2 Psychological Thrillers to Enjoy This Weekend

by MK French

The weekend has arrived, and what better way to spend it than with a psychological thriller you won't want to put down?

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A Twist of Fate by Se-Ah Jang, translated by S. L. Park

July 2025; Bantam; 978-0593875148
audio, ebook, print (352 pages); psychological thriller

Jae-Young left behind a crappy life and a murdered boyfriend when she got on a train to Seoul. She meets a young mother with an infant son fleeing from her unfaithful husband. When Jae-Young returns after excusing herself for a moment, the mother is gone, but the boy is left behind with a note asking her to take the boy to his father's family. The house is a gated manor filled with luxuries, and the family assumes that Jae-Young is their daughter-in-law. She is eager to take on a new life and never go back, no matter what.

Jae-Young truly didn't mean to take the place of the young mother, but she was quickly emfolded into the family without question. They assumed she was the baby's mother, that the husband had abandoned her just as he had abandoned the family eight years ago, and they were eager to take her in. The luxury items and clothing don't hurt, after her years of hard work in food service and with an abusive boyfriend. Some of the pieces to the story pull together for us sooner than it does for her, and it becomes a question of who knows what and when. The staff changes over constantly, so few of them knew what had actually happened years ago. Mysterious texts and video increases her anxiety, and the ease of getting sleeping medication makes it difficult for Jae-Young to be taken seriously. At first, I was reading to see if her fears were accurate, then because the eerie atmosphere really came to the fore. The ending explains everything and brings it to a satisfying conclusion. 

Buy A Twist of Fate at Amazon

Last Seen by J. T. Ellison

August 2025; Thomas & Mercer; 978-1662520372
audio, ebook, print (447 pages); psychological thriller

When Halley James's life collapses, everything is gone at once: her marriage ends, she loses her job in the forensics lab, her father needs surgery, and she finds out her mother didn't die in a car crash when she was six. It turns out her mother had actually been murdered, and her father had lied to her. Halley is desperate to find something real and chases down a lead by going to the idyllic town of Brockville, Tennessee. But lurking beneath the surface is a reality much darker than Halley could have imagined.

Halley's marriage is ending due to different desires for children, but there's still an emotional bond between them. She was thrown under the bus at work, and the same day finds out about her father's fall and need for surgery. Finding out her mother was murdered by her older half sister is another layer of awful; she has no memory of the actual murder, but flashes begin to come back. She starts calling around and looking up her sister, who had been at a writer’s retreat and in the process of divorce when she disappeared. It doesn't quite add up, and it becomes worse when a stranger seems to stalk her. 

Between the initial opening and the slowly advancing creepiness of the plot, we know something terrible is going to happen long before it does. The second timeline from Cat's POV before the disappearance enhances that; the retreat might be prestigious, but it's also very insular and isolated, the perfect backdrop for more terrible things to happen in thrillers. Halley's memory of the past is hidden and splintered, and her attempt to look into her mother's death has a rising body count as the novel progresses. She wants to know the truth about the murder and her sister’s disappearance, and the idyllic town has too many secrets simmering beneath its surface. That comes to a head in the finale of the book, which was so engrossing I couldn't put the book down. Even then, there are multiple twists along the way, which put earlier POV shifts into a clearer understanding for the reader. Then there are further twists at the very end, guaranteed to keep you thinking about the story and the characters for a long time.

Buy Last Seen at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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