Terrified

by Kevin O'Brien

Truth

Megan Keeler died years ago—or so everyone believes. In fact, she disappeared to escape from her sadistic husband, Glenn. When dismembered body parts were found near their home, Glenn was convicted of his wife’s murder. And Megan, terrified for her unborn child’s safety, never came forward with the truth…

Is More Terrifying

Since then, Megan has built a new life in Seattle for herself and her son, Josh. She’s never forgotten that she’s a fugitive, and Josh knows nothing about her past. But someone does. First, there are anonymous emails and threats, just as she learns that Glenn has been released from prison. Then the unthinkable happens: a masked man breaks into their home and abducts Josh…

Than Fiction

To save her son, Megan must put herself at the mercy of a maniac. Is Glenn a cold-blooded killer determined to destroy her world piece by piece, or is the truth even more twisted? Megan thought she knew fear, but her nightmare is only beginning…

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Crime

550 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Li'l Owl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Pacy, Twisted, & Creepy Read! 4.5★'s

How could he have just vanished? She kept hoping to hear his laugh. Maybe he was playing hide-and-seek with her. But all she heard was the train horn, getting louder and louder. She anxiously looked over toward the tracks again. There was still no sign of him. The street was on the other side of the playfield, and she didn’t see any cars coming or going. No one could have driven off with him. She’d only looked away for a few moments. With a hand on her forehead, she wandered around the small park, calling out his name. Why in God’s name didn’t he answer her? With a roar, the train sped by, drowning out her cries. As it churned down the tracks, the noise subsided—only to be replaced by the sound of her son’s screams. Panic-stricken, all Maggie could think was that the train had run over him—and severed his foot or an arm. Maggie raced toward the tracks and broke through a gap in the shrubs. Peering down at the gully that sloped down from the railroad tracks, she spotted Mark. “Honey?” she whispered. Her little boy stood at the bottom of the ditch—amid the thorny bushes and overgrown grass. He’d just pulled something out of a black plastic garbage bag. Frozen, he held it in his trembling hand, and kept shrieking. It was a severed human arm. He couldn’t seem to move or let go of the mangled thing. And he couldn’t stop screaming.

********
Terrified by Kevin O'Brien is a creepy, tale that had me intrigued and turning the pages from the very beginning!
I liked the complex characters and the twisted storyline that kept guessing the identity of the killer(s) right up to the conclusion! Needless to say, all my guesses were way off the mark!

This is my first novel by Kevin O'Brien and it won't be the last!

[Tracy P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's just say O'Brien's Terrified could not be a more perfect title.

Narrator Daniel Thomas May is on fire. He doesn't miss a beat in bringing the smoldering terror to life inside of my imagination. Bravo and thank you. Highly recommend.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always a thrill to find a freebie on Audible that falls within your preferred wheelhouse of genres. Even more so if it’s a stand-alone so you aren’t jumping in to the middle of a series.

The title wasn’t fitting due to minimal action, and the book could have been perhaps 25% shorter without losing material content. The character development had some good moments, but overall it wan’t strong due to the numerous ancillary characters (even with my notes) and the pacing was somewhat slow.

All characters, both men and women alike, were supposedly attractive and blah, blah, blah. I’ll keep O’Brien on my radar, but even at a 1.35 listening speed I just wanted this to be done.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

If you can add a couple of numbers together, you'll guess the villain before you've read 150 pages.

Very disappointing with some of the most obvious clues to a mystery novel that I've read in a long time. It doesn't help that O'Brien fell into the Mary Higgins Clark formula of a beautiful woman in peril surrounded by nothing but handsome men. There isn't an average looking bloke in the whole book or a woman who's anything less than pretty. Ugh.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the permanent but fairly passive quest to find a stand alone thriller writer to supplement Coben's once a year books, I tried O'Brien. Alas, no Coben here, not as much fun, no plot twists, no surprises. One of the last words to describe a thriller should be blah, but here is blah. It's perfectly serviceable and it never tries to do better. It's written like a bestselling thriller, a beach read, something like that, something entertaining enough comprised using short words, easy ideas and fairly clichéd characters (although the kid was likable. As if it is targeted for audience who wants to be slightly amused without being even remotely challenged, in other words kinda dumbed down, not the sort of book that'll send a reader looking up a word or gasping in shock or trying to figure out what just happened. Pretty unthrilling for a thriller, Terrified certainly doesn't offer enough for its girth. It's a reasonably quick read and it'll pass the time without really leaving an impression.

