After reading this author's debut novel, The Couple Next Door, I was excited to see that her latest one was due for release.

When Tom returns home late from work one night to find his house unlocked, dinner half prepared and his wife nowhere to be seen, leaving her purse and phone behind he starts to wonder what has happened, then a policeman knocks at the door.....

The events that follow in this story made this a very easy read, I finished it in a matter of hours and whilst it was a very gripping read I did enjoy the authors debut novel more, though I would still recommend this one.

Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and on Amazon on publication day.

When Tom Krupp comes home late that evening, he is astonished: the door is not locked. And his wife apparently is in the middle of cooking. Her cell phone and her handbag are there, but where is Karen? When none of their friends have heard anything of her either, he calls the police who seem to be at his house immediately: there was an awful accident and the victim could be his wife. Tom is preoccupied and relaxed at the same time. But just as the police he wonders what his wife was doing in that part of town. When a couple of days later a dead body is discovered, Karen’s accident and the murder are quickly linked. Yet, the woman cannot remember anything from that day, she’s suffering from amnesia since the accident. More and more evidence hints at her and Tom has to find out that his wife is everything but not the woman he thought she was. However, he does not know yet that the real danger might come from somewhere completely different.

I already liked Shari Lapena’s first novel “The couple next door”, but “A stranger in the House” is much more thrilling and elaborate than her first book. First of all, there is so much the characters hide and only reveal when they are forced to. All of them have their secrets, some minor, some major, and this keeps you alert all the time. Especially since you never know whom you can actually trust.

First of all Karen. It is obvious quite from the start that she has some buried secrets from her past and that she deliberately lied to her husband. Nevertheless, she is good at playing roles – also with the reader so until the very last pages. You cannot be sure of who she is and what she is capable of. Second comes Tom. He seems to be a nice and trustful guy, easy to delude perhaps. I was taken by surprise that he also has something kept from his wife which will play a major role in the development of the case. Third Brigid, their neighbour and close friend of Karen. I didn’t like her from the start. She is that nosy observer across the street who is meddling all the time and sticking her nose in other people’s matters. That her role takes some interesting turn came rather as a surprise to me.

Even though the reader gets a much better picture of what happened than the police, there is still enough in the dark to keep you from knowing for sure. Since there were so many unexpected twists and turns, I wasn’t completely certain what to believe was the truth until the very end. The plot was cleverly constructed and to me absolutely convincing in all respects.

To sum up, a thriller which keeps you alert and reading on.

Pretty entertaining and easy to read, but no real surprises. I really enjoyed the way in which the story flowed, it was difficult to put down at times. There were some twists to the plot which worked well but they were a little obvious.
Not quite as good as her first novel but a lot better than many second novels that I've read.

I really liked Shari Lapena's debut novel, the worldwide bestselling "The Couple Next Door", so I was really excited to dive into this follow-up novel. Lapena knows that she nailed it with her first novel, and she sticks to the more or less the same recipe: ordinary people in sudden extraordinary circumstances and with changing perspectives in almost each chapter throughout the book. As in "Couple", Lapena throws the clever reader off balance now and again with a couple of credible twists and turns along the way, which worked really well for me.
With this book - the difficult follow-up to a debut bestseller - Shari Lapena shows that she is indeed a gifted and entertaining storyteller in the crowded mystery genre, and I will be anxiously waiting for her future books.

Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this as an arc.
I loved Shari's first book The Couple Next Door, and while this was not quite as good as that one, I still really enjoyed it. Plenty of twists and turns, this tells the story of newly married couple Karen and Tom, with their nosy neighbour Brigid always a menacing presence in the background. When you think the story is going one way, bam, it takes you in another direction! The one niggle I had with the book was the amnesia storyline, it seemed too convenient a method of providing unreliable narration. This was a great easy read, and I loved the ending!

