Synopsis

USA Today bestselling author Carter Wilson returns with a chilling psychological thriller about Bury, NH, a standalone story with crossover to his previous novel The Dead Husband. A must for readers of Megan Miranda and Alex Michaelides.

Aidan holds the winning Powerball numbers.

Is today the best day of his life… or the worst?

Aidan Marlowe is the superstitious type—he’s been playing the same lottery numbers for fifteen years, never hitting the jackpot. Until now. On the day of his wife’s funeral.

Aidan struggles to cope with these two sudden extremes: instant wealth beyond his imagination, and the loss of the only woman he’s ever loved, the mother of his twin children. But the money gives him and his kids options they didn’t have before. They can leave everything behind. They can start a new life in a new town. So they do.

But a huge new house and all the money in the world can’t replace what they’ve lost, and it’s not long before Aidan realizes he’s merely trading old demons for new ones. Because someone is watching him and his family very closely. Someone who knows exactly who they are, where they’ve come from, and what they’re trying to hide. Someone who will stop at nothing to get what they want…

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Review

This twisted psychological suspense had me on pins and needles trying to figure out what was going on in Bury, NH.

Aiden Marlowe is both the luckiest and unluckiest person. He loses his wife and on the day he buried her he realized he has won the lottery. He decides that Baltimore holds too many memories, so he buys a house (pretty much sight unseen) in Bury, NH, and moves his twin children there. That is when the story gets interesting as he discovers notes from someone saying they are watching him. The notes seem innocuous but they could be something more, so he starts digging into the past of the home he bought and why four people disappeared.

As this story unravels and more facts come to light, it made me wonder about the human psyche and how much it can endure before breaking. Marlowe finds out in this tale and at times I felt empathy for him and other times I wondered what he was thinking. We are spectators of his life including the events surrounding the death of his brother in Ireland. His relationship with his father is tenuous and teeters on the edge after more truths are told.

While we are only given a small timeframe of their lives, there is a lot packed into those moments. Not everyone is as they seem and perhaps love can be found again for Marlowe even though he had a wonderful relationship with his wife before her death. I don’t think Marlowe is meant to be alone and I’m not sure how he would survive since he doesn’t do the best job after Holly’s passing.

The mystery surrounding the notes is intriguing and the truth surprised me when everything was revealed. I can’t say much without giving away part of the plotline.

The only disappointing part of the book was that we never find out what happened to the Yates. That might be a bit of a spoiler but it was the only part of the book that I didn’t like. That was a big mystery that was played up but is not resolved. There is a previous book, The Dead Husband, that focuses on this story but it occurs before this book. Perhaps there will be another book that reveals the full truth of that family.

Overall, this book was fast-paced and kept me guessing throughout. We give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Carter Wilson has written eight critically acclaimed, standalone psychological thrillers, as well as numerous short stories. He is an ITW Thriller Award finalist, a four-time winner of the Colorado Book Award, and his works have been optioned for television and film. Carter lives in Erie, Colorado in a Victorian house that is spooky but isn’t haunted…yet.

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