A Stranger in the House

Karen and Tom Krupp are happily married, they live in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, Tom is a successful accountant. But one night when Tom comes home from work he notices Karen's car isn't in the driveway, the front door is unlocked, supper has been left on the counter waiting to be cooked. And no sign of Karen anywhere. She didn't even take her phone or her ID. When the police arrive on their doorstep Tom learns that his wife has been in an accident - she lost control of her car as she sped through a rough part of town. Karen is in the hospital with a concussion that leaves her with a pounding headache and no memory of what happened to her. The cops think that's convenient. They think she was up to something and doesn't want show more her husband to know.

There are lots of secrets and lies in this book. Trust no one. I couldn't wait to find out exactly what happened the night of Karen's accident. The writing itself isn't spectacular, but it's not awful either - the suspense keeps things moving right along. Lapena definitely created an unlikable character in this one! A compulsive read for me.

I won a signed copy through Goodreads First Reads. Thank you Penguin Random House Canada. show less

Tom Krupp comes home from work one night to find his wife is gone. He looks around the house. She couldn't have gone far. Her purse and cell phone are still in the house. So he waits. Maybe she had to run to the store. Perhaps she's over at the neighbors. As he begins to get nervous, the police come to the door. There's been an accident. His wife had a car accident -- hit a pole -- in a rough part of town. She's ok....but what was she doing there late at night? Even Karen Krupp isn't sure. She has no memory of the accident or most of that evening. But soon there is much more to the story than just a car accident. Maybe Tom doesn't know his wife of 2 years as well as he thinks he does. Funnily enough, Karen feels the same way.

I checked show more this book out of my local library when I finished one of Lapena's other books -- The Couple Next Door. This book has a very similar vibe to it: a suburban couple's lives start falling apart when an event crashes through the facade of lies they have constructed around themselves. This story builds its suspense a bit slower than The Couple Next Door, but once it builds up steam....and the suspense builds up some pressure....it really packs quite a thrilling wallop. I had things partially figured out, but there were a couple twists that caught me by surprise. Just like bad guys in suspense movies are never dead the first time they seem to be.....a good suspense novel is never, ever over until the last twist. This one had some good late wrenches to it....nicely done!

I think what creeps me out most about Lapena's thriller novels is that they are realistic. What happens in A Stranger in the House could happen. There's nothing mystical, magical, supernatural -- it's all base human behavior, lies, cunning and survival instinct. It almost makes me want to start looking at my husband sideways ..... 14 years of marriage.....what's he hiding? Is he really who I think he is? What don't I know about him? My neighbors...extended family.....the in-laws....friends.....all the people I think I know......what are they hiding? What lies lurk in their past? Hmmmm. Maybe I need another lock on the front door. :)

Great thriller novel! I sincerely hope Lapena writes more!

For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: http://www.sharilapena.com/ show less

This book moved at a quick pace and had some good twists and turns along the way which kept me intrigued. Although I felt sorry for Tom who was being manipulated by two dominating women, Brigid and Karen, I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging. Also, the triangle of love, betrayal and secrets has been done so often I have grown to hate them.

However, it was the end that left me unsatisfied. There was too much telling in the last couple of chapters but the ending did leave the reader with a sense of foreboding. Overall, a mediocre read.

Meh.

If you need more than that one word review of this dull tome read on.

A middle-class man comes home late from work to find his wife gone. All her things still there – including purse and phone and all the things a person would take even if only leaving for a moment. Tom is annoyed, then a bit worried. Mostly for himself. Meanwhile an unidentified, middle-class lady has had bad car accident while in an unsavoury part of the city. It will surprise absolutely no one who has ever read a book or seen a movie that she is Tom’s missing wife, Karen, though the tone implied this was A Twist of Alarming Proportions. Additional unsurprising elements of the story include a case of amnesia, a hidden past for one of our not-so-happy couple, an show more unexplained dead body, an extra-marital affair and a barking-mad, childless neighbour.

Am I being too harsh? Possibly. But I can’t help it. Everything about this book is just so bland and predictable. That there is nothing new in the storyline need not have automatically made the book virtually unreadable but the entire thing has a tepid quality to it. Like someone from a government agency had documented a citizen’s worst nightmare on form 729B and in so doing smoothed away all of the interesting bits. Familiar plot devices and genre tropes are thrown in almost at random, certainly without subtlety or innovation, and there is a lot of telling and precious little showing throughout the book.

The characters are two dimensional; totally lacking in believable emotions or inner voices. Tom is a self-absorbed dullard whose love for his wife runs about as deep as a bird bath in a drought. Karen’s supposed troubles always read like someone talking about bad things, never like actual experiences a human being was actually going through. And the deranged neighbour lady is just a joke. For a much more nuanced and authentic-feeling characterisation of a woman driven to a kind of madness by her unfulfilled desire for motherhood check out Michael Robotham’s THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS rather than this dreck.

There is nothing memorable about the setting either. For ages I thought we might be in Canada because that is where the author lives but then one of the cardboard cutout cop characters said something like “that’s a big offence here in New York“. I assume the state rather than the city given there was a vague Stepford quality to the little enclave where Tom, Karen and the delusional neighbour lady live but I don’t care enough to work it out.

Or, as I have said before, meh. show less

Karen dhe Tom Krupp janë të lumtur — kanë një shtëpi të bukur në veri të shtetit të Nju Jorkut, janë pothuajse të sapomartuar dhe nuk kanë fëmijë që t’ua prishin jetën e rehatshme së bashku. Por një ditë, Tom kthehet në shtëpi dhe zbulon se Karen është zhdukur — makina e saj mungon dhe duket se është larguar me nxitim. Madje ka lënë pas çantën, me telefonin dhe dokumentet brenda.

Dikush troket në derë — është policia, që ka ardhur ta çojë Tomin në spital, ku gruaja e tij është shtruar. Ajo ka pësuar një aksident me makinë, duke humbur kontrollin teksa po kalonte me shpejtësi në pjesën më të rrezikshme të qytetit.

Aksidenti i ka lënë Karen një tronditje në tru dhe disa show more gërvishtje. Megjithatë, në përgjithësi është mirë — përveç faktit që nuk mban mend çfarë po bënte apo ku ndodhej kur u përplas. Policia mendon se humbja e kujtesës është tepër e përshtatshme dhe dyshon se ajo ka qenë duke bërë diçka të dyshimtë.

Karen kthehet në shtëpi me Tomin, e vendosur të shërohet dhe të vazhdojë jetën. Por më pas vëren se diçka është lëvizur. Diçka nuk shkon. Dikush ka qenë në shtëpinë e saj. Dhe policia nuk ndalet së bëri pyetje.

Sepse në këtë shtëpi, të gjithë janë të huaj. Të gjithë kanë diçka që do të preferonin ta mbanin të fshehtë. Diçka për të cilën mund të vrisnin që të mos zbulohej. show less

I tried so hard to like this book. I hoped it would get better and that the twist would not be what I expected right from the opening pages, but alas no. It was boring and predictable throughout. The amnesia ploy is far too convenient a cliché to be believable. The husband and police must be extra-dense to not see what is going on from the start. This book was almost a DNF, and that's pretty rare for me. I managed to get through it with a lot of sighing and eye-rolling. The Couple Next Door, while suffering from similar problems, was a better written novel than this. I think the premise of A Stranger in the House could have been interesting, but it just didn't work.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in a Goodread giveaway.

If you like suspense/thrillers, this would be a good one to pick up to wile away your afternoon. I THOUGHT I had it figured out. And I did. Sort of. But not really. Twists and turns and lies and truths are there just to confuse the reader who's trying to figure it all out.