4.5 stars rounded up. Read in one day. A few questions left unanswered in the end but wow!

I honestly COULD NOT put it down. I was hooked. I mean, did she do it?! Would she stay safe? Would either of them?! The plot was fascinating as were the characters. The pacing was perfect and the book had an energy all its own!

Advanced reader copy provided by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Genre: 🔪 Thriller
Recommend:✅

“The Locked Ward” was a good thriller although it was slightly formulaic, formulas for thrillers work for a reason and Sarah Pekkanen never disappoints. The setting and story were original though inside the normal beats so it did keep me interesting! I finished it very quickly and did find myself needing to know what happened. And thank God for the epilogue because I needed a few loose ends tied up!

Georgia is a wealthy wedding planner who finds herself in a psych ward after being an accused of murdering her sister. She had only one person to reach out too, someone she is connected too but never met, Mandy. She had to convince Mandy to help her while also continuing to keep up the facade that she is disassociated so she’s not sent to jail.

Parts of this one were a little wild and far fetched. But, overall, I liked it and would recommend it for a quick thriller read!

You’ll love this book if you love:
✅Sister Stories
✅Fucked Up Familes
✅Unreliable Narrators

Imagine finding out you had a twin. Then imagine that twin had just been accused of murdering her adopted sister. In a family everyone knows. It’s a crime that everyone is talking about.

For Amanda, the news about her twin is deeply unsettling in many ways. She wonders if she’s always known she was missing someone. But she doesn’t trust Georgia, locked in a psychiatric ward for dangerous patients, who has not spoken since her sister was discovered, except to ask for Amanda’s help.

This twisty psychological thriller, told from both Amanda’s and Georgia’s points of view, is full of family secrets and breakneck storytelling that leaves you gasping. I loved it as much as Pekkanen’s House of Glass. I will be recommending this to everyone!

And isn’t that cover perfectly creepy?!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Another absolute page-turner from Sarah Pekkanen! I devoured this book and could not put it down.


In The Locked Ward, Georgia is institutionalized after being accused of killing her sister Annabelle. Georgia uses this moment to reach out to the twin sister she has only just learned about, in hopes that her sister will help her prove her innocence.

I have enjoyed other Sarah Pekkanen books and was excited to read The Locked Ward. What happens when you are in your 30s and find out that you have a twin, one that you have never met. You find out because the twin was accused of murdering her sister and is a psychiatric ward. This book sucked me in. Many of the twists and turns were predictable and I figured those out but the ending did surprise me.

Told from dual POV the book kept my interest. Even though the book was written in alternating chapters and in first and third person I would find myself confused whose chapter I was on and would have to flip back to the start of the chapter.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen for an honest review.

I enjoyed Pekkanen’s previous book HOUSE OF GLASS and had high hopes for this one! Unfortunately, I thought it was just okay.

Let’s start with what I liked! The structure of this one is super binge able- it features short chapters with little cliff hanger endings that kept me turning the pages. I was able to fly through this one quickly and think it makes a great popcorn/beach thriller!

Now for the not so good… at times the characters felt… a little juvenile? Our main cast is in their early thirties but made some questionable assumptions or decisions that felt more suited to someone in their early twenties. Many characters also felt one dimensional and there was a lot of telling but not showing. This didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the overall story, but it settled my rating at a 3 star rather than a 4 star read. Overall it was a fun and interesting, but also a somewhat forgettable, read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this one! The Locked Ward is a creepy murder mystery.. someone is dead and the murderer is being held in the psych ward-but did she really do it? Can we trust her? This story is told from 2 alternating perspectives. The chapters were short, so I felt like it flew by. Gradually we’re uncovering secrets from the past. Some of the twists were surprising, and you’re always waiting for something bad to happen next. It was hard to put down! Perfect summer psychological thriller. Look for it published August 5!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

The Locked Ward introduces Georgia Cartwright, a woman adopted into affluence who now finds herself confined in a psychiatric facility, accused of murdering her biological sister, Annabelle. Enter Amanda, Georgia’s identical twin, whom she never knew existed until now. Summoned by Georgia, Amanda is pulled into a psychological maze of memory, identity, and doubt.

Told through alternating perspectives, the novel’s short, sharp chapters drive the suspense forward with gripping momentum. Georgia’s dissociation and Amanda’s growing skepticism create a tense and compelling dynamic. While both voices are distinct, some readers may find Georgia’s second-person narration emotionally distancing

With brisk pacing and escalating tension, the novel is wildly addictive. The psychiatric facility setting is rendered vividly, eerie, atmospheric, and claustrophobic in the best way. Pekkanen crafts an immersive, unsettling world that keeps readers off balance and eager to uncover the truth.

