Timber by Ty Hutchinson

This book is amazing. I did not see it coming!

When Peter Darkwood contacted Mitzi Joyner, a life coach, to help him with his wife, Timber. She was skeptical because Peter is a psychiatrist, a medic who  literally helps people. However, she was very intrigued by the prospect of helping Timber because she was a celebrated artist who had fallen into a self-doubting stupor. She stopped working and rarely socialized. He assured Mitzi  she wasn’t clinically depressed and just needed someone to put her back on track.

She trusted the doctor’s professional assessment and took on the challenge. But things turned unexpectedly as she delved into Timber's hazy mind and finally uncovered a chilling secret that sounded several alarms

She ended up being a prisoner trying to escape this beautiful masion. She tried to escape with Timber and the other helpers of the mansion.

Then here is the twist or should I say , several twists:

1. Timber (the wife) is long dead

2. Mitzi is a schizophrenic placed in a private asylum (Peter Darkwood's mansion) by her husband. She developed a second persona called Mitzi, a life coach. Her real name is Carol.

3. The helpers who she tries to help escape with her.ended up being patients just like her 

4.She has been confined in the asylum for more than a year. Her husband had a job transfer to that area so that he can visit her regularly

When the husband was sure she has recovered and ready to bring her home, she goes back to her second personality, Mitzi. She tells him she has clients to attend to.

It reminds me of John Burley's book, The Forgetting Place.

Flicker in the Dark By Stacy Willingham

A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with twist near the end that I did not expect.

When Chloe Davis was twelve years old, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father  confesses to the crimes and was put away for life .Chloe and family especially the brother were devastated but Chloe manages to move on unlike her brother..

In retrospect, she remembers her dad staring at the girl she and her brother where with. Then the girl vanishes! When the cops came to arrest the dad he gives this cryptic goodbye when he was led away.

Twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While preparing for the upcoming nuptials she notices a strange antagonism between her brother and her fiance.

Then a  local teenage girl goes missing, followed by another ! Is the killer back? 

In between those horrid incidents she finds out her fiance has been visiting her dad in prison regularly ! In addition to this terrifying  discovery, she also discovers that his sister disappeared without a trace!

Now let's fast forward. The kiiller was her brother that's why the dad decided to take the blame. The fiance was suspicious about her dad's last goodbye that he decided to get the truth from the old man. As for her dad staring at her, the brother and the girl before the girl disappeared, he was actually looking apprehensively at the brother! He suspected something was definitely wrong! Then she finds out the fiance's sister disappeared because they were beaten by the father and he kept his sister hidden in a safe place. 

Now the sad part. Since she doubted him, they ended up breaking up. Anyway she manages to find the sister and gave her the engagement ring her fiance gave her. When he called out to his sister "who's there?", she promptly leaves. Making me create a possible scenario wherein the sister would tell him it was her and make them reconcile. I think that would be a better "future" ending.