I have been a fan of psychological suspense since I read Mary Higgins Clark’s first novel in 1975, Where Are the Children?, which introduced the world to the genre. My love of the “why-did-its” increased exponentially in 2012 when Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was published. The popularity has risen since, with my Goodreads tag of “psychological suspense” now having over 1400 titles. So I dove into the following three books, hoping to find a plot that hadn’t been done (original plots must be challenging when so many have been written), so it’s no surprise that two of these were met with a “meh” when I finished. Here’s a quick rundown:

The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia. Readers raved about this, so I eagerly added my name to the hold queue. While I was engrossed throughout, I ultimately decided the killer’s machinations seemed implausible, which is always annoying.

Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi. The cover is gorgeous, and I couldn’t wait to get into it. However, after a third of the way through, I felt I knew where this was going, so I skimmed to the end, where my suspicions were confirmed although it did have a heckuva ending. I also found the passages about abuse and bullying disturbing.

She Didn’t See It Coming by Shari Lapena (July publication). Lapena is one of those authors I keep returning to, hoping to recreate the magical reading experience of one of her earlier books, The Couple Next Door. However, while many have fallen flat, this one was a little better, mainly because it was written more like a police procedural than a suspense novel.