Books are food for my soul! Pull up a beach chair and stick your toes in the sand as the Jersey surf rolls in and out, now open your book and let your imagination take you away.

Friday, June 3, 2022

What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong (VBT: Book Review / Contest Giveaway)






Book Review




What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Format: Paperback - 286 pages
               Kindle - 530 KB
               Nook - 681 KB
ISBN: 978-1645060406
ASIN: B09JPKJT9S
BNID: 978-1645060413
Genre: Psychological Thriller / Domestic Thriller



Buy The Book:



Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.



Book Decsription:

A picture-perfect suburban life fractures. . . and a darker reality bubbles beneath the surface.
Mona Ellison’s life is as perfect as the porcelain dolls lined up on her shelves. She has a successful husband, a loving son, a beautiful home, and a supportive group of girlfriends ever ready for their weekly wine night.

But when Mona’s son gets entangled with the wrong crowd and runs away from home, her blissful suburban world begins to unravel. She tells her friends that boys will be boys, that he’ll be back as soon as his money runs dry . . . but deep down she knows there’s something else going on.

Then the police show up at Mona’s door. A young girl has turned up dead in their quiet town, and her missing son is the prime suspect.

Determined to reunite with her son and prove his innocence, Mona follows an increasingly cryptic trail of clues on social media, uncovering a sinister side of suburbia and unveiling lies and betrayal from those she trusted most. And as Mona spirals further from her once cozy reality, a devastating revelation shatters everything she thought she knew. Now the only thing she’s sure of is that she can’t trust anyone . . . not even herself.

With unrelenting psychological suspense and a wicked twist, What They Don’t Know marries small-town thriller and domestic mystery—suburban paranoia at its best.


Praise For - What They Don’t Know:

“Part domestic thriller, part small-town mystery, What They Don’t Know is everything suspense fans want: characters who’ll make you think twice, a subversive plot, and pages that seemingly turn themselves the deeper you get into the story. In this portrait of suburban life tinged with malice and intrigue, paranoia lurks just around the corner. Read it at night. Don’t plan on sleep.” (Tosca Lee, NYT bestselling author of The Line Between)



Book Excerpt:


It was the last Tuesday of the month, our normal book club night, and we were gathered at my house—Selma, Alice, Tara, and me—settled in the living room, Moroccan rug plush beneath us, immersed in the decor’s eclectic mix of whimsy and Old-World aesthetic. This would be our last book club meeting, but it was more than that, really. It was a pulled thread in the carefully woven tapestry of our friendships that had begun in college and endured careers, weddings, our first-borns, and remained constant through affairs, divorces, and much worse …

***

Excerpt from What They Don’t Know by Susan Furlong. Copyright 2022 by Susan Furlong. Reproduced with permission from Susan Furlong. All rights reserved.




My Book Review:


In What They Don't Know, author Susan Furlong weaves a riveting domestic psychological thriller that will captivate the reader's attention from beginning to end. 

The reader follows the story of Mona Ellison, a fifty-two year old married woman who had the perfect life: husband Ben, a successful child psychiatrist, and Gus, their eighteen year-old son. But all isn't what it seems in the Ellison household: Gus has run away and is a person of interest in the murder of seventeen year-old homeless girl named Mia Jones. Mona is determined to find Gus and prove his innocence, but there is a darker side that simmers underneath the surface, and Mona spirals dangerously down the black hole of madness, barely holding on but determined to seek the truth at all costs. 

What They Don't Know is a slow-building, multi-layered, gripping, and complex story set in Belington, Illinois, that has a great mixture of intrigue, secrets, deceit, manipulation, paranoia, dark pasts, suspenseful twists and turns, and enough tension and drama that will keep the reader thoroughly engaged and riveted until the surprising conclusion. 

You can't help but feel for Mona, and worry if she is unstable and spiraling down the black hole towards a mental breakdown as she searches for Gus and the truth. And if you think that's bad, just add in the creepy obsession with her Madame Alexander doll collection, her paranoia with her husband and friends, and this story will keep you turning the pages and wondering what will eventually happen, because it isn't what it seems!

You can't help but feel Mona's angst as you follow her traumatic story. As you turn the pages of this very harrowing and dark story, the intensity of the story grows until the unexpected surprise ending that will simply leave you stunned and at a loss for words. 


RATING: 4 STARS 






About The Author



Susan Furlong is the author of eleven novels including Shattered Justice, a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year. She also contributes, under a pen name, to the New York Times bestselling Novel Idea series. Her most recent novel, What They Don't Know, has been praised by reviewers as an engrossing and delightfully creepy read. She resides in Illinois with her husband and children.






Contest Giveaway

Win A $20 Amazon Gift Card


This is a giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Tours for What They Don’t Know by Susan Furlong. See the widget for entry terms and conditions. Void where prohibited.

 



Virtual Book Tour




Tour Participants:


05/09 Review @ Lynchburg Reads

05/09 Showcase @ Silver’s Reviews

05/10 Interview @ Novels Alive

05/10 Review @ flightnurse70_book_reviews

05/10 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea

05/11 Review @ Wall-to-wall Books

05/11 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS

05/11 Showcase @ The Authors Harbor

05/12 Review @ The Mystery of Writing

05/12 Showcase @ I Read What You Write

05/13 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader

05/13 Review @ Kritters Ramblings

05/14 Review @ Review Thick And Thin

05/15 Interview @ Mythical Books

05/15 Showcase @ Brooke Blogs

05/16 Review @ rozierreadsandwine

05/17 Review @ pages_and_pups

05/18 Review @ Cover To Cover Cafe

05/19 Showcase @ The Bookwyrm

05/20 Review @ The world as I see it

05/21 Review @ Reading Is My SuperpPower

05/22 Review @ @ mokwip8991

05/23 Review @ Book Reviews & More by Kathy

05/24 Showcase @ Nesies Place

05/25 Review @ Nanasbookreviews

05/26 Review @ Quiet Fury Books

05/27 Interview @ CMash Reads

05/28 Review @ read_betweenthecovers

05/29 Review @ 5 Minutes for Books

05/30 Review @ Celticladys Reviews

05/31 Review @ erikalaceyreads

06/01 Review @ One More Book To Read

06/02 Showcase @ Books Blog

06/02 Showcase @ Geauxgetlit

06/02 Showcase @ Storied Conversation

06/03 Review @ Jersey Girl Book Reviews

06/03 Review @ Melissa As Blog






2 comments:

  1. Fantastic review!
    "a slow-building, multi-layered, gripping, and complex story, intrigue, secrets, deceit, manipulation, paranoia, dark pasts, suspenseful twists and turns, and enough tension and drama" ~ YES! LOL all that! I absolutely loved this book!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it! I'm glad you loved the book too!

      Delete