Psychological Thriller Review: Or Else | Joe Hart

A man is having an affair with his neighbor when a blackmailer reaches out threatening to expose him or face further consequences in Joe Hart’s psychological thriller, Or Else.

I always find that psychological thrillers with a male lead and a male author have a different vibe to them than the standard psychological thriller. There are some male authors who write character-driven psychological thrillers. However, I find that many psychological thrillers written by men and with a male protagonist veer towards action and plot over characters and relationships which is a different (though no less valid) appeal. Or Else fell into that group.

About the Book | Or Else

The story revolves around a mystery writer named Andy Drake who has recently moved back to his hometown to care for his father who is struggling with dementia. Andy is also having an affair with a woman named Rachel who was a childhood friend. Rachel and her husband David have two sons and live just up the street from Andy and his father. The affair has been going on for several months, and Rachel sees it as an escape from the emotional abuse from her husband. Andy and Rachel go to great lengths to hide their affair, but it seems that someone in the tight-knit community has been watching.

When Andy receives a note telling him to end the affair with Rachel “or else”, he cycles through everyone in the neighborhood who may know and have a reason to threaten to expose the affair. Not long after receiving the note, Rachel’s husband David is found murdered in their home and Rachel and the kids have disappeared. Andy feels even more pressure to keep the affair a secret, or he risks becoming the number one suspect in the murder and disappearance.

Review | Or Else

This is an entertaining, but not outstanding thriller. It’s a quick read and an interesting premise. The affair at the center of the story adds tension and intrigue to the plot that fuels buy-in. The reader gets plenty of snippets of Andy and Rachel’s affair in flashbacks that were intended to make us care about their relationship, though I don’t know if that was entirely effective for me. At a certain point I actually forgot that Rachel and the kids were missing (or at least, I didn’t care that much), and that isn’t a good sign as the central tension of the story. For the affair to have stakes, I need to care about Rachel but I didn’t see enough of her in real time to feel that way.

Andy falls into that trope of male protagonists who are portrayed as lovesick and obsessed with an idealized version of the woman having an affair with them. We are told why the affair is justified, but for some reason we don’t feel that it is justified. I suspect that this type of character understandably reads better to male as opposed to female readers. I almost always root for the central couple to make it, but in this case I didn’t. I was more interested in exactly what was going on as it relates to Andy, rather than Andy and Rachel. David isn’t the only murder—there were several other deaths that seemed as though they must be linked. What does the note Andy received have to do with the murders? Is someone trying to frame him or get him to back off? The note reads like a blackmail note, but the writer isn’t asking for anything.

Andy is a mystery writer which is an interesting profession for the protagonist to have. I don’t think he was a particularly good detective in practice, but his writing background would help him to think through a situation framing it how he would write it in one of his books. This process often helps him see where there are holes in the story being told and he needed to look further for a way to explain everything. It also helped him identify a few leads that he otherwise would have missed.

The mystery meanders some, and I worried at one point that none of the things were going to connect in a way that was satisfying for the reader. That wasn’t the case! There is a particularly lengthy scene where Andy has broken into Rachel’s house to look for clues and another intruder ends up in the house at the same time. This leads to a chase that was heart-pounding, but ultimately not relevant enough to the conclusion to justify how much time was spent on it.

Credit to the author that I didn’t guess what was going on and that made the reveal interesting. Sometimes writers have a good shock-ending but it ultimately doesn’t tie back to anything else that happened. This makes the reader feel cheated, because there would be no way to have put the pieces together. Or Else did not have that problem. The ending made sense and it tied to several things that happened in the book. There were a few loose threads that mostly relate to red herrings. There was also a nice twist at the end that was satisfying for the psychological thriller readers (we love a good twist!).

Overall, I thought this was a quick, entertaining thriller that prioritized plot over characters. It had a satisfying ending that I didn’t guess and a nice twist. Joe Hart is a talented mystery author and that was showcased in this book. If you are looking for a quick-paced book with action and solid plotting, this is a good one to pick up. Fans of character-driven psychological suspense may find they aren’t fully invested in the central relationships.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Joe Hart

Joe Hart was born and raised in northern Minnesota, where he still resides today. He’s been writing horror and thriller fiction since he was nine years old. He is the author of eleven novels and numerous short stories, including the books The River Is Dark, Lineage, and The Last Girl. When he’s not writing, Joe enjoys reading, working out, watching movies with his family, and spending time outdoors.

Official Synopsis | Goodreads

A secret love becomes a fatal affair in a twisting novel of suspense by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Joe Hart.

When novelist Andy Drake returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father, a reconnection with his childhood friend Rachel escalates into a secret love affair. For Rachel, struggling to maintain the facade of a picture-perfect life, it’s an escape from an emotionally abusive marriage. Then Andy receives an anonymous note warning him to end the affair. Or else.

Whoever’s been watching is going to make Andy pay. Weeks later, Rachel’s husband, David, is shot to death. Rachel and her two young sons vanish without a trace. One misstep, one careless reveal, and Andy could look as guilty as sin. Clue by clue, as his investigation into the mystery unfolds, Andy discovers that he and Rachel weren’t the only ones keeping secrets.

Nothing in this quiet neighborhood is as it seems. No one peeking from behind the curtains of their homes can be trusted. And the worst is yet to come. Because David isn’t the only one who will die.