Behind Closed Doors

By: B. A. Paris

Narrated by: Georgia Maguire

Length: 8 hrs and 29 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

"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)

Slow start but a gripping experience

I highly recommend this book for fans of psychological thrillers. I would warn that it is a frightening story, and while not frankly violent, there is some upsetting content regarding abuse.
I'd also suggest that the listener needs to be patient for the story to get off the ground. In my opinion, the author spent far too much time laying groundwork when the issues are pretty obvious for anyone with the least bit of skeptical disbelief of 'perfect' appearing existences.
This book straddles the horror genre as well- I've just finished and find myself with an ongoing sense of dread and fear that built as I listened. For anyone who says that this 'could not happen'- think again. And

345 people found this helpful

Wow

Wow...I've listened to MANY audio books and never felt the need to write a review after I was done. But this book definitely deserves recognition! I could not stop listening!!! It was intense, nail biting...all the way till the very end. The details were so well written that I actually felt like I was living in the moment of the story. I could not stop listening. At first I thought ok, this will be just a regular suspense story...starting of with the details of each character. But within 2 hours into it, I was hooked! Written VERY WELL, narrated VERY WELL!

415 people found this helpful

Silly and stupid plus gratuitous sadism

The story line seems like it was written by two teenagers arguing about whether to write a Scooby Doo episode or a story about an abusive marriage. In the story, the evil husband for some reason gives all kinds of expository dialog about why he's so evil, evil things he's done in the past, describes all his evil motives (so contrived and silly, like a kid at camp trying to tell a scary story and, seeing that his audience is bored, wildly tries to up the ante to keep everyone's interest) while rubbing his hands together evilly. The husband essentially acts like a creepy pervy weirdo the entire time and the author writes all this as if no one notices because he looks like George Clooney. Yes, there's psychological 'torture' but it's so unrealistic and illogical that it's more like a weird cartoon. The wife does that thing where she's like, "In twenty seconds, I'm going to call the police and then I'm going to escape from you by doing X, Y and Z! And you can't stop me!" and then she stands there waiting for his response, and the evilly evil husband twists his Snidely Whiplash mustache while laughing evilly at her. The way he 'traps' her in public is simply ridiculous. I honestly don't think the author knows anything about domestic abuse, the entire thing was so gratuitous and absurd.

75 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable psychological thriller

Thoroughly enjoyed this! Stressed me out and enraged me but in a good way. you will b rooting for the main character. I couldn't stop listening to it. my fave book I've listened to in a long time! Gonna tell everyone I know to read or listen to it so that it will b made into a movie!

109 people found this helpful

A solution that works if it is too hard to listen

After reading the initial description, I felt this this book reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. As the story unfolded in opening chapters, one wondered when the darkness would enter the story. When it inevitably did, this turned out to be a very different story than Big Little Lies. Reviewers who are incredulous at the premise have every reason to be, but I suspect the psychological torture in the story is present in modern society in human stories that are just as incredible. The author cleverly and elegantly closed off all the options for Grace and Millie's escape, doing so as effectively as one could to scaffold the story.

Still, once the darkness entered the story I could not go on much more than 30-60 minutes before throwing in the towel. It was too dark and uncomfortable and I figured I would just return the credit. Yet, reviews promised a great ending, and I considered the ending in Big Little Lies to be perhaps the most multilayered and well-structured ending to a novel I could imagine reading. Could this also have a great ending?

So I decided I could try to skip the middle four hours of the story, and pickup with something like an hour forty left in the story. It worked for me. I just can't listen to that much darkness and I assumed that is all it would be, replete with creative ways to make Grace's situation seem even more hopeless. In the expectation that perhaps the ending would be great, and that I knew enough of the storyline to pickup the last fifth or sixth of the story, I decided at least to give it a try. The ending was indeed very well done, and while nothing in this genre is going to match Big Little Lies, it had enough intricacies and layers - right up to and including the last three letter word in the book - for me to give the book a strong overall rating. It was worth the credit to me, even if I skipped the middle half of the book which I assumed would be too psychologically gruesome for me to bear. It was a good way to manage the listen.

170 people found this helpful

Lame

The characters behaved in such inexplicable ways, and the story relied on so many implausible elements, you keep rolling your eyes. The villain is one dimensional and possesses a superhuman ability to get people to buy into whatever outlandish set of facts he fabricated because: charisma and he is an attorney? I didn't even feel bad for the protagonist's situation, because after awhile her judgements and actions were so inconsistent with the character build it just got to be ridiculous after awhile. Not recommended.

76 people found this helpful

Dumb and Waste of Time!

Trying to finish this book was probably just as difficult as what Grace had to endure while living with Jack. 🙄 The story was not at all believable, and even the so-called gory or graphic parts seemed quite far-fetched. Why would any sane person get on a plane with Jack to start their honeymoon, after being treated so badly and having to choose between her Down's Syndrome sister and husband? generally speaking, don't abusive relationships happen over time, because in this case, Jack became a monster overnight. Also, how naïve can one woman be to quit her job and not be included in buying their first home, and not think twice about Jack's aggressiveness? Frankly, everything was over the top! However, with regard to narration, all parts were performed well. Skip this book and instead, read Pretty Girls, which is hands down, a much better selection.

49 people found this helpful

The more I listened, the more I got annoyed

It was a great story at first. But the more I listened, the more I got annoyed with the main character being such a wimp and twit. I could tell it was going to all work out in the end, and I just got weary waiting for it to get there.

217 people found this helpful

Worth a Credit

The end of this story is worth the read/listen. I did have some issues with behavior of a woman who was intelligent, well traveled for her job and living an independent life before she meets " the man of her dreams ". After that I was puzzled by her choice. I don't want to give anything away but I'm curious how others will view her actions after she realizes he's not who she thought. From my point of view after he gave her the choice to go with him or get out of the car, I would have been out of that car so fast his head would spin. I feel she knew enough of the situation to get away now!! of course then there would be no story. I kept reading because I really needed to find out what happened in the end. I think some will really like this suspenseful listen, others not so much. The ending was worth the read and I will recommend it for that reason.

116 people found this helpful

Unbelievable and Unbelievably Brutal (dog killing)

I was intrigued by the first part of the book, but after the wedding, things just got too far out there and completely unbelievable. People did not act or react like real people would; it just became too far-fetched to continue. I may have soldiered on until the end, but when Jack's torturous killing of a dog became evident, I stopped right there, before it was fully revealed. This is a needlessly cruel book.

The narrator was very talented with accents, but had a habit of whispering the final words Jack spoke when he was being cruel, and that became very annoying in short order.

I'm so glad Audible has a generous return policy, it actually felt good to delete this one from my queue.

296 people found this helpful