The Locked Door Thriller Novel - Book Club Reporter Book Review

• The Locked Door Thriller Novel - Book Club Reporter Book Review by Laura Jay
• The Locked Door written by author Freida McFadden

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• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

The Locked Door Thriller Novel Freida McFadden 

 00:01

Music Intro - Greeting

 Hello gentle readers. Welcome to Book Club Reporter Book Reviews Podcast. I’m your host and Book Club Reporter, Laura Jay.  

 00:10

 This is Season 4 - Episode 5                                                      

 00:14

 Today I am sharing with you my Book Club Reporter book review of The Locked Door thriller novel written by author, Freida McFadden.  

 00:27

 Now don’t go away because The Locked Door is the best thriller novel I have read since The Silent Patient! And I can’t wait to tell you about it. 

 00:36

 For new listeners listening here today, I want to invite you to visit my BookClubReporter website. So be sure to read all my book reviews, book news, book club reading lists and more at bookclubreporter.com

 00:51

 And now you can find additional book reviews by me on BookPraises.com. And I would love for you to come follow me over on Twitter where you can find me as: @jay_reporter so that’s @jay underline reporter and on Instagram where you can find me as: bookclubreporter_laura_jay

 01:17

 Publisher Book Description 

 Now, before I share my book review with you, please let me provide you with the publisher’s book description of: The Locked Door. As you may know, the publisher’s book description is the first thing most of us read when we are deciding whether or not to purchase a book to read. 

 Here is The Publisher Book Description:

 The Locked Door: A gripping psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist.

While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at the front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her. 

 As long as they don’t look in her basement. Alright now, that concludes the Publisher Book Description of The Locked Door.

 02:53

About the Author:

 Let me stop here for a minute to tell you about the author: Frieda McFadden.

Number one Amazon bestselling author Freida McFadden is a practicing physician, specializing in brain injury, who has penned multiple Kindle bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. 

 Freida lives with her family and her black cat in a centuries-old three-story home overlooking the ocean, with staircases that creak and moan with each step, and nobody could hear you if you scream. Unless you scream really loudly, maybe.

 03:30

 Book Description Comments by Laura Jay

 Ah, yeah. Now that sounds like the perfect place to pen her amazing thriller novels. 

Since this is my first read of a Freida McFadden novel, I did my own research to see if she has written any other novels. 

 Happily, I discovered McFadden has written a whole bunch of novels. And my research also reveals her novels are all highly rated by readers. It feels good to know I am not alone in my joy of discovering this wonderful writer.

  04:02

Book Review 

 Okay now, here is my book review of The Locked Door: 

 As I mentioned earlier, The Locked Door is the best thriller novel I have read since The Silent Patient! One of the best things these two books have in common is that it was impossible for me to guess the end. 

 I love the exhilarating feeling I get from surprise endings. You know what I mean, right? How many times have you, probably just like me, feel let down when we have guessed the ending well before the end of the book.

 Oh, I had plenty of guesses for the ending of The Locked Door. And yet, I was still completely taken off guard by the end of this remarkable story. 

 The Locked Door thriller novel is the story of a young girl, Nora, whose father just happens to be an accomplished serial killer. Thankfully, Nora manages to rise above her early upbringing, by becoming a respected doctor and surgeon. And yet, the terrible evil deeds of her father continue to haunt Nora throughout her life. 

I loved how we get to know Nora as a child and see how she deals with her childhood and how she is affected (whether she realizes it or not) by what goes on in the basement of her family’s home. It’s clear Nora admires her father in many ways. One can only imagine what it must be like for a child to process a parent’s evil nature. 

 I listened to the audio version of The Locked Door thriller novel. So, I would like to mention I have read reviews of the audio version slamming the narrator. I find that unfortunate, and I completely disagree with the negativity aimed at the book’s narration. 

 For one thing, there is only one narrator. And the narrator has the task of voicing children’s voices and the voices of both the female and male characters.

