At the start of Louise Candlish’s thriller Our House Fi Lawson, a 40-ish wife and mother, is returning to her comfortable home in South London when she is greeted by an alarming sight: Someone is moving into her house ... The couple has indeed bought the house from Fi’s husband, Bram, for 2 million pounds. They produce a sales document that features Fi’s forged signature, along with that of Bram . Fi’s beloved house is no longer hers. Where is she to go? What can she tell her sons? The rest of the novel explains how this disaster came to pass.
Fiona Lawson’s picture-perfect life started to fall apart when she caught her husband, Bram, cheating. Newly separated, the Lawsons agree on a bird’s-nest custody arrangement, alternating their time in the house to minimize disruption to their two sons. Sharing the house goes smoothly—until one afternoon, Fiona returns home to find all of her possessions missing and a new family moving in ... dark secrets, unreliable narrators, a fast-moving plot, and a terrifyingly plausible premise.
Through multiple narratives, Candlish deftly addresses the book’s most pressing questions; readers move between Fiona’s past, Bram’s past, and Fiona’s current reflection on the past with surprising ease. This might sound like a lot for one book to juggle, but never fear - Candlish balances these various threads effortlessly, and the story is all the stronger for their intersections ... Candlish puts readers right in the heart of the action right away, and it’s an effective technique—I found myself instantly hooked by the myriad questions Fiona’s predicament raises ... I will caution readers that this book is not one that relies on instant, earth-shattering twists; do be patient with this book, but it will have reveals a plenty in store for you.
Louise Candlish proceeds to masterfully spool out the complicated series of events ... Candlish tells a large part of the story through a podcast called 'The Victim,' which Fiona narrates, and through a Word document written by Bram, both in retrospect ... This narrative structure also allows the reader to feel the full weight of the characters’ emotions ... Allowing the reader to plumb these depths gives the plot real plausibility. What seems outlandishly far-fetched at first slowly becomes uncomfortably conceivable and makes this novel nearly impossible to put aside ... The novel is a clear demonstration of Candlish’s considerable skill as a writer.
Fiona 'Fi' Lawson loves her house in the fictional posh Alder Rise neighborhood almost as much as she loves her picture-perfect family: husband Bram and adorably rambunctious sons Harry and Leo. Candlish digs deep for both suspense and compassion but comes up empty with Fi, whose almost stubborn cluelessness about the state of her marriage and, later, her insistence on being a victim make her a sour protagonist at best ... In a novel concerned with connection and trust, Candlish fails to connect with readers on either level, serving up characters so wrapped in their own problems that 'family' is merely a word to them.
Fiona Lawson gets the shock of her life when she returns from a brief getaway to the beloved London townhouse where she alternates custody with her estranged husband, Bram, of their two children: another family seems to be moving in. Bram has apparently sold the home out from under her and the kids—and vanished, along with the £2 million payday ... Movingly chronicling the decline of a marriage that once looked as solid as the couple’s stately red-brick residence, Candlish manages to stash a couple of trump cards, setting up a truly killer climax. American fans of domestic suspense will want to see more from this author.
