| Title | : | A Stranger in the House |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 073522112X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780735221123 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 305 |
| Publication | : | First published July 27, 2017 |
He looks at her, concerned. “How do you feel?” She wants to say, Terrified. Instead, she says, with a faint smile, “Glad to be home.”
Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.
There's a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.
The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.
Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won't stop asking questions.
Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.
A Stranger in the House Reviews
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Let me start this whole she-bang by saying I almost DNFed this book in excess of 10 times. I’ll repeat that statement slower for maximum impact. I. ALMOST. DNFed. THIS. BOOK. TEN. BLOODY. TIMES. For those unfamiliar with my reading habits this is a HUGE deal. Like scream-it-from-the-rooftops level HUGE. I’m a compulsive book finisher. I NEVER DNF. But this book--this book was my everest.
After having enjoyed Shari LaPena’s debut novel, The Couple Next Door, I eagerly awaited her next work. But my god. Just…..my. god. There are no words. Nothing to sufficiently articulate the absolute CRAP that is A Stranger in the House. And what I don’t understand is how a writer could seemingly lose all ability to….WRITE. Because it’s not just messy characterization and plot, it’s basic mechanics that are problematic. Fundamental writing rules broken. Repeatedly. Actually not broken, more like blown up, run over, THEN backed over, only to be run over a third time. For good measure. In simpler terms, as a smarter man once said: God may have made the world in 6 days, but while he was chilling on the 7th, satan popped up & produced this.
The premise is actually decent: Tom Krupp returns to his picture-perfect, suburban home to find his wife Karen’s mysteriously vanished. Weirder still, their front door is unlocked and Karen’s purse and cell phone left behind. Puzzling….. Shortly thereafter, police officers arrive to inform him that Karen’s been in an accident while driving erratically through “THE. HOOD.” GASP. Tom rushes to the hospital to find Karen alive, but with no memory of the crash or the immediate events prior. How convenient [insert heavy eyeroll]. THEN, a dead body and Karen’s dishwashing gloves (pink, natch) are discovered near the accident site. Evidence accumulates. Surprises are revealed. Marriages ripped apart. Lives torn asunder. Yada, yada, yada.
Aside from painfully bad writing, A Stranger in the House features perhaps the single worst literary character: Tom Krupp. And this isn’t a “so-bad-they’re-good” thing. Oh, no. I actually, genuinely wish Tom were a real person just so I could kick him in the balls. What’s worse? Readers are meant to LIKE the man. But HOW I ask you? HOW? He comes home to find his wife missing and his reactions are all self-oriented: “He wanted rather fervently to see his wife…...He pulls his cell phone out of his pants pocket and checks to see if there’s any message from her that he might have missed. Nothing. Now he’s mildly annoyed. She might have told him.” He’s ANNOYED. Not worried. ANNOYED. His wife’s disappeared, left dinner cooking, the door’s unlocked, all her shit is there and his first reaction is annoyance????
Oh, but it gets worse. Tom has all the emotional range and maturity of a gnat. The instant his pristine Stepford life is disrupted, he devolves from loving husband to paranoid adulterer. His self-described (and described and described….FFS, WE GET IT) “perfect marriage” has the slightest bump….and recognize all these events are happening to KAREN, not him….he’s a two-step away from signing divorce papers. “Tom looks back at her, his heart tight. In all the time he’s known her (like 2 years. lbr, tommy-boy), and loved her, he’s never had even the slightest reason to doubt her, about anything. It all comes down to that night. What really happened? Doesn’t he owe her something for those years of complete trust?”YES, TOM. YOU DO. She’s your WIFE. And from all appearances, a damn good one, according to Tom Krupp’s 1950s scale of domestic bliss. Really, this shouldn’t be a question. And yet it continues, a paragraph later he says: “I don’t know Karen. He pauses. ‘I love you. But I’m scared.” DUDE. This is legit the FIRST sign of marital discord and already you’re considering bailing?? Tom continues to suck throughout the remainder of the book with such philosophical gems as: “he loves her, that hasn’t changed. He’s surprised that he can still love her, when he doesn’t trust her.” AWWW, TOM. YOU DESERVE A MEDAL. Gag.