 Actually, I especially enjoyed the narration. I mostly appreciated the narration of the voice of Nora as a young girl. However, I thought all the voices were narrated well and I never felt like I didn’t know which character was speaking. 

 I also felt the narration of Nora throughout the book, provided an accurate reflection of her troubled mind due to her upbringing. I saw grown-up Nora as an intelligent and gifted surgeon, yet still a distrustful young girl in her personal life. 

I saw Nora as neither all bad, nor all good. I felt Nora’s personality to be nuanced in such a way to reflect her troubled psyche. 

For sure, the serial killer aspect of the Locked Door story has a definite “creep” factor. Nora’s father is a serial killer who cuts off the hands of his women victims and saves the finger bones. Yikes!

 As the reader, I made the journey with Nora through her childhood and to her present day life as a gifted surgeon. In The Locked Door thriller, author, Frieda McFadden brings the character of Nora to life with amazing depth. 

 There were times when my heart went out to young Nora as she tried to navigate her impressionable youth with such strange and evil goings on around her. And even though Nora was able to rise above her childhood experiences, it is clear that as an adult she still struggles as she navigates her life. 

Even while acting as a seriously minded professional doctor of surgery, Nora has a softer side. And that side of her is demonstrated by her concern for others.  Nora worries that one of her patients might be battering his wife.

 And she worries that a fellow surgeon might be getting too cozy with their female employee. Nora tries to warn him about his inappropriate behavior towards the young woman. And I appreciated that timely nod to such real life issues. 

 Yet, it seemed clear to me that most of Nora’s reactions to issues that concerned her were, at best, off-balance and inappropriate. 

 Readers may also see that one of Nora’s greatest struggles is in her personal/social life, or lack thereof. As a busy surgeon, Nora doesn’t have all that much time for a social life. However, It is clear that Nora’s childhood has stunted her ability to enjoy a full and rewarding social life. 

She struggles with relationships and isn’t able to share her feelings. I mean really how do you share your feelings when your father is a serial killer? 

Tragically, Nora becomes a suspect of recent copy-cat serial murders. A dangerous criminal is killing young women in the same manner as Nora’s father had years before. 

 However, the targets of this current serial killer are Nora’s women patients who fit a particular description. Despite her professional success, it is clear Nora is a distrustful and lonely woman with no one to turn to.

 Her attempt to resurrect a social life with an old boyfriend didn’t seem to go very well. Nora’s ability to trust is nearly non-existent. Yet that also seems to be an expected result of her troubled childhood.

 Author, Frieda McFadden doesn’t make solving this suspenseful thriller easy. I knew about three-quarters of the way through, this author was going to bring me a surprise ending. And knowing that made me love this story even more. 

 I genuinely enjoyed reading The Locked Door. And I will most definitely be reading more books by Frieda McFadden.

 10:12

More Information

 Thank you all for joining me today for this Book Club Reporter book review. If you would like more information about today’s book review, or a copy of the book, check the show notes for this podcast episode, or simply visit BookClubReporter.com. 

 10:16

 Appreciation and Donation Information

As always, I very much appreciate you all stopping by and listening to my feelings about the books I read. I hope you have enjoyed this book review podcast episode and my book club reporter podcast show. And if you did, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee. Just click the Buy Me a Coffee link in the show notes of this podcast.

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In plain English, that means if you click on a product link in my podcast show notes, and purchase a product via that product link, I may earn a small fee.

For example: If you click the product link, and make a purchase, whether you purchase the book or another product, such as a new comfy bed for your precious pet, or some other product, I may still earn a small fee. 

11:18

Thank You/Music Outro

 I created this podcast so I could tell everyone about the books I loved reading. I am always working toward being able to afford better equipment to improve the quality of this podcast show for my podcast listeners.

 So, whether you decide to buy me a cup of coffee, via the link in the podcast notes, or by clicking one of my affiliate product links. I thank you so much in advance for your kindness, you are very much appreciated. 

 11:43

Sign off

 See you all next time.