Such A Perfect Family

 

Such A Perfect Family- Nalini Singh

Berkley

Release Date: January 27, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance.

For seventy-nine days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world—until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated.

Tavish thought he left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it’s not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women—all of whom he professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes . . . but this time, he knows he’s innocent.

Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, he begins his own investigation into the fire—and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined . . .

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Nalini Singh's latest psychological thriller, Such A Perfect Family takes readers on a search for dark truths where none are expected—and each is darker than the next. 

Tavish and Diya had a whirlwind courtship and a Vegas wedding. The two moved to New Zealand to be near her family, safe in the knowledge that they'd have their entire lives to get to really learn about each other. But before they can get too settled, tragedy strikes. Tavish comes home to find the family home in flames, Diya and her sister-in-law Shumi the only survivors of a vicious knife attack and barely alive. Tavish becomes the logical suspect—especially when the cops begin to uncover his connections to the deaths of several wealthy women back in L.A. With Diya and Shumi in comas and no one to tell the cops he's innocent, Tavish tries to discover who could have hated his picture-perfect in-laws so much that they would commit such a crime. With little to go on, he begins uncovering secrets darker than anything he could have imagined behind the family he thought he knew.

Brilliantly constructed to alternate between Tavish's narrative and the private case notes of an L.A. cop obsessed with figuring out how Tavish could have killed a woman he wasn't anywhere near, the book unfolds in ways that give readers all the clues, but misdirect them perfectly. Past, present, and multiple secrets blend together without becoming confusing—not always an easy thing to do—as the past shapes the present crimes. The reader sees how each person became who they are, how heartbreaking choices each step along the way led inevitably to the violent present.

And the entire time you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat wondering: is Tavish a reliable narrator? Is he lying to us or to himself? Is he innocent and going to be blamed to something he didn't do? Can he figure it out and get the cops to believe him? How many angles is the danger coming from?

 When Singh lands the final twist I thought I saw it coming one way and was surprised when it came from somewhere else entirely. This was a powerful and excellent book, full of tension.

If you only read one thriller this year, it needs to be Such A Perfect Family. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

 

There Should Have Been Eight

 

There Should Have Been Eight- Nalini Singh

Berkley

Release Date: November 21, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis:  They met when they were teenagers. Now they’re adults, and time has been kind to some and unkind to others—none more so than to Bea, the one they lost nine long years ago. They’ve gathered to reminisce at Bea’s family’s estate, a once-glorious mansion straight out of a gothic novel. Best friends, old flames, secret enemies, and new lovers are all under one roof—but when the weather turns and they’re snowed in at the edge of eternity, there’s nowhere left to hide from their shared history.

As the walls close in, the pretense of normality gives way to long-buried grief, bitterness, and rage. Underneath it all, there’s the nagging feeling that Bea’s shocking death wasn’t what it was claimed to be. And before the weekend is through, the truth will be unleashed—no matter the cost.

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A reunion for a group of university friends turns into much, much more in Nalini Singh's latest psychological thriller, There Should Have Been Eight. 

Drifting apart after graduation is normal even among a tight group of friends, but what cracked this group was the suicide of their group's center, Bea. A young woman who loved life, light, and people, her disappearance and subsequent suicide, and losing the chance to have a funeral for her due to her sister Darcie's choices, have always haunted the group- especially main character Luna. She's hoping to confront Darcie and get some closure at the reunion on Darcie's family estate. But things are odd almost from the beginning, and soon accidents are happening with increasing severity. As a freak snowstorm traps the group inside, past and present collide and Luna will have to discover the truth before it's too late to save the innocent.

There's nothing better (for me) than a locked house mystery where you know not everything is what it seems, and some people are lying- but you aren't sure who is lying and whether their secrets are personal or deadly. Nalini Singh hits all the perfect notes in There Should Have Been Eight: a group of people who think they know each other, a crumbling gothic mansion providing its own atmosphere of neglect and ghostly terror (complete with past family secrets of madness and murder), and then a snowstorm to add an extra layer of being cut off from the world. Luna's personal secret, that she is suffering from a disease that is causing her to slowly go blind, adds a layer of personal panic and claustrophobia from the narrator's perspective that ups the emotional atmosphere for the reader. 

This was a slow-burn thriller in the beginning, as Singh brings her characters into the mansion at the edge of the world and the hints and red herrings begin, then mind-tricks and incidents ramp things up to the subtle yet shocking conclusion. I thought the pacing and writing was brilliant, the story and characters haunting me long after I'd finished reading. This incredibly powerful book is one I'll be recommending to thriller/mystery fans and rereading many times!   