But wanna know the most offensive part (shockingly, not Tom)? The two female leads spend the entirety of the book lusting after the man. After Tom. TOM. Like he’s some prize pig. This condescending, sanctimonious, disloyal, emotionally immature, cowardly nitwit. Ladies: love yourselves. PLEASE.
As for the rest of the book? UGH. Nothing interesting happens throughout the bulk of the middle section, character portrayals alternate between soap opera villains and Mary Sues, small, insignificant details were endlessly repeated, ‘show don’t tell’ broken on every. fucking. page, and holy moly: the most stilted dialogue I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. Leave it to Beaver on STEROIDS. Oh, and every well-worn trope is brought out to play. Can we PLEASE put a kibosh to the amnesia-centric plots? Amnesia isn’t that common. Enough already. This wasn’t a book. It was a Lifetime movie set to page. And a bad one at that.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a complimentary, advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. -
I'm not going to write a detailed review. I found this book to be a convoluted mess. The last 3 pages were good. Other than that, I don't have much to say!
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5 STARS
I literally could not stop reading or thinking about reading this book! I loved the frantic tone that gave me the feeling of being on edge and the super quick pace. Never a boring moment. I carried this book around with me just in case I had a few minutes to get a few pages in!
Tom and Karen have a picture perfect life. The are newlyweds with a beautiful home and Tom is a successful accountant. That is until Karen's accident, she has crashed her car into a pole and has no idea why she was frantically speeding through a seedy neighborhood! She is taken to the hospital and now has a concussion and can't remember what or why she was there. The police have questions for her. Hmm.....
"If someone has to go to jail--well, that's the way the cookie crumbles." What??!!
Karen is a very detailed person and while she is home recuperating from her injuries, she begins to notice things in her home are misplaced. She knows she didn't leave a glass on the counter. She would never have left her stopper off her perfume and one afternoon she sees the outline of a body on top of her bed. Has someone been laying in her bed??!!
Twists galore and some fast turning of pages. I always wanted to get back to reading this one! Lots of fun, quick read, highly entertaining! But that is just my opinion! Loved it! -
1 "c'est terrible" star !!
2017 Award - Worst Read of the Year (runner up)
Plastic plot
Wooden characters
Juvenile writing
The Stranger in the House should have a run-in with the Girl on the Train and save us all from these horrible little chick-lit thrillers.
Nothing redeeming to say about this except I had to find out how this horrid little book ended.
Yuck ! -
I haven't read Shari Lapena's previous novel, the hugely successful "The Couple Next Door", so I was looking forward to reading a book by a new author to me and a one that comes highly recommended within my online book circles.
"A Stranger In The House" is a brilliant and intriguing suspense thriller that was so compelling I couldn't put it down - I know it's a cliche - but I found it so easy to read and follow, I just wanted to keep on turning the intriguing and entertaining pages.
Karen is preparing tea at home whilst waiting for her husband to come home. This is the last thing she remembers! She wakes up in hospital being told she has just survived a car crash after what looks like she left her house in a blind panic. What caused her to run scared and what could have happened before the car crash that made her to drive so erratically??
The dramatic and exciting start really gets you in the mood for this suspenseful and intriguing thriller with twists and turns and an unexpected ending I really didn't see coming.
I'm not too sure whether I truly liked the main characters - bar the determined detectives - the personalities just didn't do it for me, but this certainly didn't matter and bore no importance at all, as I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend this riveting book to anyone who loves this particular genre.
It's a very competitive business the suspense/mystery thriller market but I believe the author has crafted this perfectly and without a doubt I expect this to be huge in July when it's released. It's very clever, well written, intriguing and suspenseful and has all the trademarks of a massive bestseller - I wish Shari Lapena every success with "A Stranger In The House" this year!
A fantastic 5 stars!! -
A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena is a 2017 Pamela Dorman Books publication.
Oh dear. Well, this novel is the fourth one I’ve read within a one or two- month span with very similar plot lines.
Although, by the time I got this one from the library, I’d grown weary of the repetitiveness, I have to say I enjoyed the quirky atmosphere, and the dash of dark humor thrown into the mix, which was refreshing.
