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Seven Contemporary Novels I’ve Enjoyed in 2022
Psychological thrillers, 20th century history and a travel memoir
If she Wakes by Erik Therme — Psychological thriller
https://www.amazon.com/If-She-Wakes-Harlow-Book-ebook/dp/B09J44N4WY
Imagine a situation in which a woman tells you that her sister is mentally deranged and not to be trusted. Then the sister tells you that it is really the first woman whose mental health is questionable. Add to that a narrator who exhibits signs of being paranoid. Sound like a recipe for an excellent psychological thriller? I’m sure it is. I’m not so sure that Erik Therme has pulled it off with this one.
To be fair, I kept reading, needing to find out what was really going on. To that extent the author succeeds, by keeping the reader guessing. And it was a pleasant surprise to find, in a book set in what is supposedly one of the most gun loving states in a gun loving nation, a protagonist who hates guns and is horrified when she discovers one of the characters owns a pistol. Most of the other characters seem to be equally ill disposed towards such weaponry, exhibiting a preference for the use of a handy rock as weapon of choice.
If you have read and enjoyed the first book in this series, then I have no doubt that you will also enjoy this…