Fabulous reads – Seeing is believing in new thriller
Book review - A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena.
A Stranger in the House, Shari Lapena, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780593077412
FROM the author that brought you The Couple Next Door, which has more than 100 000 online ratings, comes Lapena’s next mystery thriller: A Stranger in the House.
Karen and Tom Krupp live in upstate New York and have a blissfully idyllic life. Their flawless home and perfect marriage are everything they’ve ever wanted. Tom returns one day from work to find Karen missing, her bag and ID are there, as well as dinner cooking, but his wife is nowhere to be found. Then the police knock on his door.
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Karen wakes up in hospital with no recollection of the last few hours. Tom and the police arrive, they tell her she’s had a car accident miles from home and in an unsavoury part of town. The couple return home and try to put the episode behind them. But things are different. Karen suspects someone has been in the house as she doesn’t leave things lying around. She wouldn’t leave her perfume stopper off, would she? But what does she know, she does have amnesia after all.
When a body is discovered close to her accident site, Karen starts asking questions. So do the police. Where did their perfect suburban life go?
Lepena has a knack for intriguing story premises but this book possibly fell short in the execution. The author did a great job with the twists and turns throughout the book and the ending was just sinister enough to make you feel giddy but I felt the overall shine missing and was slightly disappointing.
