Behind These Four Walls, Yasmin Angoe (Review by Kristin Kurek)

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

What a ride!! Yasmin Angoe has woven a pulse-pounding thriller to keep the readers guessing with the turn of every page.

Isla Thorne and her best friend, Eden, decide to run away from their lives as teenagers in Florida. Along the way, Eden disappears while taking care of “unfinished business” with the wealthy Corrigan family in Virginia.

Ten years later, Isla is determined to find out what happened to her best friend. She poses as a journalist looking to write an article about the patriarch of the Corrigan family. As Isla searches for the truth of Eden’s disappearance, she realizes that her life is in danger.

The author approaches each character very thoughtfully and comprehensively. Isla is successful in her investigation purely as a result of her confident and plucky personality. I enjoyed reading a novel with such a fearless female protagonist. She has overcome so many hardships and is further willing to put her life on the line on behalf of her friend. The ancillary characters were well characterized. Each seemed to have individualized motives which drive their decisions throughout the novel. All have some degree of imperfect morality. (And when it comes to book characters, “morally grey” is my favorite color.)

The action of this novel is constant. Isla is frequently finding her way into horrible predicaments which kept me turning that pages. In fact, I found the number of sticky situations to be unbelievable and wished she would be more careful. Use your noggin, Isla! Still, the author does not shy away from putting her characters in danger. There are no near-misses or “Scooby Doo” villains in this book. The characters are in real danger.

Overall, this is a stellar thriller that I would recommend to any thrill-seeking readers. I bet you’ll never guess the ending!