B.A. Paris’ debut psychological thriller, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, was one of my most-recommended crime books last summer, and I was beyond excited to get my hands on a copy of her next thriller, THE BREAKDOWN. While THE BREAKDOWN doesn’t deliver the same addictive, spine-tingling suspense of BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, I still found myself hooked on this wholly entertaining story. This book is the epitome of a “beach read” if ever there was one. If you’re looking for a crime novel that’s pure entertainment—think fast-paced, not too violent or too dark but still suspenseful—THE BREAKDOWN belongs on your summer reading list. Cass was an unreliable heroine so I obviously questioned everything she said and everything she did for a good part of the story. I sympathized with her and, even though I found her to be an interesting and well-developed character, she frustrated the hell out of me. God, at times, I wanted to slap the woman senseless. Today, B.A. Paris lives in Hampshire with her husband and continues to write psychological thrillers. They have 5 children together.

Her first novel is called Behind Closed Doors and was released in 2016. The second book is called The Breakdown and was released in 2017. Her third book in the series will be coming out in 2018. Her decision that night has impacted badly on her health and she becomes really forgetful, forgetting even the simplest of things. This causes her extreme anxiety as she believes she's suffering from early onset dementia, just as her mother had. Then she starts receiving silent phone calls and believes whoever murdered the woman must have seen her that night, and is now watching her!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. Vira bruscamente no sentido do atalho, e... após uns quantos percalços mais ou menos aterradores, eis que Cass chega a casa sem mazelas!

Finding text messages between Rachel and Matthew, Cass works out that they are responsible for the nuisance calls, and also for manipulating her to make her think she is losing her memory. She realizes that Rachel and Matthew are having an affair. You’ll be unable to rest until you’ve followed the twists and turns to an ending you didn’t forsee’ Daily Express Cass is a teacher who lives with her husband, Matthew, in a great, but isolated house in a small English town. Cass makes the worst decision of her life one rainy night when she decides to take a shortcut home, despite the fact that her husband told her many times the woods are too dark and dangerous for a woman. Cass is a little scared and she believes no one is as stupid as her to drive in the rain, especially in the woods, so she’s surprised to see a car. At first she thinks someone is driving it, but as soon she realizes the car is actually parked and sees a woman in the driver’s seat, she stops. Since the rain is pouring, Cass can’t tell who the woman is or if she needs help, but she’s willing to help with whatever problem she may have. She stays a couple of minutes in her car, waiting for the woman to give her a sign she needs help, but the sign never comes. Cass, wanting to get home as soon as possible, drives off. The next day, Cass finds out from the news the strange woman she “met” was found dead, murdered. She doesn’t tell her husband about the woman, feeling more than guilty, believing she could have saved her, even if she doesn’t know when or how was she murdered. Everything gets worse for Cass when she realizes she met the deceased woman when she had lunch with her not so long ago. Exploram os caminhos tortuosos da mente, quando confrontada com situações limite. Esta tende a armadilhar-se num emaranhado de emoções, que se viram contra o próprio, convertendo-o no seu mais temível inimigo!... Cass experiences fear of the phone ringing and the letter box clattering. She spends time eating lunch at Sour Grapes (really who would eat there?) with a friend just so she is not at home alone.

It sounds interesting, but the story puts all its weight on the reveal... and it is too easy to guess. And I don't mean just guess who is responsible, but also guess the entire reasoning behind it. The pool of suspects is too small; there are so few characters in the book, and many readers will be immediately suspicious of the culprit (honestly, they seem shady as hell). Thank you so much to NetGalley, B.A. Paris, and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book for a fair and honest review. Unsure of her own sanity, Cass begins a slow downward spiral, fighting her losing battle with memory loss, but determined to avenge the death of the woman whose life she feels responsible for.

Not sure I buy that Cass wouldn’t call the police immediately when she discovered what was going on. By handling it herself, she was putting herself in big-time danger and she knew it. But then on the other hand, she wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. Okay, while I found this story to be really fun and exciting for the most part I must say that I did find some of it to be a little predictable and tedious in parts but it sure made up for it though with its heavy buildup of anticipation, the thrilling climax, and the unexpected and surprising conclusion to make this an extremely good read. The only thing she can't forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. Why can't she get past the murder? What is happening to her that she can't remember anything? Will she wind up alone, unaware of what is going on around her?Cass is forgetting quite a lot of things these days. Riddled with guilt, self-doubt, and untold truths, her mind begins to slip. Then the telephone calls begin, with no one speaking but with an air of menace about them. Has someone been in the house? Why can't she remember anything? The paranoia begins to eat her alive, and she fears she is going mad. Her wild ravings and accusations have eroded her credibility with her husband, her friends, and the police. Cass is convinced the killer of the woman in the car is after her now.

Cass clearly presents with paranoia due to driving home one evening and seeing this woman on the side of the road in a storm and she does not stop to help her and the next morning finds out that she has been murdered. Cass starts receiving random phone calls with no one speaking and feels like she is being watched. Cass starts to forget things and believes she may have onset early dementia (a disease her mother had) and it just continues to tumble down from there..... ehhh Occasionally I find it really hard to get into a book that requires me to suspend disbelief, but I found with "Behind Closed Doors" and this book that I was able to do that easily. The authors writing style and the suspenseful plot allowed me to let go of reality and really enjoy what I was reading. Ten years later Finn is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen. Their shared grief over what happened to Layla drew them close and now they intend to remain together. Still, there’s something about Ellen that Finn has never fully understood. His heart wants to believe that she is the one for him...even though a sixth sense tells him not to trust her. Playing on real fears and putting the reader inside the mind of a person living through those scenarios allows us to feel their confusion, experience their doubt, and understand their anguish. But, of course, we all know, there is something truly ominous brewing, and it is not clear who can be trusted, even Cass- or especially Cass. To sum it all up it was an entertaining, gripping, fast-paced, and an easy read with an unexpected and exciting ending. Highly recommend!!The big revelation/twist didn’t do anything for me since I saw it coming. However, I enjoyed the twists and turns as the story unfolded and with the outcome of the story in general. I also liked the fact that each one of them plays a role into the story. As 'Behind Closed Doors', the other book by this author, this one had a realistic vibe that made me think, keeping me at the edge of my seat the entire time. Cass' days are spent feeling convinced she's being watched, worrying that someone is trying to break into her house, and someone keeps calling her house but not saying anything. She's coming utterly unglued, and to make matters worse, she's starting to forget things—plans she's made, occasions she's planned—even whether she took her pills or activated the burglar alarm. The only way she can seem to cope is by taking pills to calm her anxiety, but they leave her in a drugged stupor, much to the chagrin of her husband. As Cass is about to leave after her meeting with Rachel, a young girl from another table gives Cass a phone, telling her that it is Rachel’s. This seems unlikely to Cass, so to confirm it, she calls the first number in the called list. She gets Matthew’s answerphone. Stressed and depressed, feeling so guilty with each and every day, Cass’s mental state worsens considerably. She starts experiencing episodes of memory loss, forgetting even the most simple and obvious things. The fact that her mother suffered from dementia before she died doesn’t help Cass’s mental state since she didn’t tell her husband anything about it. Everything changes for Cass when she starts getting “strange” calls from someone, which she suspects to be from the one who killed the woman in the woods. You become so tied up in their lives, thoughts and actions that you feel like they are your friends. Friends that need to be shook to make them come to grips with reality!