🩸 The Locked Door by Freida McFadden – Book Review (⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 Stars)
⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t read this one yet and want to go in blind, stop here! You can grab a copy here and come back after you’ve raced through it in one sitting (like I did).
🩺 Quick Take: A Fast-Paced Thriller, But Missing That “A-ha!” Moment
⭐ I gave this 3 out of 5 stars — entertaining, but not my favorite McFadden.
⭐ I tore through it in a day — classic McFadden binge-read style!
⭐ The twist? It felt a little too out of left field. I wanted that satisfying click where everything suddenly makes sense, but didn’t get it here.
🔪 Plot Summary: Surgeon, Serial Killer Genes, and Severed Hands (Oh My!)
Meet Nora, a brilliant surgeon with a tiny problem — her dad is a notorious serial killer. Yep. She discovered the truth as a teen when she stumbled across a woman caged in their basement (talk about teenage trauma). Nora turned him in and vowed to never look back.
👉 She changed her last name, ignored his letters from prison, and focused on saving lives instead of ending them.
But then... her patients start turning up dead. Not just dead — hands chopped off, just like Daddy Dearest used to do. 😳
🕵️ Who’s Framing Nora? The Suspects Parade
💉 Brady – Nora’s college ex who was way too into horror movies. Now he’s bartending near her hospital and creeping back into her life. He even drove her car right before a severed hand showed up in the trunk. Convenient?
💉 Dr. Corey – Nora’s surgical partner. A little shady? Maybe. Until Nora finds him chained up in her own basement with his hand chopped off. (Yep. Bad day at work.)
😱 The Big Reveal: Sisterly Love Gone Very, Very Wrong
🎭 Plot twist time! The killer is Harper, Nora’s assistant. And SURPRISE — Harper is actually Nora’s long-lost sister.
Here’s the wild backstory:
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Nora’s mom, Linda, found out her husband was murdering women and couldn’t take it. Pregnant and distraught, she took her own life.
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Baby Harper survived the suicide attempt (barely) and grew up without Nora ever knowing she existed.
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Nora was raised by her grandma, who tried to erase the family’s dark past.
But Harper? She kept ties with dear old dad from behind bars and inherited his taste for killing. As Nora’s assistant, Harper had all the access — patient lists, house keys, car keys. Easy peasy for framing.
🩸 The Final Showdown & Last Shocker
Harper attacks Nora at home, ready to finish the job. Brady shows up, saves the day (finally redeeming his horror-obsessed self), and Harper is arrested.
👉 But McFadden gives us one last chilling reveal:
Nora’s not so innocent. She secretly murdered a patient — a man she believed was abusing his wife — by injecting a deadly drug. Harper saw it happen and is ready to use it as leverage from behind bars.
🤔 Why It’s 3 Stars for Me
✅ Fast-paced, binge-worthy read — I couldn’t stop turning the pages.
✅ Creepy family dynamics — McFadden does twisted families well.
❌ Twist felt unearned — There weren’t enough clues to make the ending satisfying. It just… happened.
❌ Needed stronger red herrings — I wanted to almost guess it, not feel blindsided.
📚 If You Liked This, You Might Also Enjoy:
📌 The Housemaid by Freida McFadden – Buy it here
📌 The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell – Buy it here
📌 The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth – Buy it here
🛒 Ready to Read The Locked Door?
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