Mystery: a common puzzle awaiting an explanation. Did the wife really kill her husband? Who was behind the robbery? Was she brainwashed or the mastermind behind it all? Or, the greatest mystery among all college students…will I pass all my finals this spring semester? As we’re wrapping up this spring semester at High Point University, mystery has embedded itself into our lives through the looming horrors of finals week. It doesn’t have to be a mystery if the preparation is there…but no amount of studying and analyzing could prepare you for the twists these four novels unravel right from under your nose.
Verity: Colleen Hoover
In Colleen Hoover’s psychological thriller, Verity, we follow Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer on the verge of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, the husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, hires Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife can no longer finish. When Lowen arrives at the house, she’s prepared to sift through Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get started. What she doesn’t expect to find in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography—one Verity never intended anyone to read; revealing chilling confessions, including Verity’s haunting account of the tragic day her daughter died, along with other confessions no one would believe her to be capable of. Lowen, knowing the devastating impact its contents would have on Jeremy, decides to keep it hidden. But as her feelings for him deepen, she begins to see how much she could gain if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying could shatter his love for her forever.
The Silent Patient: Alex Michaelides
Alicia Berenson, a famous painter married to a fashion photographer, lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a tragedy into a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into the spotlight. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, now known as the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations– a search for the truth that threatens to consume him. Alex Michaelides The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband– and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
The Maidens: Alex Michaelides
Mariana, the protagonist in Alex Michaelides’s novel The Maidens, is certain that Edward Fosca is a murderer. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students; particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens, when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the ancient traditions lies something sinister. She becomes convinced that Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything…including her own life.
Shutter Island: Dennis Lehane
In Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, in the year 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule have come to Shutter Island. Home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, they plan to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on an even darker, more sinister turn. With hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war, it’s evident that no one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
Behind every twist is a turn. And behind every word on a page is a motive. These four novels have the power to pull you in with their terrifying horrors and captivating mysteries, and Smith Library has all of them at their disposal! No one is exactly who they seem, and if you plan on a simple “Whodunnit?” prepare for something greater, something more mind boggling than you could ever imagine.
-Blog post by Brielle Regdos, HPU Print Shop Assistant