Right from the start Paris throws you into an intense atmosphere of confusion, suspense and fear. Taking a shortcut home on a stormy, summer night proves to have life-changing consequences for Cass when she spots what appears to be a breakdown along the way. She stops to offer assistance but when there is no apparent response she heads home telling herself that she’ll call the police once she’s home to report the incident. The next day she discovers that the driver of the car has been brutally murdered and is immediately filled with guilt as she realises she forgot to make the call. Slowly her life begins to unravel as she’s convinced the killer saw her stop and is now stalking her. Paris takes us right into heart of the story as we follow Cass on a journey of despair and self-doubt. Her mother’s early death from Dementia adds fuel to the increasing distress she feels as her own memory begins to fail her. There is a real sense of foreboding within this novel. Cass’s voice is one filled with terror, guilt and desperation. This is a woman whose sanity is pushed to the edge and as the novel progresses the intensity of her experience is relayed to the reader offering an exciting read as we try to work out what really happened that night and how much memory affects us. ~ Shelley Fallows
The Breakdown is the next chilling, propulsive novel from B.A. Paris, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors and Bring Me Back.
"Even harder to put down than Behind Closed Doors...with two in a row, Paris moves directly to the thriller A-list."--Booklist (starred review) Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods. It was on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, and a woman was sitting inside--the one who was killed. Cass is 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 and, as her husband keeps reminding her, Cass might have been hurt herself if she'd pulled over. But since then, Cass has been forgetting every little thing. Where she left the car, if she took her pills, even the alarm code. The only thing she can't forget is that woman. And now that Cass keeps receiving silent phone calls, she can't quite shake the feeling that someone's watching her... "A story with a ratcheting sense of unease--a tale of friendship and love, sanity, and the terrible unravelling of it." --USA Today