When a woman discovers strangers moving into her London home, her estranged husband and sons nowhere to be seen, it’s only the beginning of the nightmare that will upend her life.
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.
