A Stranger in the House: From the author of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR

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When several members of the ring soon turn up dead, Billy abruptly pulls Kate out, blowing her cover. Last year debut novelist Shari Lapena set the psychological domestic based thriller genre alight with her blockbuster novel, The Couple Next Door. Her debut thriller, The Couple Next Door , was a global bestseller, the bestselling fiction title in the UK in 2017 and has been optioned for television. Brigid had wanted to talk to Tom about a strange man who had been snooping around their house the morning of the accident.

To the right of the driveway, a flagstone path crosses in front of the porch, with steps leading up to a solid wooden door in the middle of the house. I do actually like the author’s writing style and the simplicity of it, but I agree that the mystery could be more complex. One of Julie Summer’s strengths as a biographer is her capacity to allow her subjects to speak for themselves – but at the same time, throughout this fine book, the reader always has a reassuring sense of the author’s guiding hand.

The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force tactical air controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Tension builds and relationships threaten to fall apart as Karen and Tom try to piece together what happened that night and what it means for their future, if they even have one. We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006). When Karen wakes up in hospital following the crash, she has no memory of the accident or the whole evening prior to the crash.

She loathed Karen for what she did to her, for having gotten away with murder, and mostly for having humiliated her. First, about 20 pages from the end of the novel, we learn a rather surprising truth about one of our central characters.Tom leads him into the living room and collapses onto the large white sofa as if his legs have given out, not looking at the officer's face. Her husband, Tom, was confounded upon learning of his wife’s tragedy and started having doubts as to why Karen fled from their home in haste.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a complimentary, advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. And that Brigid carefully laid out her plans so she could frame Karen to finally have Tom all to herself. His wife’s disappeared, left dinner cooking, the door’s unlocked, all her shit is there and his first reaction is annoyance? This book may suit readers who are looking for a quick read with short chapters but I prefer psychological thrillers with more complex characters and want to be surprised by twists so it ultimately fell flat for me.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I feel like lack of character development is a known challenge with thrillers. There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. But with the discovery of a murdered man just blocks from the scene, bells start to sound for detectives Rasbach and Jennings, setting in motion an investigation that quickly threatens to expose some unsavory secrets beneath the cozy suburban life Karen and her husband of two years, Tom, have constructed for themselves—not to mention the downright creepy activities of the couple’s intrusive neighbor, Brigid, who’s Karen’s putative best friend. One of her favourite things is to look out at the passing scenery as the train eats up the miles, and think and plan and dream. Brigid later plants the murder weapon—a gun that she took from the scene of the crime—in the Krupps’ garage.

A Stranger in the House will unnerve you, put you on edge and lead you to question just about everybody that enters this novel. VERDICT The author of the acclaimed The Couple Next Door has written another fast-paced, engrossing psychological thriller that will have readers guessing until the very end.The husband as it turned out, was Robert Traynor, the same man who was murdered the night of Karen’s accident. Some she’s unwilling to share and others – as a result, again, of the convenient amnesia – she simply can’t reveal. It was mentioned several times throughout the novel how Tom loved his wife, how he could not believe Karen could have done this or that, and how Karen’s actions were unlikely of her.