Are there seasonal thrillers? I think so. There are dark and super-creepy thrillers that make me just want to hide under heavy covers and remember all the reasons not to leave my bed, much less my house. The below-freezing temperatures outside are just another reason to stay hunkered down and keep reading. And then there are the lighter, fun thrillers, where you like the characters and love the writing and want to find out who did what and why. And those thrillers are perfect for the beach or the pool or the hammock, until the rocking finally puts you to sleep, of course. 

But you're not going to fall asleep with this summer thriller in your hands. B.A. Paris's The Breakdown is truly perfect summer reading. The pages almost tun themselves as you follow Cass on the twisty road to the truth, through the dark woods, through the rainstorm, to the isolated house at the end of the road. 

On a dark and dangerously stormy night, Cass took the shortcut home over her husband's objections. He wanted her home safely. She just wanted to be home as quickly as possible. So instead of staying on the main road, she takes the road through the woods, not nearly as safe an option, and she finds out that she's not alone on the road. There is another car, pulled off to the side, as if it's broken down. As Cass drives by, she sees the face of a woman in the driver's side window. But the woman doesn't move. She doesn't wave or yell or honk her horn or flash her lights. Cass pulls over and waits to see if the woman will come ask her for help. The woman doesn't move from her car. Cass starts remembering stories of women murdered and carjacked in situations just like this. Cass waits, arguing with herself about what to do. Still, the woman in the other car doesn't move. She doesn't get out. She doesn't honk. She doesn't wave. She doesn't flash her lights. Finally, Cass moves on, heading home in a fog of indecisiveness. But she gets home safely and puts aside thoughts of the woman in her car. 

Until the next morning. 

News of a murder in the woods, on the desolate road where Cass saw the woman. stops her cold. And what's worse, she can't even talk to her husband about what happened because he would just be mad that she was on the road in the first place. And then things get worse. Cass finds out that she knew the woman in the car, the one who was murdered. She'd had lunch with her, and planned on spending more time with her on the future. 

Guilt and anxiety eat Cass alive. So much so that she finds she starts forgetting things. She agreed to buy a present for some friends and completely forgot about it. Her husband has to go out of town, and she didn't remember that he'd told her, and she was surprised later to find it written on the calendar, in her handwriting. A technician shows up at their house to install a new alarm, the contract filled in and signed by her, but she has no memory of it. Several years previous, she'd had to take care of her mother, who had suffered from dementia. Is it the stress of the secret that is making Cass feel like she's heading for her own breakdown? Or is it something more? And how can she be safe, knowing that there is a murderer out there somewhere, maybe looking for her and waiting? 

B.A. Paris. author of last summer's best-selling Behind Closed Doors is back with this summer's breakout hit, The Breakdown. It's everything you want in a summer thriller. I recommend reading it immediately, savoring every page as you savor the warmth of these long summer days. 

An Advance Readers' Edition of The Breakdown was provided by St. Martin's Press, with many thanks.