Tom and Karen look like the ideal couple. But, their lives rapidly spiral out of control when Karen abruptly leaves the house after receiving a phone call, and winds up crashing her car in a bad neighborhood. The accident causes Karen to suffer memory loss, so she can’t tell anyone what happened or why she was in such dangerous location.
To complicate matters, a dead body is discovered near the car crash and it looks as though Karen could know something about the murder, and to top it all off, Karen begins to suspect someone has been in their house, moving little things around and going through her things.
With the cops asking pointed questions, Tom and Karen become increasingly paranoid, which puts an enormous strain on their once perfect marriage.
Karen finds support from her best friend and neighbor, who keeps a very close eye on Tom and Karen….
This story moves along at a brisk pace and has several very nice twists along the way, but it also has one of those annoying tacked on codas I’ve begun to despise. The last sentence was, no doubt, intended to leave the reader feeling a slight shiver down the spine, but honestly, I thought it was wickedly funny. I really did laugh out loud. I can’t go into details, but it was a very fitting conclusion and I would enjoy reading a short epilogue sometime in the future updating us on how the characters are doing.
Overall, this book is enjoyable enough, but it might have worked better for me if I wasn’t burned out on the dueling female plotline and those tacky last- minute add-on twists.
This will be my last PT for a while. I do enjoy this sub-genre, but the originality is beginning to fade, and the plots are starting to all run together. Time to shuffle around the TBR a little, I think.
3 stars -
Update.... strange strange strange ... I read strong positive reviews of this book the other day - thought to myself - “oh ... I forgot the author had a 2nd novel that I wanted to read - as “The Couple Next Door” was good with an ending that had me laughing my bazooka- off....
So....
The library ebook was available: As I started reading - I kept saying “I’ve read this before”... IT WAS SO FAMILIAR
STRANGE.... HAD I? YES!!!!
It’s rare that I forget about a book that I read.... but what’s interesting is my rating hasn’t changed! I feel the same now as when I wrote my original review.
WEAK PLOT -
*Still* flat as a pancake..., and the train never came. It’s a closed train station. It’s never coming.
Library-ebook:
Having enjoyed a great belly laugh at the end of “The Couple Next Door”...
really laughing hysterically....
not sure it was suppose to be funny or not - but I loved that a book did that to me ....pure fun entertainment—-
I kept plowing through this book —hoping for another surprise jolt.
Instead of this being a fun train ride with goodies at the last stop —and my surprise ‘jolt’ ....
It was like getting notice that the train has been delayed - and I was sitting on the bench waiting - getting restless - a little bored - and sleepy. — but I keep waiting.....(reading).
Flat as a pancake is the good news.
The entire novel needed a make-over.
1.5 stars -
Traveling Sister Review by Brenda and Lindsay
What a surprise a Stranger in the House was for us as we were not expecting to like this one as much as we did. I decided to listen to this while Lindsay read it. It’s a great easy one to listen to that didn't require my full attention.
A Stranger in the House is an intriguing, easy and fast-paced suspenseful psychological thriller that had us both purely entertained by this fun and easy story.
Shari Lapena does a good job creating unlikable characters here. While some seemed not worth liking we were oddly invested in them and changing our minds on how we felt about them throughout the story. Even though none were worth rooting for either, we found ourselves rooting for each at different times. The story is told through the perspective of our three main characters and we enjoyed each one and really felt like we got to know them well.
The mystery behind this one had us guessing from start to finish. The shocking twists and turns had us flip-flopping back and forth with whodunit as the suspense built up for us until the final stunning twist that left us gasping and messaging each other as fast as we could.
We highly recommend for a fun, nice and easy, purely entertaining story to read or listen to. -
I was really enjoying this book, I was intrigued. And although it was a "classic" storyline, were if honesty reigned supreme, none of the chaos would have happened. I kept hoping for "more". Oh, and do not get me started on Tom, what a weak, pathetic spouse!!!!
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4 stars! I was impressed with this quick and easy, suspense-filled thriller!
This was an engrossing and addictive story. There was a lot of hype surrounding this author, Shari Lapena's, well-loved previous novel "The Couple Next Door". Going into this one, I wasn't sure how this novel would compare but I actually enjoyed this a little more than her previous book. The suspense had me hooked and turning the pages faster and faster as the story continued on.
