Our House

Starred review from June 4, 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.

June 15, 2018
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.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2018

Fiona Lawson is stunned to see the house she loves in a posh part of London being claimed by strangers upon her return from vacation. It's instantly apparent that this was done by Bram, the cheating husband Fi is divorcing, who's just taken off for Switzerland. But the "how" and "why" are only gradually revealed in this intriguing novel. Fi and Bram had settled into a congenial custody arrangement known as bird's nest, alternately sharing the house and a nearby flat to keep life fairly normal for their eight- and ten-year-old sons, with each free to see others at the flat. As Fi tells her story on the popular podcast The Victim, flashbacks reveal the extent of the secrets Bram has kept from her, secrets more dire than dalliances, which land him in an intricate blackmail scheme. VERDICT British author Candlish (The Swimming Pool) is skilled at portraying families in critical situations and ramping up the suspense. She does both here, in an absorbing plot with surprising twists until the final page. A sure bet for fans of family drama, mystery, and suspense.--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2018
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. The story unfolds via Fiona's version of the events, which she tells on a popular true-crime podcast, and Bram's version of the events, which he meticulously documents in a suicide-note confession. What seems at the outset to be a troubled husband swindling his wife is something far more complex and disturbing, featuring untrustworthy characters whose deepest secrets become their undoing. Candlish (The Second Husband, 2013), already a best-selling author in her native England, is likely to hit the U.S. best-seller lists with this 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)