The Locked Ward had me side eyeing everyone. This story follows Amanda, who learns she has a twin sister named Georgia only after Georgia is accused of murdering her other sister. Georgia ends up locked in a psychiatric institution while Amanda digs into whether she’s innocent or caught in a web of lies.

I really enjoyed the eerie ward setting and the way the short, fast-paced chapters kept the tension high. The constant uncertainty of who to trust kept me turning pages, and the twist was good. It wasn’t a perfect fit for me, but I still had a great time and would recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers with layered family drama and a bit of an unhinged vibe.

3.75⭐️

If you told me tomorrow that my long-lost twin sister was locked in a psych ward for allegedly killing her other sister and her first words to me were, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here,” I would not be doing DNA tests or interrogating family secrets. I would be doing theater. I would be in full Nicole Kidman in “The Others” mode, lighting candles and whispering, “Who killed Annabelle?” into the mirror. Which is basically how “The Locked Ward” operates: high drama, dubious choices, and a big old Southern Gothic swirl of “Did she do it?” meets “Who even are you?”

We open with Georgia Cartwright, adopted daughter of a rich family, former wedding planner (like, the expensive kind, not the “Pinterest board with vibes” kind), now locked up in a psychiatric ward for the murder of her sister Annabelle. Except twist, Georgia’s real sister might actually be Amanda, a completely unsuspecting bar owner who was just trying to live her life pouring whiskey, not unraveling a conspiracy that smells like money, murder, and a real weird adoption story.

When Amanda gets summoned to the psych ward by Georgia’s lawyer, she’s like, “Hi, what?” But then she walks in, sees some of her features on someone else’s body, and suddenly it’s giving “Parent Trap” meets “The Sixth Sense”. Georgia, doing her best haunted porcelain doll impression, is like “They’re gonna kill me. You gotta help.” And instead of immediately running in the opposite direction like a normal person, Amanda does what all thriller protagonists with no impulse control do: she gets involved.

The book bounces back and forth between Georgia’s locked-down paranoia and Amanda’s “what in the ancestry.com is happening” sleuthing. And while some of the reveals feel like they crawled out of a soap opera in designer heels, I was into it. We’re talking family secrets so deep you’d need a headlamp and a shovel. There’s corruption. There’s manipulation. There’s a mom named Honey, which tells you everything you need to know about the Southern high society horror vibes we’re working with. Oh, and because chaos loves company, let’s just casually sprinkle in a senator and his son.

Now, Georgia is either a fragile little hummingbird caught in the gears of a powerful machine, or the kind of manipulative genius who could cry on cue and convince you the moon is just a spotlight following her around. And Amanda? Girl. She is doing her best. But half the time I was yelling at her like I was watching a horror movie through my fingers. Ma’am, no, you don’t follow a mysterious man into a basement. You don’t trust anyone whose family yacht has a name like Second Chance. These are basic survival rules!

I will say, the pacing rips. The short chapters and dual POVs are like literary potato chips, you will keep saying “just one more” and suddenly it’s 2 a.m. and you’re Googling whether twin ESP is real. And while the final twist didn’t make me scream, it did make me sit up and go “Ohhh, you sneaky little psycho,” which is honestly all I ask from a thriller these days.

It’s not perfect. The psych ward setting sometimes feels more like a set from "American Horror Story" than a real facility. And if you’re hoping for an airtight psychological deep dive… you’re in the wrong genre. But if you’re here for drama, delusion, and sisters doing the absolute most while reality crumbles around them, this one delivers. 3.5 stars, bumped for commitment to the bit.

Whodunity Award: For Making Me Suspect Every Southern Woman Over Fifty With a Monogrammed Handbag

Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the early access. “The Locked Ward” may not have broken my brain, but it definitely kept me flipping pages like a nosy twin with something to prove.

Sarah Pekkanen has done it again! From the moment I started on page 1, I couldn't get enough! As usual, Pekkanen gives just enough twists and turns to make you THINK you know what is going to happen but will still surprise you. Mandy and Georgia will stay with me for a long time. I was not ready for this book to end!

Suspenseful, twisty and just the right pace makes this an awesome thriller. I really enjoyed the pacing and short chapters. Mandy could be annoying at times but it didn’t bother me enough to lower my rating.

This book was a 5/5 for me! The characters were amazing and the duel POV was perfect! This book was everything a thriller should be and I know when it publishes it will be a fan favorite for all!! I loved this book!!