I had the pleasure of reading this fantastic book with my wonderful "sister" Brenda. To find our full Traveling Sister Read review, please visit Brenda and Norma's fabulous blog at:
https://twogirlslostinacouleereading.... -
Once I read the write up for this novel I was hooked and had to know more about it. I though this book was a very good read and the fact that I actually guessed the conclusion for once didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest.
The lead character Karen is involved in an car accident and wakes up with no memory of what has happened. When Karen's husband arrives home from work he realises there is something wrong, in the kitchen the meal she was preparing is left unfinished and abandoned. Karen's mobile and purse are still in the house but she appears to have left in a hurry.
He fears the worse and rings the police only to be told she was involved in an accident in the rough part of town while speeding. This leads to many unanswered questions, why did she leave in a hurry, why was she speeding, where was she going.
This all leads to lots of suspense, intrigue and lots of twists and turns. A thoroughly entertaining read.
I would like to thank Random House and Net Galley for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. -
This is the story of Karen and Tom Krupp who have been married for about two years. One day Tom returns home from work and finds their home empty, it seems that Karen was making dinner and had to run out of the house in a hurry leaving her purse and cell phone behind.
Around the same time Karen wakes up in a hospital after being involved in a car accident that has left her partially amnesiac, what's worse is that she can't remember what happened immediately before the accident.
The same day of the accident a man was murdered close to the scene of the car accident which has the police pondering whether the two events are connected.
The novel is told from alternating points of view and is set in upstate New York. It is fast-paced and can be considered a psychological thriller.
I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the author's previous novel (The Couple Next Door) because the plot was somewhat predictable and the characterizations seemed to me unrealistic at some points. Also, I could not relate to the characters and found myself annoyed at the decisions they made throughout the novel.
Overall, the book was ok. Some people seemed to love it so I recommend it to all lovers of thrillers. -
3 1/2
The ending...what the actual hell???? -
A Stranger In The House is a light, quick murder mystery. Not as great as Shari Lapena's first novel The Couple Next Door, the plot wasn't as tight or crisp in this book, but it was still a good and fun if predictable read. The story kept me engrossed and I didn't want to put it down. I'm not giving it 4 stars because the ending left something to be desired. Will there be a sequel? I sure hope so because that ending was not enough.
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The book starts out strong: a man comes home from work to find the house unlocked and his wife’s car gone. The kitchen shows signs of dinner being prepared: a pot of water on the stove, vegetables chopped on the kitchen counter. He calls for his wife but there is no answer. She has left behind her purse and her mobile. Worried, he begins calling her friends, their neighbours, but no one has seen her. Then a policeman knocks on the door .... Lapena really sets the scene here, and I actually had goosebumps visualising it!
Unfortunately, from here, the books began nosediving for me, like a shot-down plane on its fiery spiral into the abyss. Perhaps the first warning sign was the main protagonist’s amnesia. Don’t get me wrong, amnesia can be a good tool in a psychological thriller if used the right way. Include a few confusing flashbacks, some conflicting witness stories, some inner turmoil, some suspense. But not on its own, not simply to disguise the plot by throwing the big dark blanket of “I can’t remember” over everything just as an excuse to withhold vital information to the reader that could solve this “mystery” in two minutes flat.
A Stranger in the House is a book with very few characters. Tom, Karen and Brigid from next door. And of course the detective, whose name I have already forgotten because for me, he felt like a very forgettable character. There wasn’t a single personality trait to the man that made him stand out from any other run-of-the-mill detective, except that he did not seem to be particularly good at his job. I was surprised to discover that this was the same detective from The Couple Next Door, the author’s debut novel, which I had enjoyed. Anyway, the problem with a very small cast is that unless they are engaging and captivating, the reader soon loses interest. I thought my life was pretty boring, but compared to this little troupe my social life is a downright circus! There are no friends, no family, no work colleagues. And to be totally honest, I hated all three characters. So now we have a problem, because I really didn’t care what happens to any of them, especially Brigid, who seemed so stereotypical that I was wondering at times if the author was writing tongue-in-cheek to throw some wild curveball right at the end. But sadly, no.
