Karen’s Pick of the Week: Possession by Katie Lowe

Looking for a psychological thriller with a mystery you won’t be able to solve? Try Possession by Katie Lowe.  I was hooked after the first two pages!

This whodunit starts with a murder, which the police attribute to a burglary gone wrong.  A young man named Michael Philips is convicted and sent to prison.  Ten years later, a true–crime podcast takes on the challenge of proving Michael innocent.  Hannah, the wife of the victim, is suddenly pulled out of her reconfigured, peaceful life with her daughter, a boyfriend, a good job, and a home in a new town.  It is not long before the spotlight is pointed on her and she is being crucified by the media, as she is now the most likely murder suspect.  Everywhere she goes people are catching pictures and video and feeding them to social media.  As Hannah’s life seems to unravel, the reader feels empathy for her, but at the same time isn’t sure whether she is the murderer.  She claims she has no memory of the actual murder, but she flashes back to scenes that make her look very suspicious.  Add to this visions and whispers from Hannah’s ghostly husband, an obsession with an abandoned insane asylum where her grandmother was a patient after being accused of familicide, and a mysterious new friend who seems too good to be real.

Action-packed and full of surprises, Possession travels back and forth in time and reveals the truth in bits and pieces. Hannah is an unreliable narrator and the perfect enigma. If you liked Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, give Possession a try

-Karen Varga