October 2025

Katherine Faulkner writes such twisty domestic thrillers. I loved GREENWICH PARK and THE OTHER MOTHERS, so I was eager to read THE BREAK-IN, which takes the genre to a whole new level.

On a July evening, Alice Rathbone is hosting her friends, Yas and Stella, at her house as she has accepted a new job as an art restorer. Each of them has a young daughter, and the girls are playing in a room with Becca, the nanny whom Alice employs. This quiet evening is interrupted when a young man who is not in possession of all of his faculties bursts through the basement door and asks, “Where is he?” He lashes out at Alice, calling her a liar, reaches for a kitchen knife, and heads to the room where the children are.

In an act that is as impulsive as one can get in this circumstance, Alice bashes a kitchen stool over the intruder’s head, and he dies at the hospital. He is later identified as Ezra Jones, an 18-year-old who was clearly troubled. Alice is quickly investigated while being called a murderer in the court of public opinion before she can convey her message of self-defense. While the world starts to move on after she is cleared, Alice remains obsessed with what happened that night. She reviews every comment and story, and she watches how people look at her. Ezra’s mother, Linda, acknowledges that her son had some serious issues. Alice feels that this was something less than random, but she cannot figure out what happened. 

Alice’s journey for the truth takes her in some really crazy directions, and readers will be surprised at how she tries to get to the bottom of the case. She will be suspicious of everyone around her. Chapters are told not only from Alice’s point of view, but also from those of Linda, Jade (Ezra’s sister), Becca, Stella and more, and you start to get a 360 view of what is going on. And what a ride this becomes. There will be times when you need to remember to breathe. 

Katherine’s writing gets stronger with every book. She clearly is an author to read now --- and watch for in the future.