I am sure that A Stranger in the House will appeal to an audience who is less particular about their fare of “psychological thriller”. The bottom line is – I do want to be thrilled. I want my mind messed with. I want tension, I want suspense. After enjoying The Couple Next Door, it saddens me having to admit that I did not get any of this from A Stranger in the House, even though there were moments when there was real potential for it to become interesting.
After having read a few disappointing “psychological thrillers” lately, I believe that I may simply not be the right audience for A Stranger in the House. It may appeal to people who enjoy a quick and undemanding read for the beach or the plane, but for me was lacking in depth and thrills.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
*blog*
*facebook*
*instagram* -
Hmm.
This is one of those moments where I need to be honest and don't really want to be because I LOVED this authors first book - The Couple Next Door - and enthused about it so would love to keep up that level of support but for me, A Stranger in the House was just another predictable psychological thriller of the dime a dozen kind you see everywhere. Boy I'm so sick of characters with either a drug problem that fogs their thoughts or some random amnesia as a plot device to hide the reveals that are pretty obvious anyway. Its tired and over used now and whilst I'm not saying NEVER use it a novel that relies on it entirely tends to fall flat for me these days.
Now having said that the writing is still excellent, I love the way Shari Lapena twists her language to tell her stories. I am not put off reading future books at ALL especially considering how truly great I thought The Couple Next Door was. It was solely the plot in this one that wore me out. It genuinely felt like I'd read it before, and beautiful as the writing was, I just knew the end as soon as I started and whilst I engaged with some of the characters I didn't find them as compelling as the ones from the previous book, not because of them so much but because I felt I knew everything about them already.
Its still a good read if you like the genre - I would not want to put anyone else off at ALL, this is very subjective. I'll look forward to Shari Lapena's next book. Its not you its me! -
I read this over the course of two days and each day was a complete opposite reading experience. The first day when I read around half the story, I was really into the book and finding out what Karen's deal was and what exactly happened the night of the accident. As I read the second half of the book, my interest took a nose dive and I just wanted to be done with these people and move on to my next read.
Karen and Tom have been married for a few years and by all appearances seem to have a quite nice and comfortable life together. But the you know what hits the fan when Karen gets into a serious car accident and doesn't recall much of anything that happened that night. The police don't understand why she was found in a part of town that she normally would steer clear from and begin questioning those close to Karen as they search for answers. Hmm... looks like some people have a secret or two.
So frustrating when you are really enjoying a book and then something shifts and you end up feeling disappointed. The big problem for me in the second half was by that point you knew what was going on but you had to watch it all play out. With some books, that can be fun, but with this one it just felt like the story dragged on and on. The author attempted to throw in a few twists at the end but they fell flat and nothing you haven't seen many times before in this genre. I actually wish she hadn't included them because the book ended on this bad soap opera like note.
I would not go out of my way to recommend this one but I am willing to give this author another try. I just hope her other books contain more of the elements of her writing I did enjoy rather than the ones I didn't care for. -
A disappointment. Boring and unbelievable story-line, shallow and unlikable characters. I kept waiting for a twist, a turn, a curl, a something to happen, but it was a no-show. I felt I was reading scraps of several books I had previously read, lazily put together, just to fill some pages. Amnesia??? Really??? And don’t let me start on the husband.
-
I've been hemming and hawing over rating this book a 3.5 star or 4. I think I have settled on a 4 star rating.
For those that love novels like, "Girl on the Train" or "Gone Girl", this one is for you. I actually didn't really like "Gone Girl" but I mean, if you like that sort of style in a mystery-thriller, this one is comparable.
This was a good read overall. I wouldn't say I was the biggest fan of the writing style because I felt that it could be choppy at times but I still enjoyed it enough to race through this book in a day. It's hard to really describe the mystery of the story because I think some aspects of the story can be predictable. But at the same time, even if you may be able to predict something, there is no real immediate confirmation (I'm being vague due to avoiding spoilers). I actually liked the way that was done because even when I was thinking of my own suspects, I still had a level of uncertainty that had me keep reading in anticipation.
As per my norm when it comes to this genre ("Gone Girl" and "Girl on the Train" being examples), I didn't really enjoy any of the characters or find them likeable. This isn't a bad thing when it comes to this genre! I find with this genre that if I remain passive to all of the characters due to dislike of their characteristics/personalities, it makes it harder for me to be able to predict who is the criminal/murderer. The one thing that I will say though, which I won't name names to avoid spoilers, is that I HATED one character. From the beginning. That character had all of the qualities to make me want to throw the book (I didn't, don't worry). If you have read this book and are able to guess who it is from my level of being vague, PLEASE tell me that I wasn't the only person who was repulsed by this character!
