I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of B.A Paris’s second novel, The Breakdown. It took some time getting my copy but it was worth the wait. I breezed thru this novel as I did her first novel, Behind Closed Doors.

Starting off with reading this novel , I assumed that the “breakdown” had to do with car troubles, but soon found out that was not the case. What do you do when the people you are supposed to trust the most do not have your best interest at hand. In this novel we meet Cass, who we soon find out wears her heart on her sleeve although not intentionally. She’s a teacher who has come into a large inheritance from her parents and seems to have a decent marriage to Matthew and a solid friendship with Rachel.

While returning from a party on a stormy night, she takes a shortcut that is going to change her life as she knows it. During this drive home, she passes what she thinks is just a woman in a broken down car, not knowing that this situation is going to be the key event in what is about to happen to her. She tries to stop to help the woman but decides that she needs to get home. The next day on the news she finds out that the woman was murdered. Instantly Cass starts feeling remorse which only worsens when she finds out it is a woman that she knew. Instead of talking about it to her husband or best friend, she tries to deal with it on her own. Soon weird things start happening to Cass to make her think that someone is after her and that she is slowing losing her memory. She turns to her husband who is at first very understanding and supportive until she starts experiencing more events that make her seem like a mad woman.

Cass is convinced that the killer probably saw her and is going to come after her next. She starts receiving weird phone calls every day. Then her memory seems to start slipping. Starting with a simple gift that she forgot she was supposed to purchase, then escalating to other things such as forgotten trips. Eventually Matthew takes her to doctor who puts her on medications to try and sooth her and tests her for possible early on set dementia, something her mother suffered from(another secret she has hidden from her husband).

What Cass doesn’t realize is that she is being tormented by the ones she loves and trusts the most. Eventually she decides she is going to fight back and when she does fate steps in again, but this time it is on her side instead of against her. What happens next is a key reminder  of why one should always watch what they send in text. Her tormentors thought texting was the safest way to communicate but in the end it proved to be the worst idea that they had.

This is all I will say about this book as, I do not want to give too much away. I want others to read it and find out what is going to happen. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, a curveball was thrown my way. Something I love to experience when reading a psychological thriller and B.A. Paris came threw with a hard curveball this time around.