Why am I passionate about this?

The human mind fascinates me. Perhaps that’s why I got a PhD in Psychology, and have spent decades in the counseling field. That, of course, brought me in touch with all kinds of minds. Why do people do the things they do, make the choices they live with? We learn patterns in childhood that keep us safe. What if those patterns no longer work in adulthood, or worse, were built on false beliefs? Do life’s events shape us or do they merely show who we were all along? In my psychological thrillers, I explore such things. Even the bad guys have their stories.


I wrote

Book cover of Gone

What is my book about?

A sheltered mother. A medically fragile child. They can’t just disappear. Or can they?

A typical day of medical appointments…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Your Son is Alive

Sharon A. Mitchell Why did I love this book?

You know those books that stick with you years after you read them? Well, this is one. Rich characters that feel so real. The anguish of losing a child and the hope that even fifteen years down the road, you might be reunited. Parents who act as I would. A situation so plausible, you are right there with them. Love it when I can’t put a book down.

By James Scott Bell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Your Son is Alive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fifteen years ago their son was taken.
Now somebody says they can have him back.



Dylan and Erin Reeve have lived with a gaping emotional wound ever since their five-year-old son, Kyle, was kidnapped in broad daylight.


And never found.


Though the shadow of their loss hangs heavy, Dylan and Erin have managed to get on with their lives, even finding bits of happiness along the way.


Until one night when a crayon-scrawled note is slipped under Dylan Reeve's door.


All it says is, Your son is alive.


Could it be true?


Or is it a sick game played by…


Book cover of The Couple in The Cabin

Sharon A. Mitchell Why did I love this book?

Don’t you love it when you don’t know who is the victim and who is the villain? A cheating husband, caught by his distraught wife. Now she’s out for revenge. You could understand her initial reaction, couldn’t you? But wait, is there more to this? I loved the twists in this story.

By Daniel Hurst,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Couple in The Cabin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

They’ll do anything to get out. She’ll do anything to keep them in.

When happily married Grace comes home early one night and catches her husband, Dominic, with another woman in the cabin at the bottom of their garden, she is shocked, angry, and most of all, hell-bent on revenge. That’s why she acts quickly, locking the pair in the cabin while she decides what she wants to do to them.

While Dominic and his mistress desperately try to get free, Grace makes a plan on the outside, but it’s a plan that is formed based on her previous experiences.…


Book cover of Don't Lie to Me

Sharon A. Mitchell Why did I love this book?

I love kids. Maybe that’s why a child in peril story pulls me in. I can feel the parents’ desperation and the urgency of the detectives. A book like this shows the terror, without any gore. Not only do we feel for the families, but the detective has her own story and personal demons. The story is full of twists, and you don’t truly know who the bad guy is until the end.

By Willow Rose,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Don't Lie to Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When twelve-year-old Sophie Williams went on a Girl Scout summer camp, she never returned home.

Three months later, her body is found inside her sleeping bag in the most frequented area of Cocoa Beach, and the town is outraged.

The girl isn't just any child. She's the town's most beloved surf idol, and it was believed that she could be the next Kelly Slater.

As another child, the son of a well-known senator is kidnapped, and the parents receive a disturbing video, FBI profiler Eva Rae Thomas — who has just returned to her hometown, divorced and out of a…


Book cover of We Need to Talk about Kevin

Sharon A. Mitchell Why did I love this book?

What if you never really wanted to be a mother? Can you hide that from your child? As parents, most of us do the best we can at the time. Right? What if your best wasn’t good enough, what if the most unthinkable happened, caused by your child? Is it your fault? Could you have done differently, better? This novel explores the psychological dynamics of people thinking they’re living their best lives. But they’re not.

By Lionel Shriver,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked We Need to Talk about Kevin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2010

ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of a boy named Kevin who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband Franklyn about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to…


Book cover of Say You Love Me

Sharon A. Mitchell Why did I love this book?

Families. What can I say? They can be weird beasts, and none less so than the family of detective Eva Rae Thomas.
A father who kidnapped her sister from a grocery store when they were children. A brother she didn’t know existed. Ignored by her family for decades, can she refuse their call for help? Many would, in a case where nothing is as it seems.

By Willow Rose,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Say You Love Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Former FBI-profiler Eva Rae Thomas is back and embedded in a true nightmare reaching deep into her own family. What would you do if your brother was accused of a horrible crime, and you were certain he didn’t do it?

Life is not done throwing Eva Rae Thomas curveballs.

A phone call turns her life upside down – once again.

The call is from her father, the man she hasn’t seen in thirty-six years, not since he kidnapped her sister in a supermarket.

Now, he is back in Florida, and he needs her help.

Her younger brother – whom she…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Gone

What is my book about?

A sheltered mother. A medically fragile child. They can’t just disappear. Or can they?

A typical day of medical appointments and errands. Elizabeth can handle it, she tells herself. She’ll do it all until her husband returns on the weekend. But someone else has a plan—several someones—throwing Elizabeth’s orderly life into chaos and danger. Now, she’s on her own. Neither her parents nor her husband are there to protect her. No one knows where they are. If her son is to get out of this alive, it’s up to Elizabeth. Ordinary people, thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Read Gone, Book One of the psychological thriller series When Bad Things Happen.

Book cover of Your Son is Alive
Book cover of The Couple in The Cabin
Book cover of Don't Lie to Me

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,354

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

Book cover of Elephant Safari

Peter Riva Author Of Kidnapped on Safari

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.

Peter's book list on the otherness that few get to experience

What is my book about?

Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.

Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…

Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

What is this book about?

A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.

Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in New York State, serial killers, and the FBI?

New York State 563 books
Serial Killers 327 books
The FBI 127 books