Shelf Control #96 – 10/10/2025
Today’s psychological thriller is absolutely relevant in today’s world. Social media is in our pockets and the forefront of our minds for a significant amount of time. Most of our connections are innocuous at least, fulfilling at best. However, what happens when that connection turns sinister? That’s the feature of today’s Shelf Control post!
Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a celebration of the unread books on our shelves! The idea is to pick a book you own but haven’t read and write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up.
If you want to read more about the Shelf Control feature, check out Lisa’s introductory post.
Best Eaten Cold – Tony Salter
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 296
Audience: Adult
Publisher: ETS
Publication Date: 23 Mar 2017
Imagine that someone wants to do you harm. Someone you once knew, but have almost forgotten. Now, imagine that they are clever, patient and will not stop. They’ll get inside your head and make you doubt yourself. They’ll make you question who you are, and ensure that everyone you care for starts to doubt you too. Each perfectly-orchestrated doubt will slowly, steadily, build to a crescendo and destroy you. This is real and it could be happening to you.
Best Eaten Cold is a chilling reminder of how quickly – and how blindly – we have learnt to trust in the online world, despite the somewhat ironic fact that none of us really understand it at all.
Fabiola lives an idyllic life in Oxford – beautiful house, adoring husband, happy healthy baby. She thinks she’s left her past behind her. But in a world of smartphones and social media, it’s not so easy to wipe the slate clean.
Best Eaten Cold is a terrifying psychological thriller of gaslighting, technological trickery and the depths of human vindictiveness.
It is a nail-biting story that could happen to any one of us in this digital age.
My Thoughts
I’m interested in this storyline for its sinister nature. That someone could make a slow, calculated attack on someone like this… there must be some serious justification in their eyes.
This plot is already curious enough, but when we know our protagonist has a past it naturally makes us wonder what relevance this has to the present storyline. What is she hiding? Is it serious? Is it even related at all?
The online element of events that play out is really relevant in today’s society. It makes people so accessible to this kind of attack too. Gone are the days when being at home and around those you loved offered psychological safety. We leave a big open door in the form of our online activities to allow anyone into our safe space. Into our heads.
Best Eaten Cold is a well-rated novel. Fans of mystery, suspense and psychological thrillers like me will hopefully agree that Best Eaten Cold is intriguing. With any luck, I’ll be able to confirm or deny that for you soon! And t won’t be soon enough, it’s been on my TBR since January 2020!
Have you read Best Eaten Cold? Are you reading any other books in the same genre you’d like to recommend?
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