On a bright morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought on Trinity Avenue. Nothing strange about that. Except it’s your house. And you didn’t sell it.
FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.
When Fi Lawson arrived home to find strangers moving into her house, she is plunged into terror and confusion. She and her husband Bram have owned their home on Trinity Avenue for years and have no intention of selling. how can this other family possibly think the house is theirs? And why has Bram disappeared when she needs him most?
FOR RICHER, FOR POORER.
Bram has made a catastrophic mistake and now he is paying. Unable to see his wife, his children o his home, he has nothing left but to settle scores As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of events that led to a devastating crime. What has he hidden from her – and what has she hidden from him? And will either survive the chilling truth – that there are far worse things you can lose than your house?
TILL DEATH US DO PART.
Review
I am a lawyer by trade and, having once researched and written an article discussing the increase in property fraud and how to safeguard against such an occurrence, I awaited publication of Our House with great anticipation.My excitement at reading the book increased after meeting the author at a blogger’s even held by Simon & Schuster UK (Books and the City) and discussing the premise of the book further.
For a variety of reasons, I decided to go with the audiobook version of Our House to listen to on my commute to and from work (I love that you can add Audible narration to a Kindle book purchase!!). That proved to be a silly decision because Our House is so wonderfully addictive that I could frequently be seen sitting in my car after my journey had ended trying to fit in “just one more chapter” (thanks to Louise Candlish there have been several occasions over the past few weeks when I only just scraped it into work on time).
The Guardian describes Our House as a ‘property-porn thriller’ and I think that the undoubted success of this bookis likely to give rise to a wave of writers exploring this new genre of crime fiction.
So, what can I say about Our House…? It’s addictive, it’s well-written, it’s brilliantly plotted, it’s tense, it’s twisty, it’s credible – it’s absolutely bloomin’ brilliant!
Our House is tense and compulsive. There an underlying layer of suspense that continues to build as the plot develops, however the truly “terrifying” part of this story is just how possible such a scenario is.
I enjoyed the way the story was told from alternating narratives – with Fi and Bram both given the opportunity to tell their version of events. I found this to be a very effective method of story-telling, making allowance for both the past and present and gradually weaving all of the threads of the story together. A significant chunk of Fi’s story is told via a true crime podcast, The Victim, complete with responding tweets from the podcasts listeners. The narration of such in audiobook form takes a bit of getting used to, however it ultimately works well and the tweets add a brief diversion from the seriousness of the situation.
Our House is a fantastically tense and beautifully plotted tale, with a few surprises along the way, and culminating in a brilliant finale. I personally think it would translate perfectly to TV (BBC & ITV take note!) – I wonder if we may see a mini-series on the horizon…
About the Author
Louise Candlish studied English at University College London and worked as an editor and copywriter before writing fiction. Our House is published in the US by Berkley in August 2018 and is out now in the UK, published by Simon & Schuster.
Louise is the bestselling author of eleven previous novels, including The Swimming Pool and The Sudden Departure of the Frasers (Penguin, 2015), which has been optioned for TV by Hartswood Films. Louise lives in South London with her husband and daughter. Follow her day to day on Twitter at @louise_candlish or get updates at www.louisecandlish.com.
The Curious Ginger Cat 