Never Lie by Freida McFadden

If you’ve read even one of Freida McFadden’s psychological thrillers, you’re probably a fan like me. Dr. McFadden is a practicing physician who specializes in brain injury. Consequently, she knows a lot about the functioning, as well as the malfunctioning, of the human mind. And that serves her well when she sits down to write a psychological thriller.

In “Never Lie” (2022, 292 pages in softcover), the author’s knowledge brings a number of characters with damaged minds to life, including Dr. Adrienne Hale (a renowned psychiatrist), EJ a dangerous narcissist, and PL a pleasant young woman who credits Dr. Hale with effecting a “cure.” But, for some unknown reason, Dr. Hale has gone missing shortly after the publication of her long-awaited magnum opus, “The Anatomy of Fear.”

In a seemingly unrelated plot, newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are on their way to look at a house that’s away from the city, fairly isolated, and a great place to raise the children that they hope to have someday. The house is huge, magnificent, and underpriced. Ethan is immediately in love with the house, but Tricia is getting bad vibes.

They arrive at the location in the middle of a blizzard, and they are snowed in. There are no land lines in the house, and their phones are not picking up a signal. But Ethan finds fresh food in the house and some very good wine in the cellar. However, the house has been unoccupied for years, and there are thick layers of dust covering everything. The presence of edible food is a mystery that’s never completely explained.

Nevertheless, Ethan and Tricia (she, reluctantly) decide to hunker down for the weekend, hoping that their realtor will realize that they need help. But Tricia’s case of the heebie-jeebies simply will not be abated. She’s spooked by the giant painting of Dr. Hale above the fireplace and a series of strange noises that only she seems to be able to hear.

Of course, Tricia doesn’t believe in ghosts, yet she can’t help wondering if Dr. Hale is haunting the house, sending subtle signals not to buy it.

The house is filled with books, some academic but most popular novels. So, once the decision to stay is finalized, Tricia starts searching for something to read that will help to occupy the time that she and Ethan are stranded. When she attempts to remove a copy of Stephen King’s “The Shining,” she hears a click that seems to unlock a hidden door. The door opens to a secret room that holds a trove of tapes — the ones that Dr. Hale made during the sessions with her clients.

Although she knows that Ethan doesn’t want her to snoop around, she grabs a batch of cassettes and takes them to Dr. Hale’s office, where there is a tape recorder. After listening to one tape, Tricia is hooked. The tapes provide many of the clues that the reader needs to solve the mystery, or so it seems. But Freida McFadden’s novels are seldom predictable.