Alice LaPlante Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Award winning and best selling author Alice LaPlante has written both nonfiction and fiction. LaPlante is a teacher of creative writing at Stanford University, where she used to be a Jones Lecturer and Wallace Stegner Fellow. She also teaches at San Francisco State University in the MFA program.

“Turn of Mind” won the Wellcome Trust Book Prize for the year 2011. It is her debut novel and was released in the year 2011. Her work is from the mystery, thriller, psychological, and suspense genres.

Besides writing, she has edited best selling books for quite a few other writers of both nonfiction and fiction. She is a regular consultant on content marketing strategies for such Silicon Valley firms like Salesforce, Cisco, Googlek, and HP.

She has lived with her family in Spain and Northern California.

“Turn of Mind” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2011. Is the perfect murder the one you are unable to remember or the one you are unable to forget?

Dr. Jennifer White (who is a brilliant surgeon and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s) is suspected of killing Amanda, her best friend. Amanda’s body was discovered badly disfigured, four of her fingers were severed in surgical and precise manner.

While the cops continue their investigation and Jennifer searches through her own mind for all the fractured clues for any broken clues to Amanda’s death. There is a picture coming through of a complicated relationship the pair had, both are uncompromising and unsentimental and friends for life. They were, at times, each other’s most formidable opponent.

Fans of the novel found the unusual perspective of the narrator well done. All of the action in the book is seen through the eyes of someone developing dementia, filtered through her changing brain. More important than the central mystery is the look at what Alzheimer’s and the other dementias due to a person and their personality.

“A Circle of Wives” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2014. Dr. John Taylor is found dead in a hotel in his hometown, and the local police find incriminating evidence, enough that they suspect foul play. Detective Samantha Adams (whose beat in Palo Alto covers small town crimes usually) is thrown into the high profile murder case. It is even more intricately intertwined than she ever could have imagined.

Dr. Taylor was both admired and loved, as a respected family man, a prominent plastic surgeon, and a community spokesman. Hidden from public eye, is the fact that he led many secret lives. He was a closeted polygamist and married to three women that lived in three different cities. Suspicions run high when the three women turn up at his funeral. Detective Adams soon finds that she is hunting a killer down through marital discord and a web of lies.

Fans of the novel found this to be quite eerie, oddly surreal, and was quite a page turner. Tiny sly moments are revealed when the reader is least suspecting them to. This author is blessed with an incredible gift to tell stories, and this book is a significant contribution to dealing with and understanding a topic that is not found in many fictional stories.

“Coming of Age at the End of Days” is the third stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2015. Anna has never conformed and has always had a tough time of fitting in. She is earnest and willful, and when she was younger, she rapidly hid her quirks from her friends and parents. She is suddenly taken over by melancholia at the age of sixteen, which makes her lose her sense of purpose and self.

Moving in next door, are the Goldshmidt family. They are active in a religious cult, and Anna is awestruck by Lars, their son. As well as their fervent violent prophecies for Tribulation that happens at the End of Days.

Quickly, her entire life, very identity, family, and home are going to undergo some profound changes. New found beliefs that she has threatened to push her right over the edge. This will make her have to find her way back to center with the assistance of some unlikely buddies.

Fans of the novel had a tough time even putting this book down, and found that the premise in the hands of an author like LaPlante was great. It showed how easy it is for the teen of today try so hard to find something they can believe in and would grasp at whatever they could to belong. Anna is a well developed character, while the reader is able to experience her journey along with her.

“Half Moon Bay” is the fourth stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2018. Jane O’Malley loses all that she has when her teen daughter gets killed as the result of a senseless accident. She is devastated by her loss, and wants a chance for a new life. She moves from San Francisco to a small town by the sea called Half Moon Bay.

The months go by and she is able to put together a chance at peace. Kids start disappearing, and quickly Jane starts to see her own pain reflected in the faces of each of the parents in the town.

Jane starts to wonder if she is going to be able to make it through all of the aching loss, as well as all of the fear that is surrounding her once again. The disappearances continue, and the people in the town start to suspect her.

After enjoying other books by this author, some had high hopes for this one, and it never disappoints one bit. Fans of the novel found they were riveted by every page of this one, it was well written and full of suspense the entire way through. LaPlante is a stellar author, and Jane, the main character was quite believable while she is grieving. This is for fans of good suspense novels.