I expect Bring Me Back won’t stick with me for very long either, though I did enjoy it. It’s about a man whose girlfriend Layla disappeared many years ago and was accused of her murder. When no body appeared – much less any other evidence – he was released, though the mark of suspicion has plagued him ever since. Since then, he and his girlfriend’s sister have gotten together, bonded by their mutual grief. But just after they get engaged, signs begin to appear that Layla isn’t dead at all – and she’s returned to plague her sister and former boyfriend.

I saw the end coming from a mile away here (perhaps because at this point I’ve read too many thrillers). The final resolution may rub some readers the wrong way, for reasons I won’t go into too much because of spoilers, but if you also are a frequent reader of thrillers like these, you probably know what many readers’ issue was. All the same, it’s not the worst example of the genre; nor is it the best.