Behind Closed Doors

By: B. A. Paris

Narrated by: Georgia Maguire

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The instant New York Times and USA Today best-selling debut psychological thriller you can't miss!

The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?

"A hair-raising debut, both unsettling and addictive.... A chilling thriller that will keep you reading long into the night." (Mary Kubica, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Good Girl)

"This debut is guaranteed to haunt you.... Warning: brace yourself." (Bustle: 10 New Thrillers to Read This Summer)

"The sense of believably and terror that engulfs Behind Closed Doors doesn't waver." (The Associated Press, picked up by The Washington Post)

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He's a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You're hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it's difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn't work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what's really going on once the dinner party is over and the front door has closed.

From best-selling author B. A. Paris comes the gripping thriller and international phenomenon Behind Closed Doors.

©2016 B. A. Paris (P)2016 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

2016, Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominated

"A hair-raising debut, both unsettling and addictive.... A chilling thriller that will keep you reading long into the night." (Mary Kubica, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Good Girl)

"This outstanding debut novel will leave you breathless." (Bella)

"Brilliant, chilling, scary and unputdownable." (Lesley Pearse, best-selling author of Without a Trace)

Couldn't stop listening!

This was a fabulous listen- but not for the faint of heart. If you're into thrillers, feel good in using a credit for this one. WOW!

Dark. Easy to get through

Interesting story but hard to believe that this could happen in real life. I'm also a dog-loving person and there is a part in the book that scarred me. Just a head's up to anyone that loves dogs as much as I do!

F*ck this book

This book pissed me off more than any book ever has. This is not the kind of thing that you make a story about. The shit in this book really happens and none of it is story worthy. I'm not prude but honestly, did you have to kill the dog? Fuck off.

Too many massive plot holes

Any additional comments?

The plot in a nutshell: A violent psychopathic tricks a timid, naive woman into marrying him, only to show his true colors on their wedding night.

Very dark and disturbing with a Hitchcock-like feel. I was simultaneously repulsed and spellbound, in the same way, one tries to spot dead bodies sprawled on the road when passing a particularly gruesome car wreck. But honestly, you could drive a couple of semi-trucks through the holes in this implausible story. I couldn't put it down until I finished it, so I gave it a 3rd star for keeping me completely hooked until the end.

Great Psychological thriller!

Took me awhile to get into this book but when I did it grabbed me and didn't let go til the very end.. Very scary not overly violent but still very frightening. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.

A solid scare!

Jack and Grace Angel are an upper-middle-class couple in England. He's a lawyer; she's a former Harrod's fruit buyer. They're a little older than most newlyweds--both of them were just waiting until The Right One came along. To their friends, it looks like they were made for each other. But that's just the appearance from the outside.

The dark side of Jack and Grace's relationship is, well, dark. VERY dark, and also quite disturbing. I've read courtroom dramas with more sex and violence than this book, but there are more kinds of harm than physical. As our main character contends with the situation, we learn how far some people are willing to go to maintain control. This book may be a bit shocking for some readers, who based on the title and description may be expecting a modern fiction book about a bad relationship. That's not what we have here. Frankly, it's pretty horrifying.

Still, most of the scare value doesn't come from how awful the situation is, even though it's about a 9.5 on the awful scale. Instead, we see how easily the main character is drawn into this situation: not by simply being naïve (although there is some of that), but by playing by the normal rules most of us accept. We all think we can recognize a horrible person, and that if something like this happened to us we'd get out of it immediately. But it's hard to accept that someone could be this sociopathic; I don't think most of us would have that on our checklist from the get-go. And everything goes bad so quickly--could we ourselves see that coming? Would we know what to do if we did?

The book switches back and forth from past to present day. While that can be an annoying distraction in some books--must we always have a cliffhanger?--here it's used to amp the tension way up. As the timelines draw closer together, the suspense is nail-biting all the way to the end.

Narrator Georgia Maguire did fine here, especially with emotions in the tense parts, although I didn't quite buy her male voices. Recommended for anyone looking for a solid beach or airport read that really brings the scare.

Not credible- even for a work of fiction

The premise that someone being held in captivity is plausible, but that’s where the plausibility of this tale ends.

Chilling!

This book sucks you in from the start and never lets go! If you're a fan of Gillian Flynn, definitely give it a listen.

love it

i had never read a book by Paris. it had me wanting to stay in the car to hear more. loved every minute of it.

What happened??

The book was very good up until the end I waiting for more. But a good story!