Large Print Copy: Published August 2017 (first published July 2017)

Random House

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Tom Krupp arrives home in a rich New York neighborhood to find his wife isn’t there, and has left in quite a hurry. She left her purse, phone, and didn’t lock the door. He is concerned because it’s not like her to leave the house unlocked. The cops show up to tell Tom that his wife Karen has been in a car accident. The police say she was driving recklessly. Karen wakes up in the hospital and can’t remember why she left the house so quickly, or why she was driving so fast in the “bad part” of town. Officer Kirton and Office Fleming visit Karen in hospital to question her, and let her know that she will be charged with reckless driving. Karen and Tom hire Jack Calvin as their lawyer. He’s confident that with Karen’s clean record she’ll be able to have the charges dropped.

Brigid Cruikshank is Tom and Karen’s nosy neighbour, she’s also Karen’s best friend. Her husband Bob works long hours and doesn’t pay much attention to Karen. She spends her time watching the neighborhood through the front window, knitting, and waiting.

When Karen arrives home she begins to notice things have been moved around and she’s quite sure that someone has been coming into their home. She’s suffering from a pretty bad concussion so Tom is sure her short-term memory is a little fuzzy.

A man and woman stumble into the abandoned restaurant looking for a place to make out when they come across the dead man’s body. Detective Rasbach and Detective Jennings are on the case to find the murderer. Not far from the scene they find a pair of pink dishwashing gloves. The gloves have tire tracks on them, which seem to match the tire tread of Karen’s Honda Civic. The detectives become extremely suspicious of Karen and pay her and Tom a visit.

Did Karen really murder someone? Is Tom in on it? Did Brigid see anything? A Stranger in the House is a fast-paced, page-turning thriller.

The characters were a little one-dimensional for me. I would have loved a little more background about Bob and Brigid. Tom, Karen, Brigid, the cops, the detectives…they all annoyed me. I found some of their actions slightly off. I don’t think I could even pick a favourite character to be honest with you.

I also found it a weird that Tom would keep telling the police how it’s so out of Karen’s character to be in “that part of town”, and she never speeds, etc…BUT they’ve only been together a few years. That’s not very long at all. I wish Tom and Karen would have been married for longer, because then when he said it’s out of her character it would have been more believable.

There was too much telling and not enough showing.

I’m not a fan of using amnesia as a tool to help set up twists in a thriller. I didn’t like it when it was used for The Girl on the Train and I don’t like it in A Stranger in the House.

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, non-gory thriller then I’d recommend A Stranger in the House.