Another edge of my seat thriller from Sarah Pekkanen. I enjoyed the multiple POV that really helped us learn about these characters and get in theirheads. If you enjoy the drama of a messed up family (like I do) then this book is for you. The twist will keep you guessing. An excellent end-of the-summer good read!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of this book for my honest review.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for an ARC of The Locked Ward in exchange for my honest review!

This was a fun, twisty mystery! Georgia Cartwright finds herself locked away in a psychiatric ward after she is accused of murdering her sister. She is the adopted daughter of an extremely wealthy family, where the matriarch did everything in her power to make Georgia feel unwanted. In the ward, she comes across a roller coaster of characters from patients to staff. Outside the ward, the characters are just as unhinged but with a lot more power.

This had me guessing until the end. Sarah kept throwing in jabs making me suspect almost every person in the story. I couldn’t put this one down and highly recommend adding this to your reading list!

If you like a story that plunges you into the middle of a situation and you have no idea who anyone is or who to trust then you will like this one.

Mandy runs the restaurant/bar that her parents owned and left to her. A busy, but relatively quiet lifestyle. Why is some lawyer contacting her, an only child, and saying her sister is undergoing a psychiatric stay after murdering her sister? And why does this sister insist on seeing her?

Chapters alternate between the sisters, one free and one in a locked ward as they try to understand the other and decide who to trust. Done well, I liked it and thought the ending was better than anything I had expected.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.

Sarah Pekkanen has done it again - given us a constant-page-turner of a thriller. Thanks to Netgalley and her publisher for the ARC I was privileged to read.

Georgia is accused of killing her step-sister and put into a mental institution until her court date which will determine if she is competent to stand trial. Recently she discovered she had a twin sister, Mandy, who she calls on to help her. The two couldn't have been more different. Georgia, a wedding planner, was raised in a wealthy family although she was adopted into this family. Mandy inherited a bar from her parents. Mandy makes a very good detective and starts digging into Georgia's past.

Meanwhile, Georgia confides in a fellow patient who has attempted suicide, but other than that she keeps a low profile and hardly talks at all.

I don't want to give away anything, but this book will keep you in suspense almost constantly. It's character-driven which I love and told from dual viewpoints: Georgia and Mandy - which makes it easy to follow. Pekkanen has always been one of my favorite thriller authors and this one does not disappoint.

Georgia and Mandy have an unlikely connection, and are thrown together for the first time when Georgia, who is in a psych ward after being accused of murdering her sister, asks to speak to Amanda and only Amanda. Georgia's family are questionable characters, and I struggled to connect with literally anyone. I guessed some twists early on but the story hooked me anyway. 3.5 stars, rounded up for a well written, entertaining book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for early access to what will be a highly anticipated thriller.

This has all the good tricks to get me hooked into it from the very start. While it did take a minute to get used to Georgia's narration of second person, I sped through this to find out why Georgia ended up in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital, accused of killing her sister Annabeth and afraid she is going to be next and only her surprise twin sister Amanda (Mandy) can help clear her name. I definitely liked Mandy best of the twins, and the way she goes about, with very little knowledge of the truth of her and Georgia and why they were separated, but quickly learning so she too can stay alive and not be another victim in what might be a very big coverup of the rich and powerful. Though the parts with how Georgia tries to survive with her sanity intact and the dark sides of locked wards (especially when someone with connections is trying to find out what you know and decide if you need to be silenced permanently). Lots of twists, savvy plans, well dressed sleuthing, nasty powerful people, politicians and discovering the truth about family make for a thrilling novel that kept me hooked and reading!

I had great fun reading this and look forward to more books by this author for twisty thrillers and solving mysteries of deaths in the nick of time! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this riveting story!

Georgia Cartwright- a glamourous, adopted daughter- finds herself accused of brutally murdering her biological sister. Confined to the most dangerous ward of a psychiatric hospital while she awaits trial, Georgia makes a chilling plea to a stranger she's never met: her twin, Amanda. Amanda- unaware she even had a sister- must navigate a tangled web of deception, privilege, and uncertainty to determine whether Georgia is innocent- or a manipulative killer.

The narrative alternates between two distinct points of view:
- Georgia's chapters are written in the second person, creating an unsettling, unnerving sense of disorientation- perfectly aligning with her mental state.
- Amanda's perspective is rendered in first person, grounding the plot in a more conventional, approachable voice.

The chapters are short and taut, propelling the story forward at a compelling pace.

Twisty Plot, Newly Sisterhood, and Emotional Depth! 3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book will be released 8/5/25.