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Books with Twist Endings
Make sure to read to the end of the books on this month's list to find out the surprises in store for you!
Nothing beats a great story except a great story with an unexpected twist ending. Here are 25 stories, both old and new, each with one similar thread: All stories come with an unexpected ending. So, strap in, bear down, and get ready for the unexpected!
Digital book (DB, DBC), braille (BR), and large print (LT) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Erin Fragola
Outreach Coordinator
Perkins Library
The Absolutist
by John Boyne
DB 75271, Available as BARD Download
England, 1919. Veteran Tristan Sadler returns from France bearing a packet of his comrade Will Bancroft’s letters, which he delivers to Will’s family. As Tristan recounts his wartime experience, the truth of his relationship with Will—and Will’s death—come to light. Violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2011.
An Anonymous Girl
by Greer Hendricks
DB 93639, LT 25273, Available as BARD Download
When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. But the questions grow more and more intense and the sessions become scripted outings. 2019.
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
DB 11077, DB 52972 (Spanish), DBG 11027 (French), LT 18019, available as BARD Download
Ten oddly-assorted people find themselves the houseguests of an invisible host who slowly begins killing them one by one. 1939.
Download And Then There Were None, DB 11077
Call Me Evie
by J.P. Pomare
DB 94442, Available as BARD Download
Seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet is being held captive in an isolated cabin in a remote New Zealand beach town—brought there by a mysterious man named Bill. He calls her Evie and tells her he’s protecting her because she did something terrible one night in Melbourne. 2019.
Dark Places
by Gillian Flynn
DB 69251, BR 19988, Available as BARD Download
Twenty-five years ago Libby’s brother was convicted of murdering their mother and sisters. When the well-wishers’ trust fund that she’s been subsisting on runs dry, thirty-one-year-old Libby takes money from a group that is trying to prove her brother’s innocence. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2009.
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
DB 80635, BR 20688, LT 18254, Available as BARD Download
Rachel’s train commute to London passes her former house—now inhabited by her ex-husband and his new family. She also observes a happy young neighboring couple—but then the wife goes missing. Rachel believes she witnessed a critical clue, but her alcoholic blackouts make her an unreliable witness. 2015.
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
DB 74888, BR 19868, LT 14278, Available as BARD Download
Nick and Amy alternate telling the story of their troubled marriage, their move from New York to Nick’s Missouri hometown, and Amy’s disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary. As clues begin to implicate Nick, he learns more about Amy. Strong language, some violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2012.
The Good Girl
by Mary Kubica
DB 79470, Available as BARD Download
The daughter of a prominent Chicago judge—inner-city art teacher Mia Dennett—is taken hostage by a man she meets in a bar. But instead of delivering her to the men who planned the abduction, he hides with her in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota. Strong language and some violence. 2014.
In a Dark, Dark Wood
by Ruth Ware
DB 82625, BR 21161, LT 19720, Available as BARD Download
Twenty-six-year-old British crime-fiction writer Leonora Shaw is shocked to be invited to her long-estranged friend’s hen party. Soon after their arrival at the remote glass house in the woods, it becomes obvious that someone besides the invitees is on the property. Then Leonora awakens in the hospital. Strong language and some violence. 2015.
In Pale Battalions
by Robert Goddard
DB 29081, Available as BARD Download
Novel set in England during and after World War I. Tells the story of three generations: the two Leonoras, mother and child—and their husbands, both handsome, adoring, young army officers—and Penelope, who unravels the twisted skeins of her mother’s and grandmother’s past to discover herself. 1988.
The Innocent
by Harlan Coben
DB 60873, Available as BARD Download
Paralegal Matt Hunter, who served time for manslaughter, receives a video of his pregnant wife in a hotel with another man. Meanwhile New Jersey homicide investigator Loren Muse finds evidence tying Matt to the murder of a nun. Some violence and some strong language. 2005.
Into the Water
by Paula Hawkins
DB 87699, BR 21897, Available as BARD Download
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. Now the woman’s lonely fifteen-year-old girl is left with her mother’s fearful sister—who has been dragged back to this place she ran away from. 2017.
