Suspicious Minds

October 19, 2020
When Liz Zahavi, the protagonist of this taut psychological thriller from Mark (The Mausoleum), learns she may be suffering from borderline personality disorder, she decides to seek treatment from a therapist licensed in dialectical behavior therapy in another part of England. She gets lost en route to her appointment, and drives her car into a stone wall, losing consciousness. Jude Cullen, a farmer who lives nearly off the grid, rescues Liz and takes care of her. Over the weeks that follow, Liz becomes convinced that Jude might be the perfect partner for her and an escape from every critical person back home. Then Liz finds out that Jude had a wife who died mysteriously four years earlier, and she comes to wonder whether she can trust Jude, or if she can even trust herself. Lyrical prose (“Here, in the charcoal depths of winter, the forest has been mercilessly disrobed”) helps compensate for some repetitive passages. Though Liz is more a disorder personified than a person with a disorder, readers will still care about her fate. Those with a taste for the gothic will be rewarded. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.).

October 1, 2020
Mark showcases a troubled woman who can't allow herself to trust. Elizabeth Zahavi was physically, mentally, and sexually abused as a child, and she's recently been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She lives with Jay, who's often annoyed by her. On her way to a psychiatric session, she gets lost, panics, and is run off the road by Campion Lorton-Cave, an entitled drunk who takes off, leaving her to be rescued by Jude Cullen and his border collie, Marshall. It's a fateful meeting for Elizabeth--who's always been known as Liz or Lizzie but who now thinks of herself as Betsy. When Jay leaves his laptop at home one day, Elizabeth can't help looking through it, and she's astonished by what she finds. Jay attacks her when he gets home, even choking her, and she moves in with Jude, who lives in an ancient, decrepit, but magical house on a big tract of land he inherited from his late wife, Maeve, an animal activist, whom some people think he murdered. Slowly settling in, Elizabeth learns to appreciate the beauties of the countryside under the guidance of Jude, who juggles a number of jobs to support himself, steadfastly refusing the hefty sum Campion and his wife offer him for his land in order to expand their repugnant pay-to-hunt business. Life darkens as Campion, who's hired heavies to scare Jude, approves physical attacks and cruel tricks involving the deaths of innocent animals. But Jude's a tough fighter whose dark rages are intimidating. Elizabeth finds herself deeply in love with a dangerous man who understands her demons but may be a killer himself. Given Jude's distressing past, who presents the greatest present danger to her? A chilling entry from a master of the dark psychological thriller--one that's uncharacteristically tempered by hope.

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November 1, 2020
Readers drawn to unreliable narrators will welcome Elizabeth Zahavi, the lead in this intriguing British mystery. There are plenty of reasons to question her stability. Years ago she indulged in self-mutilation. She's attempted suicide. She struggles now with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Her attempt to visit a therapist provokes a lengthy scene of chaos ending with a car crash that sets the plot going. Elizabeth is profoundly unhappy with her her yawn of a husband, busy ""paying his mortgage and composting his tea bags."" A new relationship with a mysterious man offers hope, but he has dangerous secrets of his own: Did he really murder his first wife? Author Mark's way with words is the star here, describing clammy skin as ""like a wild mushroom at dawn"" and a trophy wife with ""costly breasts and teeth like sugar cubes."" Questions abound until the end, but that's how it is with an unreliable narrator.

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