Four Canadian thrillers to add to your summer reading list
- Kim Fu’s "The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts" follows Eleanor, an online therapist grappling with her mother’s death and an inherited house with a disturbing past, leading to emotional and supernatural turmoil.
- In Shari Lapena’s "Getting Away With Murder," a couple plots to secure their financial future by orchestrating a family member’s death, blending dark humor with suspense in this July 28 release.
- Emma Cleary’s "Afterbirth" taps into the rising mommy horror genre, telling the story of a woman trapped in a surreal and terrifying ordeal while helping her sister through childbirth in Vancouver.
- Karma Brown’s "Mother Is Watching" features a pregnant art conservator plagued by a haunted painting that threatens her physical and mental well-being, marking Brown’s entry into horror fiction.
School’s out, surf’s up and the beach is beckoning. Don’t forget to pack your sunscreen, along with a few summer thrillers.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts Kim Fu HarperCollins
An online therapist who has basically failed to launch in real life becomes more than a little unhinged after her mother dies. Since Mom took care of everything from cooking meals to banking and even doing her daughter’s laundry, therapist Eleanor is lost on her own. To fulfil her mother’s final wish, she uses her inheritance to buy a house, a model home in an under-construction residential development with an unsettling history. It’s not exactly a dream home for poor Eleanor. Before long, a relentless rainstorm reveals leaks, along with cracks in Eleanor’s emotional foundation. Seems she has to contend with some unsettling history of her own.
Getting Away With Murder Shari Lapena Doubleday Canada
Jill and Ted have a less-than-excellent adventure after their inherited money runs out and they’re faced with losing their beloved New York brownstone. Why, they’d rather die than leave that designer kitchen behind. But they have a better idea — if one of their nearest and not-so-dearest family members were to die, they’d inherit his fortune and all their troubles would be over. They just need a plan — a perfect, no-fail plan. From prolific woman of mystery Shari Lapena (The Couple Next Door, What Have You Done?), this one lands in bookstores July 28.
Afterbirth Emma Cleary HarperCollins
As a sub-genre, mommy horror is having a day. Well, a new day. If you think about it, there are plenty of classic examples. Take the movie Alien — definitely as much mommy horror as it is sci-fi. After all, what could be more horrifying than an alien life form bursting from your abdomen? How about having to raise it for 18 years? Ba-da-boom!
Anyhow, in Afterbirth, a woman moves to Vancouver to help her sister through a reproductive event only to find herself trapped in a surreal drama, one that begins to mirror the horror movies she’s somewhat obsessed with watching.
Mother Is Watching: A Novel Karma Brown Simon & Schuster
Bestselling author Karma Brown has delivered popular fiction (Recipe for a Perfect Wife), self-help (The 4% Fix) and even a co-authored Christmas rom-com. No surprise that her horror debut is right on trend.
After years of trying, 39-year-old art conservator Tilly should be delighted that she’s finally pregnant. But she’s got other things on her mind, like a burning obsession with a painting she’s tasked with restoring. The painting, titled The Mother, has been damaged by fire, and it’s only after she begins her work that Tilly discovers she is with child.
Soon afterward, she begins to suspect that The Mother is haunted by malevolent forces that threaten her life and bodily autonomy and sanity and, well you get the drift.