The Picture on the Fridge

by Ian W. Sainsbury

★ Winner of the Kindle Storyteller Award 2019 ★

Mags Barkworth still suffers the effects of a life-changing tragedy over a decade ago.

She knows her husband loves her.

She knows he would never do anything to hurt her, or their daughter.

But what if the voice in her head, the one she’s pushed away with therapy and anti-depressants, is telling the truth?

What if it’s all a lie?

When Tam, their daughter, draws an uncannily detailed picture of a place she’s never been, Mags’ life starts to unravel.

But even in her most paranoid moment, Mags could never have guessed the secret she is destined to uncover.

The debut psychological thriller from the Amazon and Audible bestselling science fiction author, Ian Sainsbury.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Book Club

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2019

About the author

Ian W Sainsbury is a musician, composer, writer, comedian and puppet wrangler (yes, that's a real job). Obviously, he doesn't know what to do when he grows up and - now that he's in his forties - he's resigned to the fact that he probably never will.

His first novel was published in 2016.

Subscribe at http://bit.ly/1VSg2tT for a copy of the unpublished prologue from The World Walker.

email Ian: ianwsainsbury@gmail.com

Reviews

[Bex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth the effort

This read as a first draft by a non-experienced writer. Poorly presented, weak sentences, lacking in description, no meat. Had the book been better written, the plot could have been gripping, but it wasn't. It needed a good editor, and at least one proofreader: multiple mistakes with grammar, omitted words, doubled words, continuity faults. As for the ending, considering there was no fallout/arrest at the end? Er, no.

[Katie T · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up. Fast, kind of a sci fi lite thriller. Gave me John Marrs vibes. I'm not completely sure I totally understand the ending.

[Zoe Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow 🤩 what a book!! Not what I was expecting at all. I raced through the pages desperate to find out more of what was going on. I read this is one sitting which is a first for me.

[Charli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked it up and didn’t put it down... except for wine.

I don’t want to spoil anything but almost knowing and yet still not quite understanding till the very end is what has propelled me to start and finish this book in a single day.
I throughly blame the author for my lack of productivity today but not for the escape into an alternative universe whereby I did not want to escape.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, just ... far-fetched, or too far-fetched for me, which kind of does make it bad IMO, at least. A few things that bugged me:

1) I know his company is super important and influential in the US, but how is Bradley allowed to just waltz out of a British hospital with one of his children and tell his wife that she died? And how about those "complications" that meant she had to be knocked out? Mighty convenient, unless we're supposed to believe that the doctors and hospital were colluding with him.

2) It's hard to believe that this same big important company, when holding a serial killer - even if they do believe he's incapacitated (and they're sadly trusting in believing that he is) would be holding him in such a poorly secured facility that he only has to kill two people to escape.

3) Mags is supposed to have such severe anxiety about Tam - even after years of therapy - that she can barely be separated from her overnight, and yet she seems able to take off to the States for several days without a single twinge of it.

4) I know mad scientists gotta mad scientist, but I fail to see any practical use for what they're doing, given that it involves brain surgery and can only work between two people who would presumably both need to be cooperative - especially in the 21st century. I'm sure there is plenty of technology that is less complicated and less dangerous.

5) The author seems unaware (or if aware is ignoring it) of the distinction between identical twins, who come from a single egg and sperm and share all their genes (which also means they're always the same gender, unless something funky - and vanishingly rare - happens to one in the womb) and fraternal twins, who are no different from any other pair of siblings. If regular siblings have no telepathic connection, neither should Tam (I'm assuming I mean the daughter and not the mother, since I just saw I had "Mags" here) and Kit, or the other pair mentioned in the "confession" towards the end - Jason and Molly, I think. I'm not sure about this, but I would also assume that since they result from completely different mechanisms, having fraternal twins in your family wouldn't make you any more likely to have identical twins than anyone else.

[Monika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Фрагменти од слики - книгата е тотален хаос. Некој трилер со научна фантастика...
Преводот е на ниво на google translate, само што толку печатни грешки не може ни google да направи. На корицата има наведено преведувач и лектор кои не знам дали ја имаат прочитано книгата како целина. Убиството пишува дека е во Грузија, ама тие одат во Америка, па претпоставувам дека е во Џорџија. Речениците се буквален превод од англиски, со испревртен редослед, ако некој сака да ја чита подобро на англиски да ја прочита, може нешто ќе разбере.

