Crazy and weird love in books fascinate me, and marriage thrillers have been rocking my world recently. Here are 8 Crazy Good Marriage Thrillers I’ve read and loved.
1. Before I Go to Sleep, SJ Watson. As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. A woman wakes up every morning with no memories of the past 20 years. Who does she rely on when she can’t even remember the man in the bed beside her?! What would you do? Watson finessed the story so I wasn’t thinking about how believable or not believable the theory was (waking up everyday not remembering the past), and I wasn’t looking for holes. Instead he made me connect with the main character and want to follow her journey … and I liked where it took me – plot twists and all.
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn. Nick’s wife Amy is missing. That’s all you need to know – well that, and you should also know that reading this book is like going on a roller-coaster ride. This book is total mind-fuckery! There is just no better way to put it.
3. he’s Gone, Deb Caletti. “What do you think happened to your husband, Mrs. Keller?” What a read! We’re inside Dani’s head for most of the book as she and the police try to find her husband. Sometimes Dani comes off as a whiny “woe is me” type that isn’t always likable. And even her husband, Ian – at first he seemed likable, then … not so much. That’s how it was with most of the characters with the book.
4. Salvation of a Saint, Keigo Higashino. Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect – except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered. I don’t know how the author does it, but he manages to write a captivating mystery where we know who has committed the crime … or we think we know … yet, it’s still keenly interesting, intriguing and even had me second guessing things all the time.
5. The Stepford Wives, Ira Levine. For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. This is admittedly my least favorite book on this list. The movie is great – the wives in Stepford are being replaced by their husband, with robots who will do as they say and act like “the perfect wife.”
6. The Silent Wife, A.S.A. Harrison. Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. The Silent Wife is all about the characters – and trust me, it’s like a case study that you won’t be able to put down. The pace of the book is more of a slow burn as the author is in no rush to climax, but the plot is constantly developing, and Todd and Jodi made it so I couldn’t look away.
7. The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty. Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter to be opened after his death. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. Would you open it? I didn’t see it coming. Nope – the contents of the letter totally shocked and surprised me. But more than that, this is an enjoyable look into the secret lives of marriages.
8. The Expats, Chris Pavone. Kate’s husband works incessantly, doing a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client she’s not allowed to know. He’s becoming distant and evasive. How can there be so many secrets in a marriage?! This book is all about espionage and suspense – how does a marriage survive when both parties are lying almost all the time?
Have you read any of these books? Which books would you add to this list?
(Photo Credit | young shanahan (Flickr) | republished from GXO)
