Cover Reveal and Excerpt: CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 by Lisa Unger
New York Times bestselling thriller writer Lisa Unger is back in 2020 with a brand-new standalone psychological thriller, and boy does it look fantastic. Gorgeous cover? Check. Plot reminiscent of crime fiction classics like Strangers on a Train? Check. Count me in. CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 will be available in the US in October, but, thanks to Lisa’s US publisher, Crime by the Book readers can get an exclusive glimpse into her 2020 release right here on CBTB!
I’m a relative latecomer to Lisa Unger’s work, but better late than never is absolutely true in this case. I devoured Lisa’s 2019 release THE STRANGER INSIDE this past summer, and have been eagerly anticipating her next thriller release ever since. Lisa is a master at writing psychological suspense that delivers major entertainment value and human interest. She’s a pro at putting readers up close and personal with her characters, and, while reading THE STRANGER INSIDE, I found myself riveted by her uncanny ability to explore the psyches of her story’s “good guys” and “bad guys” alike. Suffice it to say, I absolutely cannot wait to see what kind of gripping story she will craft in her 2020 release, CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45.
Thanks to Lisa’s US publisher, I am absolutely honored to be revealing the stunning cover for CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 today! Pop over to Instagram for the full cover reveal, and read on right here to check out the book’s cover, learn more about its plot, and catch an early sneak-peek of the story’s prologue. Happy reading!
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CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 By Lisa Unger
Park Row; Available October 2020
About the Book:
Be careful who you tell your darkest secrets...
Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she's been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena's station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.
But days later, Selena's nanny disappears.
Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she'll discover.
Expertly plotted and reminiscent of the timeless classic Strangers on a Train, Confessions on the 7:45 is a stunning web of lies and deceit, and a gripping thriller about the delicate facades we create around our lives.
Excerpt: CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45
By Lisa Unger
Prologue
She watched. That was her gift. To disappear into the black, sink into the shadows behind and between. That’s where you really saw things for what they were, when people revealed their true natures. Everyone was on broadcast these days, thrusting out versions of themselves, cropped and filtered for public consumption. Everyone putting on the “show of me.” It was when people were alone, unobserved, that the mask came off.
She’d been watching him for a while. The mask he wore was slipping.
He, too, stood in the shadows of the street, a hulking darkness. She’d followed him as he drove, circling like a predator, then finding a place for his car under the trees. He’d parked, then sat as the night wound on and inside lights went out, one by one. Finally, he’d stepped out of his vehicle, closed the door quietly, and slipped across the street. Now he waited. What was he doing?
Since she’d been following him, she’d seen him push his children on the swings in the park, visit a strip club in the middle of the day, drink himself stupid with his buddies viewing a game at a sports bar. She’d watched as he’d helped a young mother with a toddler and baby in a carriage carry her groceries from her car into her house.
Once, he’d picked up a woman in a local bar. Then, out in the parking lot, they romped like animals in his car. Later, he went to the grocery store and picked up food for his family, his cart piled high with ice cream and Goldfish crackers, things his kids liked.
What was he up to now?
The observer only sees, never interferes. Still, tonight she felt the tingle of bad possibilities. She waited in the cool night, patient and still.
The clicking of heels echoed, a brisk staccato up the deserted street. She felt a little pulse of dread. Was there no one else around? No one else glancing out their window? No. She was the only one. Sometimes didn’t it seem like people didn’t see anymore? They didn’t look out. They looked down, at that device in their hands. Or in, mesmerized by the movie of past and future, desires and fears, always playing on the screen in their minds.
The figure of the young woman was slim, erect, confident. She marched up the street, sure-footed, hands in her pockets, tote over her shoulder. When he moved out of the shadows and blocked her path, the young woman stopped short, backed up a step or two. He reached for her, as if to take her hand, but she wrapped her arms around her middle.
There were words she couldn’t hear, an exchange. Sharp at first, then softer. On the air, far away, they sounded like calling birds. What was he doing? Fear was a cold finger up her spine.
He moved to embrace her, and she shrank away. But he moved in anyway. In the night, he was just a looming specter. His bulk swallowed her tiny form, and together in a kind of dance they moved toward the door, at first jerking, awkward. Then, she seemed to give in, soften into him. She let them both inside. And then the street was silent again.
She stood frozen, unsure of what she’d seen. Later, when she realized what he’d done, who he truly was under the mask, she’d hate herself for staying rooted, hiding in the shadows, only watching. She’d tell herself that she didn’t know then. She didn’t know that beneath the mask, he was a monster.
Copyright © 2020 by Lisa Unger
Book Details:
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Park Row; Original edition (October 6, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778310159
ISBN-13: 978-0778310150
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