[Robert Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book started well. The story had an interesting plot a young girl in England is drawing extremely detailed pictures of buildings which were the scenes of crimes perpertrated by an American serial killer .
The first half of the book is a good read and well paced . The second half is frankly just unbelievable . I know it is fiction but I just could not believe the convoluted and ridiculous ending .

[Petra Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew Bradley was a creep the minute he was introduced and Mags should have known better than to listen to a psychologist.
Also I knew very early on that it was all about twins so the so-called "twist of the year" wasn't there for me. I'm quite surprised Mags didn't think of it, considering she herself had a twin...

The book could do with some editing and also the use of British and American English was inconsistent sometimes. (A Brit using parking lot while an American used car park...). Some things just didn't make much sense - Mags didn't want to have her mobile in the bedroom but still kept her home phone there... yeah, well, you can't text on a home phone, but still...
But it was a good story.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did not interest me at all, I felt that I was reading it just to finish but didn’t like it at all

[Jason Arscott · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning and compelling this is

Wow just wow, I have followed the author from his very first book ( which I also recommend) and was a bit surprised when I read a monthly email and he mentioned a psychological thriller, I admit I may have been a bit sceptical. I was wrong (don't tell the missus i admitted to be wrong) and this is a brilliant, brilliant piece of writing as always but this just is a proverbial "home run".
I was hooked straight off with the jeopardy and drama, I was transported right there with the characters, I could feel their pain and wanted to know more. This just in the first few paragraphs, I wanted to know more, wanted to feel more so paused real life for a few hours and lived a darker more sinister life.
I had started to try and guess the ending at pretty much every turn of the page, but never felt like I knew for sure. You may guess where you think the story is heading, wrong, you will be very wrong. There is enough intrigue to keep you looking left because you think you should be looking right but really you should be looking up.
So to cut a long story short stop reading this drivel and buy this bloody fridge story already. Lol

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't as taken with this book as other readers. It was much different than I was expecting.

Firstly, the pacing was off. At times it was gripping while at other times it moved along at a glacial pace.

Secondly, it was a hodgepodge of genres. It started off as a psych thriller, then the middle turned into a sci fi and towards the end became a cat and mouse action thriller. I found the shifts in genre confusing and offputting.

The concept was fascinating and I wish the story had just focused on the sci fi genre as that was the best part.

The audio performance wasn't great. I have no idea why the narrator was male when the protagonist was female. Did not make sense and made it difficult to connect to the MC. Ideally, there should've been two narrators. A female for Mags and a male for the bedroom killer.

[Staceywh_17 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, drew me in right from the start & I didn't stop till I'd finished! Think it was on Netflix that I saw something like this before where triplets had been kept as 'lab rats'.

[Christine Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written grammatically - but content unbelievable and I'm afraid I gave up before mid-way, muttering 'This is absolute nonsense!'

[Sharon Henry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not enjoy the authors writing style

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kira FlowerChild · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise for this novel was intriguing, and I enjoyed the first few chapters. It didn't take long, though, to figure out exactly what was going on. At that point it was simply a matter of watching things play out the way I knew they would. In the author's note, Sainsbury states he tried not to stay inside the killer's mind too much. How much is too much? I would say at least one-third, bordering on one-half, of the novel is written from the killer's point of view. That is way too much for me. Also, the character of the father - what was the author doing there, trying to create the most repugnant human he could imagine? Well, he succeeded.

Apparently Sainsbury's usual genre is science fiction. I would say stick with that. I don't like so-called thrillers where I can predict every twist and turn. I want to be surprised. I love to be astonished. And antagonists are a necessary evil, but I really don't want to spend a lot of time in their heads. Actually, in this case, I think the father and grandfather were far more evil than the killer. The killer was delusional and if he had familial fatal insomnia, which is what the author appears to be describing, he would have died from the disease long before he had a chance to become a serial killer. But let's not let facts get in the way of the story, right?