As a whole, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy the mystery-thriller genre. I wouldn't say it's anything revolutionary but it was an entertaining and anticipatory read.
***Thank you to Goodreads as well as the author and publisher for supplying me with this novel via a giveaway*** -
Although not a big fan of “The Couple Next Door” I did enjoy the fast paced writing style of the author. Therefore, I decided to read “A Stranger in the House” In hope that the plot would be better with the same fast paced style. Unfortunately, the plot of “Stranger” is far worse than “Couple a Next Door” based on the ridiculous characters and implausible twists that the author keeps coming long after the believability of the book is below zero. Beyond that, the actions and reactions of her three main characters come across as fake. The “crazy stalker” doesn’t act or think crazy when the author assumes her viewpoint but does things to further the plot that are completely ridiculous. Also, all three of the main characters seem to be the same person when the author assumes their view of the story. None of the men in the story act or think like men do when women are coming on to them or betraying them. Finally, the police investigators are incompetent and the author definitely doesn’t understand police interrogation techniques or police work in the least. At one point the author even has the brilliant investigator layout his entire case to the suspect in the middle of the investigation while she sits in dead silence with her lawyer never saying a word. This never happens. At another point the investigators fingerprint every surface in a very large house including surfaces almost impossible to get fingerprints off of and that would have obviously been touched by the family living there after the suspect touched it yet incriminating fingerprints are found in all of these locations. This not only doesn’t happen — it couldn’t happen. Well at least the author still writes in a way that keeps the book flowing — it just flows from one ridiculous subplot to the next. Trust me - skip this one — Maybe one day Lapena will be able to develop her plot better so I can give her book a great review.
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Karen almost died. She had a terrible accident-running her car into a telephone pole. When she wakes up, she can’t answer any of the questions the police are asking. Her memory of that night is gone. She doesn’t know why she was driving at such a high rate of speed and running red lights.
Things get even more interesting when an unidentified body is found not far from the site of her accident. Is this what Karen was trying to get away from? Did she murder someone???
I picked this book up from the library because I enjoyed The End of Her so very much. I was not disappointed! Sherry Lapena is the master of the plot twist and surprise ending. Even when you are absolutely sure you know “who dunnit“, you’re still shocked. Part of the fun is when the characters figure it out too ;-) -
3.5 stars
Tom Krupp comes home from work and realizes that his front door was not locked. What is even more alarming is that there are signs in the kitchen that his wife (Karen) was preparing dinner but now she is no longer in sight. He checks his home and his wife is not there. He becomes worries and decides to call 911. Across town (in a BAD section of town- we are told this repeatedly), a woman without any identification has driven her car into a pole.
When the police arrive at his door, Tom believes that they are responding to his 911 call, but in fact they are there to inform him that his wife has been in an accident. His wife is badly injured and does not remember what occurred leading up to her accident or why she was in that area (the bad section of town that a nice housewife should not be found in) of town.
Karen suffering from amnesia does not know why she left her home, her cell phone or her wallet behind. She is now facing charges for running into the pole and hopes to move on with her life. But wait! The police have found the body of a man shot 3 nears near the accident site. Could Karen have anything to do with the murder? Is she a suspect? Is she a witness? Was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? Is her amnesia real?
Thus begins that murder investigation where the evidence is piling up. To make matters worse, Tom and Karen's neighbor, Brigid, has inserted herself more into their lives and into the police investigation. Is Brigid a good friend? Is she a noisy neighbor? Does she have something to gain by Karen being convicted? Tom and Karen begin to bicker as he begins to doubt her story. Plus, when she informs him that someone has been sneaking into their home and going through her things, he does not believe her.
