Books That Showcase Scandals in the Suburbs
We’ve all read a scandal set out in the country, and there’s certainly no shortage of horror or thrillers set in the city, either. Books of suspense set in-between, though, snugly scandalized in the suburbs… that’s the sweet spot. They’re especially horrifying because people generally move to the suburbs to avoid crime, scandal, or anything salacious at all. The suburbs are where people go to “settle down.” That’s why it’s so disturbing when they prove as dangerous as any other setting. Here are a few of our favorite psychological thrillers with themes of scandal set in suburbia.
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
Henry North is a down-on-his-luck cybersecurity expert from New Orleans. Wei "Adam" Zhang is the cofounder of one of Austin's most successful venture capitalist firms. These two men didn't know each other. They had never met. Yet they died together, violently, in a place neither had any business being, leaving behind two widows.
Kirsten North is a 30-year-old consultant for the tech sector, when one day, Henry doesn't return from a business trip. Kirsten panics—and then gets an anonymous phone call: Your husband is dead in Austin. When she frantically searches for information, she finds the days-old news about the murdered millionaire and the unknown man found with him.
Flora Zheng knew her husband was keeping secrets. She suspected an affair, but she had decided she could forgive him for his weakness—until her husband ended up dead. And with no explanation for her husband's murder, the police begin to suspect her.
An uneasy alliance forms as the two widows delve into their husbands' deadly and dangerous secrets—as they try to protect their own. Together they will face a powerful foe determined to write a false narrative about the murders. In doing so, neither Flora nor Kirsten will remain the woman the world thought they were.
It’s not your mother’s haunted house, this one, even though it’s sent in a suburb of Atlanta that sounds suspiciously like the one where I grew up. In the 1970s, Colquitt and Walter love their neighborhood until developers break ground on the vacant lot next door. To their horror and that of all their neighbors, a modern monstrosity grows next door—and what’s more, the house is making people behave strangely. It’s a haunted house…but is that really what it is?
In a Charleston suburb, homemaker Patricia Campbell loves her true crime book club. When she’s attacked by an elderly neighbor after one of their meetings, though, she realizes something sinister is going on—and whatever it is, she knows two things: her neighbor’s handsome nephew James has something to do with it, and the book club members are the ones she can trust to put an end to it.
Red Bluff Mississippi is covered in kudzu, like most formerly-booming towns in the Deep South. It’s almost like the town was left to die. That is, until a homeless family into town and stirs up memories of Red Bluff’s past. It’s a metaphorical haunting: the sins of Red Bluff linger, and they manifest in the kudzu that’s overtaking it.
This book is so weird and so suspenseful that I recommend it to anyone hankering for a page turner. It’s the 1960s. Eileen Dunlop is vile, unsympathetic, unreliable, and I couldn’t look away from her. Eileen lives in a dilapidated New England house where she takes care of her alcoholic father, and she works at the local prison. When beautiful and fascinating Rebecca comes to work there, too, Eileen is shocked that she seems interested in becoming friends… but of course, there is more to the story.
In California’s Central Valley, a hitman for a drug cartel murdered people for three decades without getting caught. Jessica Garrison tracks him from Disneyland to Santa Barbara, trying to distinguish between the murders for hire and the ones he committed for revenge… all while hypothesizing how he got away with it for so long.
If you have ever lived in a suburb, you know that they’re not as innocuous as they seem, but these books will have you looking over your shoulder and wondering if you should pack up house and high-tail it back into the city.
When Megan discovers photographs of her estranged identical twin sister on her husband’s phone, she wants answers.
Leah already has everything Megan ever wanted. Fame, fortune, freedom to do what she wants. And when Megan confronts Leah, an argument turns to murder.
The only way Megan can get away with killing her twin is to become her.
But then lockdown hits. How can she continue living two lives? And what happens if someone else knows her secret?
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Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.