The Last Mrs. Parrish

How it reads

The Last Mrs. Parrish is thriller (psychological thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are class and society, secrets and power and politics. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 560 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.