Willem and Jurriaan Veldkamp are being raised by a controlling, abusive, exacting mother who is a world-renowned pianist. Their father ignores the signs of psychological and physical abuse, but the scars run deep, and one day when Louisa Veldkamp vanishes while jogging on the island of Wexalia, everyone wonders if she was swept out to sea or if someone did the unthinkable in WHAT YOU MADE ME DO. This thrilling new debut novel by Barbara Gayle Austin will leave readers gasping at the diabolical secrets this seemingly perfect family conceals.
Several years after Louisa’s disappearance, another storyline plays out. Anneliese, adopted at birth, spent her childhood being traumatized by a psychopathic brother. All she wants is to find her biological mother and live a happy life. When her search leads her in the direction of Louisa Veldkamp’s stepsister, Katja, who is now married to Louisa’s husband, Anneliese devises a plan to use Willem to get close to the Veldkamp family. After becoming pregnant, Anneliese moves in with the family and finds them to be cold and distant. As she continues to uncover the truth about her real mother, someone in the family is not happy with Anneliese’s meddling, and she soon finds her life in grave danger.
WHAT YOU MADE ME DO is a multilayered, well-written psychological thriller that starts with childhood abuse, uncontrolled rage, infidelity, and murder. Willem and Jurriaan suffer the wrath of their cold, vindictive mother, and Annaliese is tormented by her brother. These damaged people learn to survive through lies, deceit, and manipulation. There are redeeming qualities in the characters, such as Willem’s protective nature of his disabled brother Jurriaan, but the characters are mostly unlikeable. However, this doesn’t detract from the entertainment value of this dark, twisted thriller of tangled lives and past regrets that will keep readers glued to the pages. Even in the end, WHAT YOU MADE ME DO leaves us wondering if these characters will break abusive patterns and live normal lives, or will always be destined for misery.
An expectant mother gets more than she bargained for when she marries into a seemingly perfect family in this gripping debut novel–a must read for fans of A. J. Finn and B. A. Paris.
After surviving a nightmarish childhood, Anneliese Bakker is on the mend and searching for her birth mother. But when she meets Willem, she falls madly in love and finally finds a safe place to land. Engaged and expecting her first child, she moves into the Veldkamp mansion on a stately, tree-lined avenue in Amsterdam. And yet, nothing about Willem’s family is as it seems. Instead of the loving home she has longed for her entire life, she’s confronted with a cold and hostile household.
Increasingly isolated, Anneliese is drawn to a creepy basement shrine to Louisa, Willem’s mother. Louisa Veldkamp was a legendary Dutch pianist who presumably drowned–but whose body has never been found. Though still revered by her fans, Louisa is a taboo subject in the family home. Haunted by her own demons, Anneliese must dig into the family’s past to untangle a dark web of secrets, inadvertently putting herself and her unborn child in grave danger.
Not knowing who to trust, Anneliese has to decide just how far she is willing to go to safeguard the family life she so desperately seeks.
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