[Melanie Chabrol- · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/5! EXCELLENT, FANTASTIC AND GREAT! Kevin O'Brien hasn't disappointed me yet! with this thrilling book which was really hard to put down,I could barely sleep.
Imgaine having upir brother in the hospital and they say there isn't much that can be done, and you think that every little bit of hope is gone, then you meet the handsome doctor. He recommends the best and makes sure he is comfortable,he is handsome, smart, and a surgeon what more can Lisa ask for, a few weeks later she is married to the man. How far would you go to protect family? Would you stay in a marriage that means very little to your spouse?
Lisa has to move and get away from home and start a newlife... there is more she finds out she is pregnant what would she do to protect her son. Then just when she thinks she is safe there comes the emails and threatening letters,she feels like someone is watching her, is it an instict or is it real? A book i highly recommend,If he hasn't already Kevin should win a prize for this book, thought i figured it out half way then to find out I was wrong.

[Crystal Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a fan of Kevin O’Brien’s. I’ve read most of his books and enjoyed them. However, his most recent book, Terrified just did not seem as good as his previous work. It had suspense, and I found myself wanting to read on, but, I’m not sure why. The plot was your basic story of spousal abuse; the heroine fakes her own death and moves to another town; add to the mix a dangerous husband, an innocent child, a mysterious love interest, a scared niece, a love-struck teenager, and lots of surprise twists and turns. Disappointingly with all that smorgasbord I knew where the plot was going. This is a three star read for me. I recommend Mr. O’Brien’s work, but instead, check out One Last Scream or Final Breath.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible!!!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Kevin O'Brien books, always good!!!! This was as good or better than the others.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wayyyyyy toooo looooong!! Did not move fast enough, if at all, to warrant 500 pages. I get so bored with repetitive situations in books.

[Mary Rohmeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book

One of best books ever read suspense and writing orbiting would recommend to every reader 5 star rating for Mr O'Brien

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler Alert:

As her brother lies dying in the hospital, Lisa meets the handsome surgeon Dr Glenn Swann. They marry after a brief courtship, but it is not long before he reveals himself to be a sadistic wife beater. Lisa endures year with Glenn until her brother passes away, when she fakes her suicide and flees to Seattle. Body parts belonging to a young woman with whom the doctor had an affair are found in plastic bags and the doctor is sent to prison for 14 years. At that time DNA shows he was not responsible for her death and he is released.

Glenn is contacted by someone who tells him his wife is out west and gives him instructions to find her. When Lisa's home is broken into and she finds she is being watched, she suspects Glenn.

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller, but was not totally happy with the ending. Considering the circumstances and with the help of good lawyers, I do not think that Lisa should have been sent to prison.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin O'Brien does write a good thriller. I will try another one.

[Christy Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first Kevin O'Brien read but it won't be my last. I am a home visiting nurse and one of my patient's sent this book home with me last week. She sent several but told me to read this one first. I can see why now. Very good! It takes a really good book for me to stay up past bedtime reading but this one does it!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good, tense thriller. Some predictable elements but some unexpected twists too. It was quite creepy in places and I liked the ending. I will read more by this author.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

FS: "Her son was awfully quiet. Ensconced on a park bench in the little playground, Maggie divided her time between composing a grocery list and watching her four-year-old, Mark, play on the jungle gym."

LS: "Megan knew it would be a while, but they'd come out of it ok. Hell, she'd been through worse."

