SEPTEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
In this contemporary thriller, listeners follow the story of a London-based family whose lives are turned upside down through various bad decisions. Narrators Elliot Hill and Elizabeth Knowelden tell the story from the viewpoints of husband-and-wife Bram and Fiona. Fiona tells her story through a podcast, while Bram tells his through a letter. The dual narration is helpful as the plot jumps around in time. Both narrators do a sterling job of bringing life to this typical suburban couple. Hill’s highly skilled narration, especially his character development through accent and intonation, is particularly notable. Both narrators keep the suspense of this thriller going right to the very end. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 06/04/2018
British author Candlish makes her U.S. debut with an artfully plotted, affecting page-turner. 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. Even more devastating betrayals await the doughty Fi. Alternating narratives—one Fi’s, the other Bram’s—raise the tension. In a particularly inspired move, much of Fi’s account comes via her emotionally raw tale on a true crime podcast, The Victim, with tweets from the audience serving as a kind of Greek chorus. 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 talented author. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents/ICM Partners. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Our House
“Nail-biting from the first line to the very end, Our House plunges the reader into one family's terrifyingly plausible nightmare, and twists the knife right up to the very final page.”—Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key
“[A] superb thriller...the ending Candlish has devised is devastating.”—The Washington Post
“An artfully plotted, affecting page-turner…a truly killer climax.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Candlish is skilled at portraying families in critical situations and ramping up the suspense...An absorbing plot with surprising twists until the final page.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“[A] twisty domestic thriller that features everything readers enjoy about the genre: dark secrets, unreliable narrators, a fast-moving plot, and a terrifyingly plausible premise. This could be summer’s breakout hit.”—Booklist (starred review)
“I loved the wonderful hook of Our House, which plays with our modern obsession with property—and the vulnerability that exposes. Louise Candlish is a great writer; she inhaled me into her nightmarish world where everything we think we know is ripped from under our feet.”—Fiona Barton, New York Times bestselling author of The Widow
“[A] masterfully plotted, compulsive page-turner.”—The Guardian
“The last line will make you literally shout with shock.”—Good Housekeeping
“A delightful disturbing story about marriage and secrets.”—BookRiot
“[An] addictive portrayal of how lives can unravel.... A compulsive story with a final flourish in the form of a delicious sting in the tale—one of this year's must-reads.”—Sunday Mirror
“Candlish is an expert on the psychological flaws of these types of couples, and she doesn’t shrink from posing uncomfortable questions about modern marriage. This very original storyline is a winner.”—The Daily Mail
“If 2018 brings a better book than Our House I will eat my hat. Addictive, twisty, and oh so terrifyingly possible.”—Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of I Let You Go
"A high-stakes domestic thriller that is utterly absorbing. Twists and turns abound, and Our House will have you locking your doors and checking your windows.”—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of Not a Sound
“Absolutely brilliant. It has bestseller written all over it.”—Kate Furnivall, New York Times bestselling author of The Betrayal
“Dark, timely and full of surprises, Our House is a truly captivating novel of domestic suspense....A true binge-read. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.”—Alison Gaylin, USA Today bestselling author of If I Die Tonight
“Twisty, warped, credible. Brilliantly plotted and compelling.”—Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal
“Yesterday I missed my stop on the train because I was so absorbed in Our House. I am in awe of the twisty, clever plot and gasped out loud at the last paragraph.”—Erin Kelly, author of He Said, She Said
“This book was impossible to put down and I LOVED it. Believable, brilliant and beautifully written.”—Alice Feeney, author of Sometimes I Lie
Kirkus Reviews
2018-05-29
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.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 (The Swimming Pool, 2016, etc.) digs deep for both suspense and compassion but comes up empty with Fi, whose almost stubborn cluelessness about the state of her marriage (Bram is a serial adulterer, among other things) and, later, her insistence on being a victim (so much so that she goes on a podcast called The Victim) make her a sour protagonist at best. When Fi catches Bram having sex with someone else in the children's garden playhouse, she throws him out but decides to try a custody arrangement known as a bird's nest, where the children stay in the family home and the parents alternate living there and at a newly acquired flat. While the setup seems great on paper, it doesn't take into account the depths of Bram's lies—the yearlong driving ban he's hidden from Fi soon becomes the least of his concerns—and the lengths he'll go to save himself. With the narrative confusingly split into sections from Fi's podcast segment, a Word document that's allegedly Bram's suicide note, and perspectives from both spouses, it's difficult for readers to keep a firm grip on the timeline and to truly care as Bram enters into an unnecessarily complicated blackmail scheme and Fi remains annoyingly oblivious on all fronts even when Bram disappears, having sold the Alder Rise home without her knowledge.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.
