Read these page-turners and discover for yourself some of the best fiction of the past three years.
Conflict is what drives drama and these three works suggested contain plenty of narrative-driven suspense. Get ready to immerse yourself into a study of the human condition that is fast-paced and thought-provoking with these works.
1. The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
This modern day tale of family intrigue, the life of striving, money, and inheritance both familial and monetary is a hilarious take on modern life in upscale, educated Manhattan. Published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2016 to stellar reviews, The Nest rose to become a New York Times bestseller and was named a Best Book of 2016 by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, People, Refinery29, and NPR. Told in the alternating voices of the various family members involved in the internecine battle over the inheritance or nest egg, affectionately shortened to "the nest," these individuals battle to come into their own flight of true autonomy while maintaining their connection to one another.
2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Hawkins’ protagonist, 32-year-old Rachel Watson, is an unemployed alcoholic staggering under the pressure of a failed marriage. She crafts fantasies about a golden couple whom she spots from the vantage point of her daily train ride into London under the pretense that she still has a job. When the wife disappears under suspicious circumstances, Rachel thinks she may have knowledge about the disappearance. But is she really sure of her memories? Does the baggage of loneliness, drink, desperation, and desire cloud her images of that night? When the victim's body is uncovered in a field, suspects, all of them collected to Rachel and that dimly remembered night, surface. Published by Riverhead Books, The Girl on the Train travels the tracks of the New York Times bestseller list and recommendations by the Kirkus Review and Goodreads. The fast-paced plotting and surprise ending will have readers mesmerized. The book made its way to the silver, as the 2016 film starring Emily Blunt pulled in $172 globally at the box office.
3. The Whites by Richard Price (under the pseudonym Harry Brant)
With a clever allusion to Melville's great white, this novel is a study of how the past informs and drives the present. Fast-paced and hard-driven, it weaves the stories of Sgt. Billy Graves and Detective Milton Ramos as their lives merge and converge to a startling conclusion. Published in 2015 by Picador, this New York Time's bestseller is a witty and gritty crime novel that depicts the needs for both closure and protection. More than a police procedural, this is a novel that studies what we carry with us and how we keep moving through life with the burdens that we shoulder and the ghosts that goad us forward. It's also an authentic look at the hard job of policing one of the most vibrant cities in the world.
