A Must Read Psychological Thriller - The Coast-to-coast Murder by J D Barker & James Patterson

"The Coast-to-coast murder" by J D Barker and James Patterson. It was my second read from J D Barker and the first from James Patterson. The first book I read by J D Barker was "4MK Killer". It was a completely new kind of experience for me. I may have read few psychological thrillers in past but 4MK had completely blown away my mind. So when I saw this book I gave a chance to Coast-to-Coast. Another reason was that James Patterson has written so many books and I haven't read a single book by him. So I wanted to explore his style of writing as well. I would like to thank NetGalley and publishers to provide me an early review copy of "the coast-to-coast murder."

As genre suggest it is a psychological thriller but one that you may not have seen or read yet. Our major characters are Michael Kepler, Megan Kepler, Michelle Kepler, and FBI agents. Michael Kepler got a call from his neighbor that there was water leakage from his flat and it has overflown from his flat to others' property as well. He came back running and found a body in his bathtub. He called LAPD and reported the death of a stranger. He also informed his sister Megan regarding this. Michael was a hundred percent sure that he saw that lady first time. Things that the LAPD team found were completely in contrast. The pieces of evidence they found were indicating that the murdered lady was the girlfriend of Michael. On top of it when Michael was taken to LAPD for questioning someone help him escape the jail. And from there detective Dobbs from LAPD joined hands with FBI agents to solve the case. FBI agent brought in new information that Michael might be the person behind not just one murder but more than 16 murders. Michael had asked his sister Megan to help him out and his sister was on the way to help Michael. They were both adoptive children of a psychologist couple and both had trouble passed before and after adoption. Read the book to know how killings happened and how it was related to human psychology.

I'll give you four reason why thriller genre lovers must read this book

1) Awesome plot building

2) Simple narration style and easy to read language usage

3) Minimal characters and maximum exposure to each character's to get a proper stage

4) Unexpected twist and turns to keep you engaged till the last page

Coming to the writing style, the book is written with multiple POVs making it more interesting as narrative jumps from one person to another. My only complain was cover design, I think a better cover may attract more readership.

Overall I will give 4.5 out of 5 to this wonderful thriller.

Book Links - Goodreads & Amazon

Why She Lied: A Riveting Psychological Thriller Based on A True Story by Julie Coons

My teammate read the first book of Julie Coons, which was a memoir/autobiography and he really liked it. He recommended me to read the same. At that time I was busy so didn't get time to read it. But last month when I saw her upcoming book, and I took time and decided to read the book. It was indeed a correct decision.

Book Blurb

Will she have to lose her child to save her child?

The day she tells her boyfriend she’s pregnant, is the same day he tells her he’s been accused of molestation. His trial is set to begin the following day.

She needs answers…

To get them, she tricks her boyfriend into signing a release form, giving her full access to all of his legal documents. She uncovers the truth, he’s guilty.

To save her unborn child from this monster, she gets an abortion.

FIVE YEARS LATER and still rebuilding her life, Julie finds out her ex-boyfriend has just become the most wanted man in America, involved in human trafficking. When detectives ask for her help locating him, she gets drawn into a baffling mystery. What began as a seemingly simple search soon turns into a much darker reality.

Someone from her past is watching…

Bit by bit, the tapestry of her own secret childhood begins to unravel. What she learns about her past will haunt her forever: family isn’t always what it seems.

Can she help bring this predator to justice, or will she die trying?

WHY SHE LIED is a gripping psychological thriller full of mystery, intrigue, and buried secrets. 

The protagonist of our story is Julie (I am not sure whether she is the author herself or not). Julie, the character, had an abusive past. When the story started, she was living with her daughter. She was working in a hospital's emergency ward. Due to her troubled past, she was more of an introvert and reserved. She worked on her gut feeling most of the times. Recently a guy name James was visiting the hospital frequently due to his mother's health. He liked Julie and wanted to date her. But Julie was ignoring her. James made many people convince Julie to date him. She went against her gut feelings. though she was getting negative vibes from James, she started dating him. Things were going okay (though vibes she was getting never dissipated), one day when James self-invited himself for a night out at Julie's place, things started horribly wrong. Read the book to know more.

My observation about the book. Starting with positive points

• A pure work of a psychological genius
• Dark and mysterious till the end
• Limited characters.
• Properly focused on the development of Julie's character and her mental state
• Good suspense building over James' character and surrounded incidents
• Shocking revelation
• If it is a true story then I would salute that lady

Now we will start with points of improvement

• In the first half every alternate page Julie would talk about her gut feeling which became redundant after the first few pages.
• Though revelation Julie found was at a very big level, people behind the scene didn't hide anything to get away before actions were taken. Seems unrealistic to me
• Julie's single-handed surveillance. How could she go unnoticed?
• Frequent narrations of Julie's past, some of them could be avoided.

Overall a nice psychological dark tale. Talking about ratings

1. Content - 3.5/4
2. Cover - 4.5/5
3. Concept - 3.75/5
4. Overall - 4.25/5

Book can be found at Amazon USA & Amazon India

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads