Scan barcode
A review by judithdcollins
Fractured by Catherine McKenzie
4.0
Canadian author, Catherine McKenzie returns following Smoke (2015), with her latest- FRACTURED, tautly written and intricately plotted; a writer haunted by a stalker from her past in a complex crafty psychological thriller (a book within a book).
EW "Why Fractured author Catherine McKenzie wrote an entire book within a book."
Welcome to the neighborhood! What lies behind the white picket fences and the façade of lives, marriages, and relationships.
The dark side. Tragedy. A Stalker. Fractured lives. Secrets. Perception. Can you solve the mystery?
A hurricane roars through Fractured, and I do not mean Hurricane Matthew (approaching here in South Florida). The winds are dangerous, as they twist in and out of the lives, creating havoc, turning them inside out. What will be left in the aftermath?
Who is guilty, and who is innocent? Who proposes a threat? A neighborly distance. Keep them close or far away. Allies or enemies?
Julie is a best-selling author. She, her husband, and two children move to a new community in Ohio to get away from a stalker from their older neighborhood. Julie has written a novel about the perfect crime and is attempting to write her second novel.
After publishing her first novel “The Murder Game,” Julie’s life takes a change. Not only does the success from, the book brings in endless money, but also an unwanted stalker from her past.
A neighborhood. Where nothing is as it appears. Told from two points of view Julie and John, (two narrators) –the same events from two different perspectives. One an insider and one a newcomer.
Two timelines: a 12 hour day where a family is waiting to testify before a grand jury and the 12 months leading up to that day.
John Dunbar is a handsome neighbor across the street. What starts as innocent turns dark. A complex plot with a deep layering of secrets and a nonlinear time frame.
Tragedy strikes. Everyone is a suspect. We hear from Julie and John. Friends to enemies. Obsession. Do you really know your neighbors? What lies behind the doors?
Loosely based on her own experiences while at law school, in Montreal, “The Murder Game” follows a group of law students who plan and commit the perfect murder. Oddly enough, Julie’s law school friend Katherine died at a party one night, although her death was later ruled an accident.
But the similarities between Katherine’s death and the plot of the book are all too suspicious to Heather Stanhope, another law student who is seen as an outsider to the group. After Heather begins threatening and terrorizing Julie, she decides to move across the country to escape her stalker and start a new life.
From idyllic, to deadly. A neighborhood full of gossip, nosy people, rules, stay at home moms, threats- is there another stalker? She moved to escape and now the stalker has followed her or is there another? DRAMA.
What happened the previous year? What tragedy? Misunderstandings. A target. The shocking twisted story is slowly unraveled.
Love the integration of the author’s life and characters. A creative crafty way of storytelling keeping you entertained until the final ending.
Chilling! Full of intriguing twisty suspense, we go back and forth in time. McKenzie, an attorney by day, and a talented creative writer in between, an entertaining ride! Be sure and read The Murder Game by Julie Apple, coming Nov 1.
Fans of Paula Treick Deboard’s The Drowning Girls, will enjoy this twisty psychological neighborhood suspense. Ideal for book clubs and discussions (included), and a great Q&A with my favorite author, Mary Kubica.
A special thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
EW "Why Fractured author Catherine McKenzie wrote an entire book within a book."
Welcome to the neighborhood! What lies behind the white picket fences and the façade of lives, marriages, and relationships.
The dark side. Tragedy. A Stalker. Fractured lives. Secrets. Perception. Can you solve the mystery?
A hurricane roars through Fractured, and I do not mean Hurricane Matthew (approaching here in South Florida). The winds are dangerous, as they twist in and out of the lives, creating havoc, turning them inside out. What will be left in the aftermath?
Who is guilty, and who is innocent? Who proposes a threat? A neighborly distance. Keep them close or far away. Allies or enemies?
Julie is a best-selling author. She, her husband, and two children move to a new community in Ohio to get away from a stalker from their older neighborhood. Julie has written a novel about the perfect crime and is attempting to write her second novel.
After publishing her first novel “The Murder Game,” Julie’s life takes a change. Not only does the success from, the book brings in endless money, but also an unwanted stalker from her past.
A neighborhood. Where nothing is as it appears. Told from two points of view Julie and John, (two narrators) –the same events from two different perspectives. One an insider and one a newcomer.
Two timelines: a 12 hour day where a family is waiting to testify before a grand jury and the 12 months leading up to that day.
John Dunbar is a handsome neighbor across the street. What starts as innocent turns dark. A complex plot with a deep layering of secrets and a nonlinear time frame.
Tragedy strikes. Everyone is a suspect. We hear from Julie and John. Friends to enemies. Obsession. Do you really know your neighbors? What lies behind the doors?
Loosely based on her own experiences while at law school, in Montreal, “The Murder Game” follows a group of law students who plan and commit the perfect murder. Oddly enough, Julie’s law school friend Katherine died at a party one night, although her death was later ruled an accident.
But the similarities between Katherine’s death and the plot of the book are all too suspicious to Heather Stanhope, another law student who is seen as an outsider to the group. After Heather begins threatening and terrorizing Julie, she decides to move across the country to escape her stalker and start a new life.
From idyllic, to deadly. A neighborhood full of gossip, nosy people, rules, stay at home moms, threats- is there another stalker? She moved to escape and now the stalker has followed her or is there another? DRAMA.
What happened the previous year? What tragedy? Misunderstandings. A target. The shocking twisted story is slowly unraveled.
Love the integration of the author’s life and characters. A creative crafty way of storytelling keeping you entertained until the final ending.
Chilling! Full of intriguing twisty suspense, we go back and forth in time. McKenzie, an attorney by day, and a talented creative writer in between, an entertaining ride! Be sure and read The Murder Game by Julie Apple, coming Nov 1.
Fans of Paula Treick Deboard’s The Drowning Girls, will enjoy this twisty psychological neighborhood suspense. Ideal for book clubs and discussions (included), and a great Q&A with my favorite author, Mary Kubica.
A special thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks