This book was just okay. Georgia’s chapters were really boring, and I didn’t understand or enjoy the second person POV. Also, she brought up so many things that just never panned out or lead anywhere - what was the deal with the senator’s sons? Why were they so creepy, and what was with the “lol I think he may be a stalker” plot line? Even after things were supposedly sorted out, I still felt like I had no idea what was going on. The whole book Georgia is convinced she’s going to be killed by the deep state, and then…I guess not? And did she know it was her mom all along, or not? I don’t know, and I just didn’t care enough about the characters to worry about it.

Sarah Pekkanen is a favorite author of mine. Her latest, The Locked Ward, was a page turner. Don’t miss this one.

Sarah Pekkanen has long been a must-read for me, and continues to keep that title in her latest novel!

The story follows two women, twins who didn't know about the other growing up. One is locked away for murder, and the other is trying to follow breadcrumbs to figure out what really happened the night someone died.

The POVs go back and forth as Georgia must live in a psychiatric ward, and Mandy plays detective. There were multiple twists and turns and jaw-dropping moments.

It's an intense, quick-read, as I got through it in 24 hours. If you've enjoyed this author before, don't skip this novel!

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

I jumped at the chance to read this upcoming mystery/thriller, as I loved the author's last book, House of Glass. While this was a fun book to read, the ending and big reveal to both mysteries seemed a bit contrived.

Georgia is in the locked ward, being found insane and guilty of murdering her sister Annabelle. We don't know Mandy, but out of the blue she is contacted and told she has a fraternal twin. Conveniently her parents are both dead. So she does a DNA test to confirm that she and Georgia are sisters. Alternating short chapters are Georgia in the locked ward- trying to prove her innocence and trying to recruit her long lost twin. The other chapters are Mandy as she tries to solve two mysteries; why were she and Georgia separated at birth, why did her parents never tell her she had a sibling? And the second mystery, who killed Annabelle and how did they frame Georgia?

Overall the plot was pretty silly at times, it felt a little too melodramatic and it was hard to determine why the characters were acting the way they were. There wasn't a whole lot of character development. Also it seemed kind of convenient that Georgia just found out about Mandy just before being accused of murder.

I did have fun reading this, as it has good pacing and the short chapters keep you turning the pages. But it was missing a lot of elements that we love in a good mystery. Hopefully Sarah Pekkanen's next book will be back up to her standards.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC. Book to be published August 5, 2025.

I thoroughly enjoyed this psych ward setting type thriller. I literally work on a psych ward, so this setting was super easy to picture in my head and I loved how accurate the setting was described, feel like some research was definitely done here haha ! I was constantly trying to guess what was going on and the amount of times that I switched my guess was too many too count , and I still didn't fully predict the ending! This was my first Sarah Pekkanen and now I just want to read all her books !

I’ve enjoyed every book Sarah Pekkanen has written. I’m always eager to read her newest novel. The Locked Ward was written with alternating chapters by two female characters. As the mystery of “who done it” unfolds, you learn more about the two women and root for them to find the answer to a murder.

I love Sarah Pekkanen’s books and The locked Ward was no exception. Georgia is being kept in a locked psychiatric ward after being arrested for the murder of her sister., Annabelle. As Georgia awaits her trial, she sends her sister, Mandy a message to come help her. This sister had no idea she had a sister as she was adopted.

This is a fast paced thriller with lots is twists and turns and keeps the reader highly engaged from beginning to end. It’s told through the points of view of the two sisters and it strikes the perfect balance of tension and thriller.

3.5 stars. This really felt like a run of the mill thriller. There just was not anything special about the storyline.

As always, when I read Sarah Pekkanen, I loved this book. The ever present twists and turns, the story told from two POV. At times I really didn’t know if Mandy was being conned. I also kept stopping and asked myself ‘How does she come up with this stuff’. I have been a huge fan for a number of years and always look forward to her next great read. The epilogue was a shocker!

Sarah is one of my favorite authors but this just wasn’t one of the good ones.

It dragged for so long in the middle with absolutely no purpose at all. Colby, Opal, Josh. All characters teased with more meaning but just to be filler for nothing.

I also don’t like the idea of a mother killing her child over the father. Not a good ending

Wow! I flew through this one. My first book by Sarah Pekkanen, but I will certainly look for her older books now, too. This book was fast-paced, filled with cliff-hangers at the end of alternating POV chapters, and had a great dose of mysterious twins-separated-at-birth connections. I couldn't stop reading. Mandy is in her early thirties running her late parents' bar when all of a sudden, she gets a call from the "Crime of the Century" alleged perpetrator's attorney, requesting to see her immediately. From there, Mandy is drawn into a mysterious murder plot with a family member she never knew existed, and begins to understand her own identity and past as she searches for answers. This one is going to be a great beach read when it releases in August! Very easy to sit down and devour in one sitting. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book, with my honest review below.

The Locked Ward was a mystery that was hard to solve and an incredibly tense read in trying to do just that. Following the murder of Annabelle, daughter of an affluent family, her adopted sister Georgia is locked up in a mental ward and accused of the crime following years of jealousy. But Georgia has a plan, if only she can survive the ward, and that plan involved her twin sister whom she was separated from at birth, Mandy (Amanda). Mandy tries to solve the increasingly complex crime but, while she feels a connection to her recently discovered twin, she doesn’t know if she’s actually a mastermind criminal or wrongfully accused. This thriller was very well done, but had a final twist I didn’t think was necessary. Regardless, I dare you to try to figure out what actually happened before it’s revealed.

