The Nesting

August 1, 2020
A British woman in crisis borrows the identity of a stranger to get a job as a nanny, but she and the children she cares for could be in danger. After Lexi Ellis' failed suicide attempt, her boyfriend breaks up with her and she finds herself without a home or a plan. But after hearing a woman on a train discussing a job working as a nanny in Norway, Lexi hatches a plan to hijack her job application and credentials to land the position for herself. Posing as Sophie, Lexi is offered the job of watching over two girls, Gaia and Coco, while their father finishes building a high-concept home, a project he began prior to the sudden death of his wife. Lexi loves the job and the girls--but soon the kids start talking about a Sad Lady they see around the house. As strange happenings pile up, Lexi suspects their mother was murdered, and she becomes concerned for all of their safety. Very little about this book rings true. The plotting is rushed and relies on unexplained, sudden twists, such as Lexi's staying at a women's shelter for a week or being able to bluff her way through an interview without having read the job description. Entire months are omitted from the story, including Lexi's first as a nanny, which she describes only as "pretty hazy." These issues, along with wooden dialogue and a first-person narration that reads more like a diary than a thriller, obscure any sense of mystery that could engage the reader. This gothic thriller doesn't offer enough intrigue to overcome its weaknesses.

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September 1, 2020
Unemployed and homeless after a suicide attempt, Lexi is at a loss to figure out next steps until she overhears a conversation about an open nanny job in Norway. Impulsively, she hatches a risky plan to fake her credentials and apply. It feels like kismet: the novel she started writing during her recovery is set in Norway, and Lexi instantly connects with Gaia and Coco, her new charges. Their recently widowed father, Tom Faraday, is returning to Norway to build the dream house he promised his late wife, Aurelia. But Lexi's romanticized vision of Faraday's plans crumbles when she arrives in Norway to find him edgy and unpredictable, provoked by a series of perplexing job-site incidents. Their housekeeper ominously claims Faraday has incurred the wrath of Norwegian nature spirits, but, after reading Aurelia's diary, Lexi begins to suspect she's living with a human killer. Strong horror-tinged fairy-tale threads and the stark fjord setting lend a supernatural twist to this domestic thriller; strongly recommended for fans of Jennifer McMahon and Yrsa Sigurdardottir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 21, 2020
After a failed suicide attempt, aspiring writer Lexi Ellis, the desperate narrator of this hypnotic psychological thriller from Cooke (I Know My Name), loses her job and her home in the north of England. Then on a train Lexi overhears a stranger, Sophie Hallerton, talking with a friend about a possible nanny job in Norway, a country that Lexi, a Nordic noir fan, has long been enamored of, though she’s never been there. Lexi gets photos of Sophie’s CV and application off the stranger’s laptop while Sophie and friend go to the buffet car, and soon she’s in London interviewing for the nanny job. She’s hired to work for architect Tom Faraday, the father of two young girls, who’s nearly finished building a house in a remote region of Norway in honor of his late wife, Aurelia. Once in Norway, Lexi fits easily enough into her nanny role, but odd things start to happen, from almost being locked in the basement to learning about the housekeeper’s obsession with Aurelia, whose death was deemed a suicide. Lexi comes to think it was actually murder. Readers will keep guessing what’s really going on right up to the surprise ending. Rebecca fans won’t want to miss this one. Agent: Alice Lutyens, Curtis Brown Literary (U.K.).