• Behind Closed Doors

  • By: B. A. Paris
  • Narrated by: Georgia Maguire
  • Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (56,577 ratings)

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Behind Closed Doors  By  cover art

Behind Closed Doors

By: B. A. Paris
Narrated by: Georgia Maguire
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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

2016, Goodreads Choice Awards, Nominated

"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)

What listeners say about Behind Closed Doors

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    34,642
  • 4 Stars
    14,156
  • 3 Stars
    5,110
  • 2 Stars
    1,516
  • 1 Stars
    1,153
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    38,025
  • 4 Stars
    9,536
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    459
  • 1 Stars
    391
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
    5,258
  • 2 Stars
    1,759
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    1,504

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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!

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479 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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

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433 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

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.

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349 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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230 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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205 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Em
  • 01-23-17

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.

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195 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Uneventful Whining With Stupid Main Character

We have a marriage.. a marriage that on the surface looks genuine and strong between two beautiful people. However, the marriage was over the night it started. The honeymoon was a night of emotional punishment and threats and surfaced lies, and now we have a wife who, instead of running for the hills.. stays for several reasons.. The problem is, her reasons are so stupid that the listener wants to reach right through their listening device and shake her..

The premise is sort of like the old Julia Roberts movie where she's married to the rich guy but desperately needs to get away from his abuse, so she fakes her own drowning and moves on with her life. Except- our Mister in the book doesn't beat. Our Mister in the book just takes away every single life luxury and then basic necessity and makes his wife do without. And, his end goal is getting his wife's Down Syndrome affected sister to torture her forever.

But here's the thing..

Mrs. had literally 500 opportunities to say something about her situation and escape. Mister didn't beat her, he just deprived her of a social life and any kind of friends. He expected her to be perfect in public- and with their circle of friends. Why not, after several long dinner parties.. mention 'My husband is a jerk and he likes to mentally torture me?' 'My husband is an emotionally abusive psycho and he wants to torture my mentally impaired sister."

Urgh- I couldn't wait for this one to end. The main characters are just so obtuse and ridiculous I couldn't take anything seriously. 8 hours of life I'll never get back..

Do yourself a favour and skip this, regardless of all the rave reviews. This is a horrible book.

-Wendi

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Upsetting

Probably the most upsetting audiobook I've ever listened to. Any story where something bad happens to a puppy is not great. Would have been better if it was a little less horrifying and a little more three-dimensional. As it's written it's less psychological thriller and more campy horror movie.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

"A "page turner", but...."

[{ answer : Even though the book is told with \present\ and \past\ alternating, it was still quite fast paced and enjoyable. The book is let down by one of the absolute dumbest lead characters I've ever read. She could have been out of her predicament in 5 minutes if she acted like a normal human. The antagonist also comes off as dumb for his schemes, but it only works because the lead character is such a dullard., type : Overall, question : What did you like best about Behind Closed Doors? What did you like least?, id : 48, typeString : overall }, { answer : , type : Story, question : Would you recommend Behind Closed Doors to your friends? Why or why not?, id : 13, typeString : story }, { answer : , type : Performance, question : What does Georgia Maguire bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?, id : 30, typeString : performance }, { answer : , type : Genre, question : Do you think Behind Closed Doors needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?, id : 79, typeString : genre }, { answer : , type : Misc, question : Any additional comments?, id : -1, typeString : misc } ]

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