A Stranger in the House

I picked up this book because I fancied a captivating read that I could get through quickly. I've been hovering around 50% of the way through It by Stephen King for 2 months now and I wanted a success story to motivate me.

Stranger in the House was a captivating, quick read. I was gratified by how quickly the percentage increased on my kindle, and motivated to keep reading. I found the story to be somewhat predictable but an enjoyable read.

Particularly where I felt this book fell short was the length and the lack of development. The writing style felt a lot more “show” rather than tell, and did not build up a emotional response to flat characters I felt were doing some bizzare actions to further the plot.

I do not fault the plot for being predictable for a predictable plot can still be a great book if written in an intelligent and exciting way. More that the book was lacklustre in a few ways.

A Stranger in the House was fast paced and plot driven with little character development, much like Lapena's previous book The Couple Next Door . The amnesia-driven plot has been overdone in the genre and this book unfortunately didn't execute it well enough to make up for it. There was a very small cast of characters which would have worked if the characters were more interesting or likable. As it was the husband was insufferable - he comes home to dinner on the stove, his wife nowhere to be found, her keys and bag on the counter, and he's annoyed that she didn't tell him she was leaving because he'd had a bad day and looking forward to seeing her. After she's found and is being questioned in connection to a murder he says “he's surprised he can still love her when he doesn't trust her.” All after a single, strange incident. The one character I was excited to see make a return was Detective Rasbach, who made his first appearance in Lapena's first novel. Overall the book was compulsively readable but not particularly memorable.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group/Viking for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)