My Favorite Terrible Thing

A Novel

By: Madeleine Henry

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

The world’s most famous author has vanished. A thrilling hunt of mind games and twisting suspense begins when a detective sees evidence written into her novel.

Detective Nina Travers is so good at her job that she blends in like a benevolent Tom Ripley. She can be anyone. She can be no one. Nina wants to be someone. Her new case will finally get her noticed.

Bestselling author Claire Ross has disappeared from the Hamptons on her wedding day. How tragic that the author of an epic romance that captured the heart, soul, and imagination of the world should suddenly vanish on the happiest day of her life. Claire’s distraught family and friends, her mystified fiancé, and her zealous online fans all have their theories—from the sinister to the hopeful. Nina’s job is to find the truth, and she’s pursuing an angle that no one else has explored. She’s looking for a trail of clues in Claire’s novel.

Reading between its haunting lines, Nina follows a spiraling path of secret love, obsession, and death. What Nina finds is so shocking even she never saw it coming.

©2024 by Madeleine Henry. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“[A] cunning debut thriller…Just as Henry seems to be leading readers down one path, she veers in a wholly unexpected direction, delivering a welcome jolt to an already effective mystery. Sharp observations on toxic fan culture and a basketful of literary easter eggs are icing on the cake. This delivers.”—Publishers Weekly

“Fans of twisty psychological suspense, especially those who enjoy literary references, will find it hard to put down.”—Booklist

“My Favorite Terrible Thing is one of my favorite books of the year! Insightful, emotional, and utterly surprising, I devoured this deeply psychological novel in one sitting and immediately wanted to read it again. Madeleine Henry is brilliant!”—Wendy Walker, bestselling author of What Remains

Surprise ending

This was an interesting story. Unusual, really. The plot was complicated and well written. Part way through I decided there was going to be a surprise ending. I suspected a couple of endings. But the resolution was unexpected. If you like books with surprise endings, you’ll be amazed at this ending!

Ok, I was impressed!

First time reading/listening to this author and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went into it blindly because I wanted a ‘surprise’. At first I had no idea where the story was going but the author did an amazing job of dropping little hints which made the reader have to think. This is what made it a 4 star for me. Pushing to a 4.5.

Ummm... this was weird.

I'm a bit conflicted with this book. It was good in parts and weird in others. I had to reread portions thinking maybe I'd missed something only to discover that I hadn't. It's just, well, weird.

Keeps you guessing.

I thought I had this book firugred out a couple of times. But it surprised me. It was a little meandering at times, but it was beautifully written, and the narrator did a pretty good job.

Better than most of the "mystery" books being made today, where there is no mystery at all.

Couldn’t keep going

The plot was interesting and I wanted to get to it, but the high level of sentimentality and lack of self awareness on the part of the narrator was too much to take. Stopped listing at chapter 7…

The love of literary art.

It made me want to read more classics. The end wasn't set up well at all. I feel like the plot was weak, with unnecessary details that never tied in, but the writing was good. several things left you hanging. The sister fell off the cliff in the end, figuratively. I might read the author once more because her writing has potential, the story was ehh.

slow, pedantic, unbelievable story

i found the story got less believable and more repetitive as time went (slowly) along. The ending seemed contrived.

Seemed ok until…

Seemed like the plot was moving along, keeping me intrigued despite the endless and exhausting descriptions - similes and metaphors in every blessed sentence, but then it took a turn for the bizarre and became completely unbelievable. Thinking of stopping here but I’ve devoted nearly 9 hours of my life to this so I feel like I should see it through. If I finish this it will be purely due to the time I’ve invested in this story. We’re pretty far into left field at this point.

Seemed like it would never end…

This book was very anticlimactic. The narrator didn’t do the book any favors. Kept waiting for it to end. Save your credit.

I tried, but just couldn't finish this listen

The story was slow but held my attention enough to keep going until a point where there was a major plot twist (half thru). At this point I tried but just really didn't want to hear any more of this slow moving plot with a main character we no longer like. I finally just quit - something I rarely do. I would not recommend this book or the listen.