The Breakdown - B. A. Paris

The Breakdown by B. A. Paris


First Paragraph:

The thunder starts as we're saying goodbye, leaving each other for the summer holidays ahead.  A loud crack echoes off the ground, making Connie jump.  John laughs, the hot air dense around us.
     'You need to hurry!' he shouts.
     With a quick wave I run to my car.  As I reach it, my mobile starts ringing, its sound muffled in my bag.  From the ringtone I know that it's Matthew.


My Thoughts:

I have not yet read B.A. Paris' first book, Behind Closed Doors, though I've heard a lot about it.  I do own a print copy of it.  However, I decided to go ahead and read, or rather listen, to her second book, The Breakdown.  I have really been on a listening binge - also I've been walking a lot at the gym, so it's all been a good thing.  Narrated by Georgia Maguire, who does a really excellent job, The Breakdown is quite the page turner.  First of all, I'll say that I guessed a lot of the solution to the story very early on - doesn't bother me though.  I know that some are disappointed when they figure out 'whodunit'.  Not me.  That being said, I did have a few surprises along the way.  Cass' worry that she is experiencing 'early onset dementia', like her mother, was very, very sad.  I do understand about caring for parents with dementia.  It's a tragic thing and hard to recover from.  Her fear and anxiety amped up the storyline, but it did get a little repetitive over time.  I'll share that I listened to this book - all 9hrs-20min of it - in just under 2 days.  If that tells you anything.  So, my final answer regarding The Breakdown - a good psychological thriller.  And I'll be reading this author's first book soon and looking forward to her third.    


Blurb:

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside—the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…