DEBUT Aidan Thomas is the darling of his Upstate New York town: a ruggedly handsome, loving father, always willing to help out and lovingly committed to his dying wife. He is almost too good to be true. He is in fact a kidnapper of women and killer of eight. Rachel has been a prisoner for five long years in his shed; when Aidan's wife dies, he moves Rachel inside his home. Rachel stays alive by psychoanalyzing Aidan and playing the role he has written for her. Each chapter of Michallon's novel is written in the second person, which can be confusing to follow as it switches among the perspectives of Rachel, Aidan's daughter Cecilia, and Aidan's new love interest, Emily. Sprinkled throughout the novel are the last thoughts of Aidan's unnamed victims. Disappointingly, insights into Aidan's character, his motives, or his backstory are never revealed. Despite these small complaints, this debut novel is hard to put down. VERDICT A brutal, sad, heartbreaking story focused on resilience and survival. Recommended for fans of true crime stories, Gillian Flynn, or Jessica Knoll.--Marianne Fitzgerald

In this dark, taut thriller, a woman is kidnapped and held captive for five years. Chained in a shed, abused, starved, and raped by her captor, the woman (whose name is only revealed at the end) can hardly remember her life "before." Then one day, her kidnapper tells her they're leaving. His wife died five years ago, his daughter is now a teenager, and they're heading to a new home for a fresh start. He tells the woman that she'll pose as a friend who needs a place to stay. She will eat with the man and his daughter, but during the day, when they're at school and work, she'll be chained to the radiator in her room. Stunned, she can hardly believe her luck and hopes the move might allow her to escape, but even when she has chances, she can't bring herself to leave. Then she finds evidence that she's not her captor's first victim, but she's the only one he's allowed to live. Nightmarish, nerve-jangling, and horrifying, this one is not for the fainthearted, but it's an explosive, utterly gripping read.

While a widowed man falls for a bartender, the woman he's held hostage for years plots her escape in this fast-paced thriller. Aidan Thomas doesn't seem like a bad person: "People loved and trusted him because he was a normal man." When his wife dies and he needs to move, his hostage, a woman he calls Rachel, convinces him to move her into his new house under the guise of being his tenant rather than killing her in the shed where he's been hiding her. There, she has more access to his life--she can look through his possessions, hear who comes into the home, and even talk to his daughter. In alternating chapters, she figures out how to stay alive and how best to try to leave. The tight clip of Rachel's voice--"Any minute now, the tires of his truck will screech outside. He'll climb up the stairs, the furious tap-tap-tap of his boots a prelude to his anger"--lends urgency. Meanwhile, Aidan is so popular that his community is raising money for him in a 5K race; bartender Emily has volunteered to run a hot-cocoa station to get to know him better. It's the contrast between the man Aidan appears to be to the outside world--and even to his family--and the man he is in secret that makes Rachel's job so difficult. The people who love him will protect him because they can't see him the way that she does. In other chapters, Aidan's earlier victims chime in to show what's at stake for Rachel if he isn't caught. And when Rachel meets the other women in his life--first his daughter and then Emily--she knows she must escape for their sakes, too, but will they help or hinder her? He'd be a rom-com hero if not for the woman tied up in his house--a twisted premise that raises unexpected moral questions. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In this dazzling debut thriller from journalist Michallon, handsome Hudson Valley family man Aidan Thomas has a ghastly secret in his shed--and even worse ones hidden elsewhere. He's a serial killer prone to kidnapping his victims whose story emerges gradually, from multiple female narrators: Emily, a lonely bartender who befriends Aidan in hopes of a romantic fling; his 13-year-old daughter, Cecilia; and his latest, still-living victim, whom Aidan insists call herself Rachel. When Aidan and Cecilia are forced to move after Aidan's wife dies, "Rachel" convinces Aidan he can safely take her with them (with the explanation to Cecilia that she's a friend of a friend who needs a place to live). In the new living situation, though, Rachel gets bold, befriending Cecilia and planting seeds for her freedom, no matter how risky. The ensuing match of wits and wills between Rachel and Aidan becomes almost excruciating in Michallon's skillful hands, and as challenging as the going can get, it's impossible to look away from. This is a smart, female-focused inversion of the serial killer thriller perfect for readers who otherwise wouldn't give the genre a second look. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. (June)