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“I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who best summed up the difference between shock and suspense.Shock, he said, is quick, a jolt to the senses that lasts but a second, whereas suspense is more of a slow tease…He always preferred suspense to shock, the payoff being greater, ultimately more fulfilling. I’m with him on this, although, like Hitch, I’m not adverse to the occasional shock along the way. You have to keep things interesting.

As this girl will soon find out.”

Joy Fielding writes pocket thrillers, but like the killer in Heartstopper, an excerpt from whose diary appears above, she is accomplishes both substance and style.

People are going missing in tiny Torrance, Florida, but only Sheriff John Weber has begun to wonder if the disappearances are related. Smalltown politics and high school internet chatter, and everyones love of gossip seem a higher priority to many than the possibility that a serial killer may be lurking. Ugliness takes many forms among these cliques and climbers. Fielding creates a suspenseful, page-turner without blood and gore, gratuitous kink, or stretching credibility more than necessary. I had a hard time putting it down.

Joy Fielding’s latest offering is Charley’s Web, available now in hardcover.

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