I would rate this 2.5 stars if I could, simply because of all the nasty characters. Nasty is exactly the way I felt when reading about what they did. Also, the author seems to think that telepathy between fraternal twins is as common as it is between identical twins - i.e. the mother and her brother having a "connection." According to anecdotal evidence, telepathy does occasionally happen between fraternal twins, but it is extremely rare. After all, fraternal twins have no more genes in common than siblings born separately. Nine months together in the womb does not necessarily a connection make. Just ask my cousins, fraternal twins who have been mortal enemies almost since birth - unless, of course, someone else attacks one of them.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing beginning ,and thought oooh this may be different and yes the concept was creepy with horrid villain or two but I just felt a bit let down
I rushed the ending as cd see what wd happen,a chase hiding etc confrontation,no surprises .
A ok thriller with though I have to say an interesting premise which will make me look at the author again to see what kind of concept he may come up with but I not sure if wd be convinced to buy till read a lot of reviews
Is a debut I think and not bad for a debut just didn’t throw many surprises in and I also didn’t get the link between the two leads as thought was about twins .i guessed prittey early on the situation but still liked the ideas just maybe not so much the execution

[David Snape · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story that is definitely one of those marmite conundrums. Tam had, what it appears to have a mighty talent to art. But, we find out that those pictures, are mostly in a state when Tam is drawn into them. Those pictures have a resemblance of something terrible happening across the pond. The story got good towards the end even though it was a little slow to start off with. If they made this into a longer story, it would have been an absolute classic. Just fell a little short of the mark for me but the intent was there.

[Cynthia L Everson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth or Fiction

This was an extraordinary book!
Brilliant, Gripping and Hard to Put Down. The characters were unique in that their true selves were not quite present every time. Bradley was odd from the jump. He never loved Mags and used his own child for experimentation. Mags had her gut feelings, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. He only got with Mags to create twins. Even though it's a book, when your gut feelings prick you, please pay close attention!!

[Jeanne Dierkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down

I read this within a couple of days as I simply couldn't put it down. I'd completely zone out on buses, trams - nearly missed my stop a few times. Twists and turns and really enjoyed getting into the psyche of the different characters and speculating who were the bad guys. Still got shocked several times along the way.

[Kalina Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute page turner. Brilliant writing, and so cleverly done.

[Caz Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought it was a little far fetched at first but turned out it wasnt

[Shannon Keens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why do authors insist on filling their book with 2/3 of crap and then absolute fire last 1/3 of the book!?! There was just so much hoohaa I wanted to give up until BAM! I will say, I completely thought I’d guessed the plot line which added to my frustration. And then I was shooketh to my core. Really interesting concepts about neuroscience in the last third of the book, but man it was a slooooooow burn. Not worth reading IMO

[Simon Moreton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping!

Excellent plot and extremely well written. The author leads you on a journey you don't want to take but are compelled to follow! Some great plot twists.

My first by this author but definitely not my last :)

[Laura Bagnall · Rating 3 out of 5]

feb 2020 reading it al the coal authority having a hard time at work so sitting absorbing it in my lunch hours in the car its very tense have read some of the comments on here only very briefly cos dont want any spoiler's
Mags is in a controlling marriage
she has a major case of pnd over clara the dead twin baby
Bradley the twat husb doesnt help
tam tam the daughter is hiding somethink

[Colin Waldron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Premise was a little far fetched for my taste. If I tell you the premise it would spoil the story. Suffice to say it involves twins and their close affinity to each other.

[Jilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely brilliant, had me totally hooked from begining to end. Well worth reading and I am now looking to see if I can find anything else by this author.

Mags Barkworth still suffers the effects of a life-changing tragedy over a decade ago.

She knows her husband loves her.

She knows he would never do anything to hurt her, or their daughter.

But what if the voice in her head, the one she’s pushed away with therapy and anti-depressants, is telling the truth?

What if it’s all a lie?

When Tam, their daughter, draws an uncannily detailed picture of a place she’s never been, Mags’ life starts to unravel.

But even in her most paranoid moment, Mags could never have guessed the secret she is destined to uncover.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sure had it moments of heart pounding scenes and not knowing the next twist in the tale. But there are portions where you know who's upto no good and you feel situations are used unnecessarily as a filler. The perfect part of knowing not to do it but someone's lame enough to just do it so you get a shock and thrill. That does come about here in bits and starts but the author has done quite a good job of using the intitutiveness that twins share to guide the story to a creepy feel. The ending is something to look out for. Not that predictable after all.

[Sandra Leivesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had an intriguing beginning but then I got a bit bored, before it picked up again and the last third had me gripped. The storyline was quite horrific because it felt like something like this really could happen (It made me think of a documentary on Netflix about triplets separated at birth)

An interesting first read/listen in 2020

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting until the very end. I did not connect why the killers mind and Tam's mind were connected as he was not her twin. What and how were they connected? Were the people that were killed all ones that had been in test experiments? Maybe I missed details that explained these questions. Book just felt unfinished to me but it was one that I really enjoyed reading until the ending.