This book slowly mounts with tension, as the reader learns more so do the investigators. Who can be trusted? What really happened that night? I enjoyed the pacing of this book. There are a couple of layers to this book and once peeled back, the secrets of various characters are revealed. Not everyone is as they seem. I thought I had this book figured out, I thought I knew from the get-go who the killer was. I was right and wrong all at the same time. Ambiguous, I know! Read for yourself!!!I really liked how the revelations came about. This book is a murder mystery/psychological thriller hybrid. I found this book to be very clever at times. I can't really say why I feel this way without giving away too much more of the story. I especially liked when the "secret" started coming out. I would sit and read and think "Ohhh, that explains that! or Ohhh, that explains so-and-so's behavior. I think most people will enjoy the ending. This is not a graphic or gory book so most readers will most likely enjoy it.
I enjoyed this book. It proved to be a fast read, was definitely entertaining and kept my attention.
I received a copy of this book from Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at
www.openbookpost.com -
Well, you can't love them all. Almost DNF'd this book at 33%, but decided to skim the rest just to see where it went. The premise was certainly intriguing, but the slow pace, implausible situations, and wooden characters turned me off. I'd maybe give this book 1.5 stars? I thought her first book,
The Couple Next Door, was entertaining, suspenseful, and fun, but unfortunately
A Stranger in the House didn't work for me. -
3 Stars
Where’s the Oomph, when you need it?
I admit that I went into “A Stranger in the House” with a few expectations. I’ve read a few books by Shari Lapena by now and I’ve really liked them (I think I have one left to read (The Couple Next Door)) so I had EXPECTATIONS - which as we all know is a mistake. Wah wah. In the end, I enjoyed this novel but it didn’t quite blow me away. Such is life.
Admittedly, I was immediately intrigued by the storyline. I mean, here we have Karen Krupp, upstanding housewife, who takes off one evening, before her hubby gets home from work, leaving her purse and cell phone behind. She then drives to a dangerous neighborhood and crashes her car. Thereafter we find her hospitalized, with no memory of what happened.
A few days later, a dead body is discovered near the crash and police think that the two incidents are related.
I was desperate to know. At first.
Here we have a married couple and a very nosy neighbor. There are plenty of secrets and lies and by golly there’s a murder and someone is guilty, … of something! But who? And of what? (Mrs. Peacock in the library with the Revolver?! As if! Baah!).
That said, my interest started waning fairly early on as the novel volleyed between the three key players and became wholly predictable, which in my opinion, was its downfall. I did however enjoy the characters and am glad that I finally read this book - which had been on my tbr for years. I truly enjoy Ms. Lapena’s writing and look forward to her upcoming release which I have coming up soon.
Published on Goodreads on 5.17.20. -
I really enjoyed The Couple Next door by Shari Lapena and I was looking forward to reading her new book A Stranger in the House, this thriller had quite a few twists and turns and an ending I did not see coming.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review. -
Me enganché desde la página uno, un thriller muy entretenido, en algún momento pensé que predecible sin embargo el giro del final muy interesante. Personajes de los que no sabes que pensar y de los que desconfías durante toda la historia.
Lectura rápida y recomendable. -
4 Stars
Tom’s wife, Karen, went out and he doesn’t know where she is. She left without her phone and her purse. The door was unlocked and it was unlike her. It’s like Karen ran out of the house! Very soon cops come to his house and tell him about Karen’s accident. It was a single-vehicle accident; the car went into a pole! And they found a dead man not too far from of the place of her accident. He was shot three times. But when Karen wakes up at the hospital she can’t remember what happened! So what did happen to Karen? Is she the guilty one? Does she know the man and why kill him? If she is not guilty, so who is it? And why do they want to frame her?
It was an easy read but a good one! The puzzle wasn’t that hard but it tricked me, so I guessed wrong! I’m not saying it was unpredictable but the ending surprised me, it was unexpected! I liked the writing and it held my interest until the end! I quite enjoyed it! It was my first read by this author and won’t be my last! Told in multiple POV, 3rd person. It’s a stand-alone novel. All in all, I had a good time with this one and hope you like it as well! -
I'm one of those people who absolutely loved Shari Lapena's debut thriller 'The Couple Next Door' so I was beyond eager to read this one, 'A Stranger in the House.'
There's no denying that Lapena is a terrific writer, and this is another well-written story with plenty of suspense and things to figure out.
In this one, however, there's this weird thing where none of the characters are particularly likeable people. There's just no one here that you really want to root for, which is something I prefer to have.