Location: Washington

Chapters: 31

Own/Paperback

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I quite enjoyed this book. Lots of edge of your seat, heart in your stomach kind of tension. A runaway battered wife, thought to be dead, a diabolical and nasty abusive husband, an obsessed and lovesick teenager, a pregnancy revealed, a life underground lived pseudonymously....all contribute to the thrilling part of this novel. About a third of the way through the author introduces us to most of the (male) characters who could be the doer of evil deeds. For the next almost two thirds of the book we are led into one trap of misdirection after the other. We, the readers, end up trusting no one and believing that nothing is as it seems. We end up being pretty wrong about the assumptions we make. By the last chapter or two the reader is in full knowledge of who done it, and from there the book slides into a predictable and totally pedestrian ending. Such a disappointment. Really disappointing. I was promised twists and turns and got lukewarm plot points.
3 stars for the suspense throughout most of the book. 1/2 star for the ending.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Kevin O'Brien latest thriller, you'll be the edge of the seat with this one. Megan Keeslar faked her own death to escape an abusive husband and started a new life and protected her unborn son. Her husband's been in prison for over a decade and gets out for his revenge on his life and claims his innocense. Now it's up to her to protect her teenage son.But someone who knows her as Lisa Swann knows her real secrets and is after her, killing women who looked like her. And he has a personal agenda to hurt the people who's closest to her and the ones she loved. And with a psychopath on the line, it makes her hard for Megan to keep up with her anonymity and her image out of the public eye. And that's why she's terrified, when she's running from the law and will have to do everything she could to save her life and her own son, even if she has to turn herself in, before she can escape. What a rush!

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished another great book by Kevin O'Brien.If you like more suspense then romance this is the book for you. I thought from reading the back of this book that I knew what this story was going to be about from previous authors that wrote the same kind of storyline BUT I was very surprised when the book was nothing like I thought. This is the story of Lisa Swann who staged her death to run away from her abusive husband Glenn. She starts a new life as Megan Kesslar and find outs she is now pregnant with Glenn's son, Josh. That is the start of what I thought was a typical storyline but it drastically changes to her having an obsessed stalker for years who ends up abducting her son. That's all I will say don't want give any spoilers. Let's just say great book ,good long read and very suspenseful. I would recommend to anyone who likes a great thriller.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin O'Brien has fast become one of my favorite authors in the last year and this book was no disappointment.

Lisa has fallen in love with the perfect man. A young charismatic doctor. 4 months after the wedding the dream has turned into a nightmare. Dr. Glenn Swann has a very dark side and Lisa realizes she needs to escape, to disappear.

A body is found and identified as Lisa and Glenn goes to prison for her death. Meanwhile Lisa has started a new life in hiding. 14 years later DNA proves that the body isn't Lisa and Glenn is out and on the hunt.

A great terrifying stalker story. I give it 5 stars

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin O'Brien is a new author to me; I had never heard of him before I saw this book download at a special price on Amazon. I expected the usual poorly written and unedited quality so common in self-published titles offered free or super-cheap as ebooks. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. This is a very polished, well-written, fully-developed novel (thriller genre) with believable characters and a multi-faceted plot. The author has good command of the language and tells the story with style and polish. I plan to read more books by this author.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. While listening to this back I actually quite enjoyed it. But when I got to the end and reflected I found myself wondering what the main character had actually accomplished during the whole story. I mean, thank goodness she had all these strong handsome men to come to her rescue because she literally didn’t do anything to really save herself or her son. She kind of just went along doing what she was told by the various people in her life. And the end was so incredibly anticlimactic so for me this story was simply, meh.

[Brenda Evangelista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the type of book you read when you're not 100% invested in diving into a complicated story. It's a solid book, interesting in ways that thrillers need to be. It's not going to challenge you too much; I figured out the bad guy before I hit the halfway mark, but the action kept me interested enough not to DNF. The ending is satisfying. I do wish, however, that there was more character development in the secondary characters, so that I'd feel more of a sense of satisfaction in the ending. All said, though, I'd read another O'brien novel.

[Debbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a definite must read. This was an excellent book I couldn't put it down Really good book.

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of one-note characters & so much gratuitous violence against women... it did read like a slasher, with plenty of deaths, and aspects kept me guessing... I did not like how O'Brien attempted to redeem Glenn; don't care for that shit at all...

But it was a very engaging story and I did read the whole damn thing in about a day and a half, which is commendable.

[Jerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. While not overly original, this is a solid, well written story that flows nicely. There was one character that I questioned until almost the end. I liked the solid ending. These are my reasons for rounding up.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid, albeit pedestrian, by-the-numbers effort from an author I like very much. This one just didn't seem as inspired as his others, it made me think of a Lifetime movie, novelized.

[Peejay(Pamela) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not up to O'Brien's usual standards. Not nearly as gripping as his earlier books.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too predictable

[Linda C. Sinclair · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrified

It was the most disappointing book I've ever read. Too short and no real ending. I won't be reading anything by him again.