The Breakdown

Starred review from May 29, 2017
British author Paris follows her bestselling debut, 2016’s Behind Closed Doors, with another first-rate psychological thriller. When school teacher Cass Anderson, who lives in the English hamlet of Nook’s Corner, leaves a party during a heavy rain, she decides, against her husband’s advice, to take a shortcut home on a dangerous lane through dark woods. She’s almost through when she sees a car stopped on the road with a woman behind the wheel. She stops, but when the woman doesn’t get out, Cass drives away. Later, she learns the woman has been murdered and that she was Jane Walters, a young mother whom Cass recently befriended. Wracked with guilt that she didn’t do more, Cass also worries about her sanity. Her mother has early-onset dementia and lately has been forgetting major things, like signing a contract and inviting guests for a barbecue, and Cass worries the same thing could be happening to her. Tension quickly builds to a crescendo as Cass’s fears about her mental state—and those mysterious phone calls that may be from the killer—become palpable. 300,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Camilla Wray, Darley Anderson Agency (U.K.).

April 15, 2017
A murder committed on a rainy night on a spooky backwoods road opens Paris' (Behind Closed Doors, 2016) second thriller.Cass Anderson is only a year into her marriage to Matthew, and she couldn't be happier. After all, the two share a lovely cottage in Nook's Corner, even if it is a bit secluded, beyond a dark road that leads through the woods, the same woods that Matthew pointedly warns her not to take a shortcut through on a rainy night after a party. She does, of course, and sees a woman sitting in her car in the lay-by lane. To help or not to help? Cass pulls up and stops for a bit, but the woman doesn't signal for help and Cass eventually moves on, learning the next day that the woman was brutally murdered. When Cass realizes she knows the victim, Jane Walters, in passing, she's even more shocked, but her paranoia and fear of nearly every small event seem to hit her all at once, with not much burn time, morphing schoolteacher Cass into the stereotypical "hysterical" woman. It doesn't help that Cass' mother was diagnosed with early onset dementia, making her profound lapses of memory even more alarming. Then the daily phone calls come, with no one on the line....Is Cass the target of a killer or the victim of her own failing memory? After a flurry of events where poor Cass is repeatedly told that her memory is not up to snuff and babied by her slightly smarmy husband, Paris throws all the answers at readers in the last 50 pages, and for someone who's been through quite a lot, Cass is surprisingly laissez faire about the truth once it comes out. The childish antics of a couple of bumbling, utterly cold villains are more exasperating than compelling. Paranoid and claustrophobic but tries too many tricks for its own good.

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Starred review from April 1, 2017
Late at night in the midst of a storm, Cass Anderson is driving home through a desolate wood when she comes upon a car at the side of the road. Cass pauses, but when the woman alone in the car doesn't signal distress, Cass continues home, neglecting to call police or a breakdown service about what she saw. The guilt about her inaction is compounded when she learns not only that the woman in the car was murdered that night but that she was someone Cass had recently met and liked immensely. As guilt continues to weigh upon her, Cass becomes increasingly convinced that she has early-onset dementia, with which her mother was diagnosed at the age of 44. She finds herself forgetting things she's said and done, can't remember how to operate household appliances, and receives silent phone calls that she believes to be from the murderer. In a downward spiral and fearing for her sanity, Cass becomes increasingly dependent on her husband, Matthew, and best friend from childhood, Rachel. Is Cass going mad, or is something else at work here? This psychological thriller is even harder to put down than Paris' 2016 best-seller debut Behind Closed Doors; schedule reading time accordingly.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The success of Behind Closed Doors and a major marketing campaign would likely be enough to lead to success, even if this weren't such a skillfully plotted thriller. With two in a row, Paris moves directly to the thriller A-list.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2017

One rain-swept night, Cass takes a shortcut home and sees a woman sitting in a car. Later, the woman is reported killed, and Cass feels so guilty for not stopping that she's suffering from memory lapses. Then there are those silent phone calls. From the author of last year's New York Times best-selling Behind Closed Doors.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2017

Would you stop to help the driver of a stalled vehicle on an isolated wooded road during a major storm? As the morning news reveals that the stranded driver had been brutally murdered, probably minutes after Cass drove by, this is the question she repeatedly asks herself as she replays those moments from the night before. Then she starts receiving silent phone calls. Is the caller the killer? Did he see her? Already worried about early dementia (her deceased mother suffered from this) and racked with guilt, Cass starts to forget things, mix up dates, and become mired in confusion, fear, and paranoia. Thank goodness she has her loving husband and longtime best friend to support her. It's unfortunate that the two don't really get along, but as long as Cass has them to count on, she should be fine. VERDICT In the same vein as the author's acclaimed debut, Behind Closed Doors, this riveting psychological thriller pulls readers into an engrossing narrative in which every character is suspect. With its well-formed protagonists, snappy, authentic dialog, and clever and twisty plot, this is one not to miss. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/17; "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/17.]--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

Would you stop to help the driver of a stalled vehicle on an isolated wooded road during a major storm? As the morning news reveals that the stranded driver had been brutally murdered, probably minutes after Cass drove by, this is the question she repeatedly asks herself as she replays those moments from the night before. Then she starts receiving silent phone calls. Is the caller the killer? Did he see her? Already worried about early dementia (her deceased mother suffered from this) and racked with guilt, Cass starts to forget things, mix up dates, and become mired in confusion, fear, and paranoia. Thank goodness she has her loving husband and longtime best friend to support her. It's unfortunate that the two don't really get along, but as long as Cass has them to count on, she should be fine. VERDICT In the same vein as the author's acclaimed debut, Behind Closed Doors, this riveting psychological thriller pulls readers into an engrossing narrative in which every character is suspect. With its well-formed protagonists, snappy, authentic dialog, and clever and twisty plot, this is one not to miss. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/17; "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/17.]--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.