*******
UPDATE: I read Lapena's 'An Unwanted Guest' over the holidays, and thank goodness.... she's baaaack! That was a very enjoyable read. I'm relieved to know that I can continue to leave Lapena on my list of go-to authors. -
I'm struggling with trying to write a review that I feel comfortable posting but I'm failing. So I'll just say that this wasn't the book for me. I almost DNF'd it several times and should have.
Sorry. There are plenty of positive reviews so take mine with a grain of salt. -
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Last year debut novelist Shari Lapena set the psychological domestic based thriller genre alight with her blockbuster novel, The Couple Next Door. Lapena returns to familiar territory with her second release, A Stranger in the House. Lapena’s latest novel is another marital thriller that draws on the complication of an overly intrusive neighbour to spice up the storyline.
Karen is a happily married bookkeeper and housewife of two years, living in upstate New York. One evening, Karen is involved in a horrific accident that totals her car. When Karen wakes up in hospital following the crash, she has no memory of the accident or the whole evening prior to the crash. What baffles Karen’s husband Tom and the detectives assigned to the case, is that Karen’s car was found in an unsavoury part of the local area, a location you wouldn’t expect this affluent housewife to frequent. Added to the mystery is the discovery of the body of a murdered man, found in close proximity to the crash site. With alarm bells sounding for the detectives on the case, Karen experiences a deep feeling a dread, she knows something awful happened that night her car ploughed headfirst into a pole but her memory fails her. The investigation into Karen’s accident opens old wounds, exposes secrets and rips apart the safe suburban life the Krupps have built for themselves.
Shari Lapena follows up her hugely successful first novel with a solid effort in, A Stranger in the House. Lapena is aware of the winning formula she employed for her first bestselling novel and again draws on this to produce her second novel. I enjoyed this novel as much as Lapena’s debut novel and I think it makes a great addition to the grip lit/domestic thriller genre.
Part of what makes domestic thrillers such as A Stranger in the House work, is the use of an unreliable narrator. In this book’s case, Karen, our housewife, caught up in an accident and possible murder is the source of the unreliable narration. Adding in a complication of amnesia, following Karen’s head injury from her accident, adds a further shroud of mystery to this domestic tale. With Karen’s memory returning only in fits and starts, serves to draw out the mystery and suspense aspect of the book. For this reader, it left me hanging and encouraged me to turn the pages of this novel as quickly as I was able to.
With the focus also on marital secrets, Lapena soon has the reader entangled in the web of lies engulfing this suburban couple. Tom and Karen Krupp are portrayed as quite ordinary by Lapena. Therefore, the reader is able to relate or see that this couple and the events that happen to them could happen to anyone in any street, or in any location pretty much. The added problem of a neighbour who is downright meddling contributes to more complications in this absorbing tale.
Lapena applies a shifting viewpoints style of narration to her second novel. As a result, we learn from the main couple, as well as neighbour Brigid (Karen’s best friend and Tom’s former lover). This helps cover all bases in terms of what might have happened the night of the crash. We are not entirely sure who to believe through Lapena’s set up. With a number of players involved in the investigation, the mystery element of the book is drawn out nicely. Despite the fact that a few reviewers before me have remarked that this was predictable, I enjoyed the journey I was taken on with Lapena and her characters of A Stranger in the House.
I regarded Lapena’s sense of characterisation as sound. It was a surprise to see the return of the detective from Lapena’s first novel, who added an extra layer, especially in the police groundwork involved in getting to the bottom of a complicated case. I do hope Lapena chooses to reinsert this detective figure in her future novels.
Where Lapena shines most in A Stranger in the House, is the psychology of her characters. I liked that there were obvious grey areas surrounding the key players of the book. Half the fun when interacting with this book was not just trying to solve the mystery of the car crash and the circumstances of the murdered body but the process of trying to unpack these damaged main characters. It certainly made this book far more interesting.
A Stranger in the House will unnerve you, put you on edge and lead you to question just about everybody that enters this novel. It puts forward a great unreliable narrator scenario and combines this with a fairly new marriage, placed under threat from secrets, omissions and a deadly obsession. A Stranger in the House will easily quench the thirst of those who relish the flavour of domestic thrillers.