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

It Girl

 

The It Girl- Ruth Ware

Simon and Schuster/Gallery

Release Date: July 12, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

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In this new psychological thriller Ruth Ware introduces us to an unlikely group of friends at an Oxford college, all orbiting around "It Girl" April- rich, beautiful, intelligent, and talented who seemingly has it all. Yet by the end of their second term April is dead, murdered in her rooms. A decade later it comes out that maybe the man sentenced for the murder didn't actually do it- which naturally makes you wonder, if not him, who did kill April?

This is the second Ruth Ware book I've read (One by One was the other) and I definitely liked this one more than I expected to. The book is split into alternating "Before" and "After" chapters (as Hannah's life is divided into 'before April's murder' and 'after April's murder'), introducing us to narrator Hannah, "It Girl" April, and their friends Will, Ryan, Hugh, and Emily, as well as building them up over the course of their college experiences. In the "After" sections it is ten years later, Hannah and Will have moved to Edinburg and are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April dies in prison. They are pushed back into the trauma of the murder and the media circus surrounding the murder and the trial and you get a really good sense of how traumatizing both events were for Hannah, Will, and the others- and how they reacted to it in very different ways. But you also see, before she does I think, that while Hannah might see herself as weak, she is anything but- when the idea comes up that Neville might have been innocent Hannah does face it and does start to confront the memories surrounding that time period, asking herself what she might have gotten wrong and who might have killed April if not Neville. She's a far better friend, in life or death, then April probably deserves, because she doesn't let it go. It effects her marriage and her health, but she feels like she owes it to April and to Neville, a man who sexually harassed her at college, to find out the truth. Is she naive, innocent, and in over her head? Yes. Is that annoying? Yes, often. But it somehow makes her the character you've read a hundred times before and at the same time someone you can pull for the whole way because you see something new through her eyes. You want her to understand that April is a vicious, nasty piece of work while at the same time hoping that Hannah was somehow making April a better person. You want Hannah's innocence to remain intact while knowing it won't, which makes you worry about what will be left when the dust settles- because you care about her and her marriage and her friends through the spell that Ware casts page by page.

There are well-written descriptions of Oxford and what the college and college life are like; wrenching psychological cases of survivor's guilt and looks into our morbid cultural fascination with "it" murders and what they do to the people left behind in the cases; tension weaves through the pages even before anything happens without you able to quite identify why; red herrings leap like spawning salmon; excellent twists and turns getting to the 'who', 'how' and 'why'; and friendships and relationships that will haunt you to the last page.

A must read summer psychological thriller for the mystery lover!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Quiet in Her Bones

 

Quiet in Her Bones- Nalini Singh

Berkley Publishing

Release Date: February 23, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that’s housed the same influential families for decades.

The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night ten years ago. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream that night, and he’s determined to uncover the ugly truth that lives beneath the moneyed elegance…but  no one is ready for the murderous secrets about to crawl out of the dark.

Even the dead aren’t allowed to break the rules in this cul-de-sac.

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Quiet in Her Bones follows Madness of Sunshine as Nalini Singh's second break from her traditional paranormal romance books (Wolf Rain, Archangel's Sun) to dive into the world of pure psychological thrillers.  In the rich and lush world of New Zealand's forests, socialite Nina Rai disappears.  Ten years later, her bones are found and old dramas are revived as her son Aarav tries to piece together what happened.

The problem with doing a review for Quiet in Her Bones is that it is almost impossible to write anything about the book that isn't a spoiler in some way.  Almost none of the characters in Quiet are particularly likable, including Aarav, who is the story's narrator.  What's interesting is trying to figure out why that is. Is he just a jerk? Is he, as he believes, a sociopath? Is he hiding something even from himself- and by extension, from the reader? Or is he a seriously messed up guy who uses being a jerk as a self defense mechanism? Possibly all of the above? My view of Aarev was like view of the mystery- it kept changing as new things were discovered or hidden.  

Like our main character, the plot of Quiet in Her Bones is a kaleidoscope that changes with ever new look and twist.  That's the brilliance of Nalini Singh's writing: even when you aren't sure you're enjoying the book, you can't stop reading to discover the truth.  Some of Quiet's plot bogged down with too many false leads and possible red herrings, and there are plenty of times when you're wondering what in the world Aarev thinks he's doing.  But keep reading and the secrets of a perfect little cul-de-sac are revealed and suddenly past and present merge into a plot where you can't put the book down until you've answered all the questions.  

Amazing descriptions of the New Zealand forests and beaches blend with the tiny domestic dramas of a few homes in a private cul-de-sac to reveal one of Nalini Singh's most psychologically thrilling books yet. A must read for mystery and suspense fans.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review