I love “unputdownable psychological thrillers,” and because I was a huge fan of B.A. Paris’s Behind Closed Doors (2016), I was happy to receive a copy of her latest book, Bring Me Back, from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in return for my honest review.

Similar to Behind Closed Doors, this story revolves around attractive millenials and relationships that appear one way on the surface but are revealed to have some creepy characteristic/events/circumstances. In this case, a successful young British man named Finn goes on vacation in France with his girlfriend Layla. Finn stops at a service station to use the restroom, leaving Layla in the car alone. When he returns, she has disappeared without a trace. At least that’s how Finn tells the story to the police.

Fast forward ten years. Since Layla disappeared, Finn has moved on with his life and fallen in love with Layla’s sister Ellen. They are THIS CLOSE to being engaged…but there’s something about Ellen that sort of creeps Finn out.

Then, mysterious phone calls come in, mementos that were long lost begin turning up, and Finn starts getting emails that lead him to wonder if Layla might be alive.

So, there’s the outline. And the thing is, I am one of those people who tear through a ton of mysteries/thrillers, and am pretty much ALWAYS surprised by the ending/resolution. But less than halfway through this, I thought “Maybe…” and I was RIGHT. Good grief, that never happens. So I was thinking this had to be like two stars. But the thing is, I was GLUED to the book all the way through. The characters were well done, there were some nice plot twists, and it was exactly what I was looking for at the time: an unputdownable psychological thriller. So, because I was a notoriously easy grader when I was a teacher, and continue to be generous with my reviews, I give this one four stars. It will make a good movie, and I will read her next book, but Ms. Paris seems to have written a mystery that anyone could figure out, since I did!