Just One Look
by Harlan Coben
DB 58163, Available as BARD Download
Well-ordered happy lives are upended when Grace Lawson finds among current family snapshots a compromising picture of her husband taken twenty years ago. First he disappears, shaken, after Grace confronts him, and then a serial killer infiltrates the quiet neighborhood. Some violence. Bestseller. 2004.
The Mother-in-Law
by Sally Hepworth
DB 94881, LT 26191, Available as BARD Download
When Lucy met her husband’s mother five years ago, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Now Diana is dead, with a suicide note claiming she had cancer. The autopsy finds no cancer—but it does find evidence of poison and suffocation. 2019.
Mystic River
by Dennis Lehane
DB 51758, LT 570, DVD 764, Available as BARD Download
Sean, Jimmy, and Dave were eleven when Dave was briefly abducted from a Boston slum. Twenty-five years later, ex-con Jimmy’s daughter is murdered and Dave becomes a suspect. Sean, now a homicide detective, is assigned to the case. Strong language, some explicit descriptions of sex, and some violence. Bestseller. 2001.
Never Look Away
by Linwood Barclay
DB 71782, Available as BARD Download
Following a lead in upstate New York, small-town reporter David Harwood visits an amusement park with his wife Jan and small son Ethan. After Ethan’s stroller disappears with him in it, a frantic David finds him—only to realize that Jan is now missing. Violence and strong language. 2010.
The Perfect Liar
by Thomas Christopher Greene
DB 93377, Available as BARD Download
Susannah, a young widow and single mother, marries a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career takes her and her fifteen-year-old son to a quiet Vermont university town. Then one morning she finds a note on her door which reads “I know who you are.” 2019.
Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn
DB 63109, BR 16931, Available as BARD Download
Chicago reporter Camille Preaker, recently treated for psychological problems, arrives in her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murders of two preteen girls. Camille sees her mother and thirteen-year-old half-sister for the first time in years. But events from the past overwhelm her. Some violence. 2006.
Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane
DB 63109, BR 14802, Available as BARD Download
The events of four strange days in late summer 1954, when two U.S. marshals arrive on tiny Shutter Island to investigate a female patient’s disappearance from a locked room in the asylum for the criminally insane. And that is only one aspect of the case. Some strong language. 2003.
Tell No One
by Harlan Coben
DB 52602, Available as BARD Download
New York City pediatrician David Beck’s wife and lifelong sweetheart, Elizabeth, was tragically murdered eight years ago by a serial killer. Or so he thought. But the young doctor suddenly begins receiving mysterious e-mails containing information only Elizabeth would know. Some violence and some strong language. Bestseller. 2001.
Up in the Air
by Walter Kirn
DB 53856, Available as BARD Download
Ryan Bingham travels from city to city across America performing a job he hates—firing people. He is a citizen of “Airworld,” a parallel universe of airplanes, airports, chain food, rent-a-cars, suite hotels. He is close to attaining his frequent-flier goal—one million bonus miles—before he quits or is fired himself. Some strong language. 2001.
Whispers and Lies
by Joy Fielding
DB 55354, BR 14715, Available as BARD Download
Nurse Terry Painter lives a quiet life in Delray, Florida. She rents out her backyard cottage to Alison Simms and becomes friends with her. Soon, however, Terry begins to suspect that Alison and her just arrived “brother” are trying to trap her in a web of whispers and lies. 2002.
The Wife Between Us
by Greer Hendricks
DB 86959, LT 23288, Available as BARD Download
A tangled love triangle isn’t what it seems. An exploration of the complexities of marriage and the dangerous truths often ignored in the name of love. 2018.
The Woman in the Window
by A.J. Finn
DB 90036, BR 22163, LT 23630, Available as BARD Download
Heavily medicated for PTSD-induced agoraphobia, Anna Fox has spent the past ten months trapped in her Harlem home. She spends her time spying on neighbors, drinking, and watching movies. When she witnesses a murder, no one believes such an unreliable witness. Strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2018.
The Woods
by Harlan Coben
DB 64554, Available as BARD Download
A homicide forces widowed Newark, New Jersey, county prosecutor Paul Copeland to confront past tragedy. Twenty years ago, two teenagers were murdered at summer camp and two others, including Paul’s sister, disappeared. Paul reconnects with a long-lost love to learn the truth. Some violence and some strong language. Bestseller. 2007.