Sarah Pekkanen (and her frequent co-author Greer Hendricks) are typically auto-read authors for me; I usually love their quick-paced, often dual POV thrillers. Unfortunately, of all that I've read, THE LOCKED WARD was the most underwhelming for me.

Unfortunately, the main premise just seemed a bit too far-fetched for me to every fully buy in; you have twins separated at birth...and then one of the twins ends up in a psych ward after she's accused of murdering her sister (that she grew up with, not her twin), and the other twin (who just found out about having twin) is determined to help and solve the mystery. It was just a lot going on. You do get a look into the ultra-rich lifestyle, a potential political scandal, and some nerve-wracking scenes with other patients in the psych ward - but overall this novel was just a bit eh or fine for me.

The positives are I always love a dual POV, and it was a relatively short and easy one-day read. However, the end was a just a bit too flat - it was something both too convenient and too out of left field for me to feel realistic.

📖 Book Review 📖 For a year and a half of my life, every weekday at 8am I clocked into work and used my keys to enter the psychiatric unit at a hospital. It was my favorite job and yes I have stories that I won’t share here…the hours flew by because there was never a lull in my day as a psychiatric social worker. Sarah Pekannen’s latest page turner envelops the reader into a world not many people see.

A phone call draws Mandy to a hospital where a young socialite named Georgia is being held for the violent murder of her younger sister. This one phone call changes Mandy’s entire life: she has a twin sister who was separated at birth. In an attempt to protect herself, Georgia feigns a dissociative state to the world while proclaiming her innocence to a stranger, who just so happens to be the person closest to her. Mandy sets out to discover the secrets of their past, and what really happened the night Georgia was arrested for murder.

Told in dual points of view, The Locked Ward is an immersive and impeccably crafted psychological thriller that draws the reader into this web of mystery and deceit. Sarah Pekannen masterfully weaves together a story that mirrors the dissonance of her beautifully complex characters, leaving even the readers to question who can be trusted and where the truth really lies.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: This was my first book by this author but it was one I knowingly took a risk with. Because of that, I am going to give this a 3 star rating to be fair. I also DNF'd this at 25 percent which is my rule for tracking and reviewing. I want to be upfront about that because if you are. fan of this author, I have a feeling you will like this. It fits squarely in the wheelhouse of a "popcorn thriller." Everything moves very fast, from page one. Although, I don't know how it ends, I would imagine it's explosive and filled with juicy plot twist. Just like most other popcorn thrillers, you really have to suspend a lot of disbelief. Typically I am able to do that, however, the tropes being used to move the plot forward I could not get behind. I despise when authors use characters to say things like, literally just like this but not a direct quote "I wrote a paper on this in psychology class in college so I'm not like other girls." It just personally really rubs me wrong and annoys me. I knew going into this that I likely would not like the tropes being used which is why I don't think it's the books fault. I just had some hope that I would enjoy the authors twisty writing anyway. I did not enjoy the writing and felt irritated by the characters which is a clear sign for me to DNF.

For those of you who really like popcorn thrillers, mental health plot twists, and outlandish (in a good way) plots then you really should pick this up. I think it does those well.

2.5 stars rounded to 3

This felt like a pretty run of the mill, formulaic thriller to me. I didn't find any of the revelations or twists particularly shocking. I also didn't have feelings one way or the other about most of the characters. It just all felt a little flat. It was very fast paced and a quick read, though.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

4⭐️

I was SO excited when I received the ARC for this book as I’ve enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen’s previous books! And it did NOT disappoint! The suspense sucked me in and didn’t let me go until I got to the very last page. The little turns throughout the story were surprising and exciting! I really enjoyed the premise and execution of this book.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was delighted to receive an ARC of Sarah Pekkanen's "The Locked Ward" from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. This one had been on my TBR list as soon as I heard about it.
Georgia wakes up in a mental ward, accused of murdering her younger sister, Annabelle. As the black sheep of the family, she knows it will be difficult to prove her innocence. Her only hope is her newfound sister Mandy. Will Mandy help her try to prove her innocence or will she become another victim?
This was a quick read. I found myself drawn in from the first page. I was initially not a fan of Georgia, but she grew on me. There were some nice twists with a satisfying ending.

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for graciously providing an ARC for me to review!

𐙚 Long-Lost Siblings
𐙚 Memory Gaps
𐙚 Murder Mystery

Sarah Pekkanen’s The Locked Ward is a fast-paced, twisty thriller. The story follows Georgia, accused of murdering her sister and placed in a psychiatric ward, and Mandy, the twin she never knew existed, who must decide whether to help prove her innocence. This novel was packed with secrets, lies, and suspense. Pekkanen crafted an entertaining mystery with this one.

Rating: ✰✰✰/5

Thank you for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ・❥・

Received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The Locked Ward has an interesting premise but is a bit predictable. The main characters are not very interesting so it is tough to engage and care about them. Overall this was a fine read, just not one of my favorites from this author.