Actually 3.5 stars but I have rounded up.
I was blown away by the author's previous book "The Couple Next Door" when I read it last year. So much so that I was really looking forward to read this book. Sadly this one, although a good read in itself, didn't quite reach the dizzy heights set by the previous.
The main premise of this book is that the main character can't remember what happened. Or claims she can't anyway. Tom comes back home from work to find his house unlocked, dinner half completed but his wife and her car missing. On further investigation he finds her handbag and phone left behind so, wherever she went, it was in a hurry. After calling all her friends he can think of, a policeman knocks his door and informs him that his wife, or specifically her car, has been in an accident. He rushes to the hospital to find it was his wife, Karen, who was driving but that she has no idea why she would have been in that part of town, nor why she was driving so badly to have crashed.
And so begins a twisty turny journey fuelled by secrets and lies and duplicitous behaviour that was, on the whole, enjoyable but to me not quite convincing and believable enough for me to invest totally in which is probably why it fell a little short of expectations.
With only the three main characters, husband and wife Tom and Karen and neighbour and Karen's friend Brigid, there is a lot of pressure on the author to create them as totally believable. There are a few detectives too but they all became as one with me as they were all quite small as characters and just merged into each other a bit as they weren't particularly distinct. Not that they really needed to be to be honest as they just played their parts in uncovering and drip feeding information at appropriate moments. There was also Karen's lawyer who also played his part satisfactorily.
Apparently, I have just read in another review that this book shared the same detective as for the previous book. I have to say that I didn't particularly notice any familiarity myself either.
Tom, Karen and Brigid were all pretty unlikable in their own different ways. I never quite believed Karen and found Brigid to just be a little annoying. Tom was OK, all caught up in the middle of things that I can't and won't explain here (spoilers) but I did find him to be a little wet at times and I did shout at him a fair few times along the way. To be honest, towards the end of the book, I didn't really much care what happened to any of them. I didn't ever get that connection that I crave and need in a book for it to be a good read for me.
All in all, a solid enough read that kept me intrigued enough to carry on but which didn't quite hit the mark for me at the end of the day. Definitely not enough to write this author off though but I may well be a bit more discerning before I dive into her next book.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I read The Couple Next Door and really enjoyed it, so I was thrilled to be able to read the new book by Shari Lapena. Thanks to Netgalley.

A Stranger in the House starts well but somewhere in the middle I found myself losing interest. The characters weren't very likeable and quite boring. The story seemed to improve towards the end and I'm glad I read it. It's very easy to read with only a few characters in it. The final chapter was a surprise, didn't see that coming.

I thoroughly enjoyed and often recommended Shari Lapena's debut novel The Couple Next Door so I was delighted to get the opportunity to read her new book A Stranger in The House thanks to Netgalley and the publishers.

Sometimes I start a book and almost instantly I know that I don't like the style of writing, the storyline or the characters, but I continue reading it because perhaps I will change my mind and enjoy the book.

Sadly my mind wasn't changed and my first impression is still as strong now that I have finished the book. There are many reasons this book didn't "do it for me" but the most important one is that I was totally unable to connect with any of the characters, there was absolutely no empathy or sympathy or understanding of their actions. The book lacked emotion from start to finish for me personally and it was almost like reading crib notes instead of a flowing story.

Nothing about this story was original or surprising, the plot was mediocre at best and felt rushed. Sadly this is one book I personally won't be recommending.

A Stranger in the House

Karen is very contented with her life, she lives in a nice house with her husband Tom, has a nice bookkeeping job and is happy until one evening while preparing dinner she gets a phone call. Abandoning the cooking she runs out of the house. When her husband Tom returns from work he realises something isn't right, dinner half prepared, no Karen and her purse and phone just left on the side. When he has exhausted all avenues he finally calls 911 to report Karen missing. As he puts the phone down there's a knock at the door. It's the police. This is an intelligent thriller with twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages.

The Couple Next Door was a great debut from Shari Lapena is, if anything, even better. From the first page to the last, the reader is gripped and the story has such pace and flow that you just have to keep reading! When Tom arrives home from work one evening to find his house unlocked but empty and his wife's car missing, his life will be irrevocably changed for ever. The tension is tremendous, the twists and turns of the plot breathtaking and the denouement surprising. A tremendous read!

Following in the gone girl and girl on a train vibe, is an excellent thriller that kept me guessing until the end.....we meet husband Tom, whose wife has disappeared and later found in a car accident with lots of questions around it, when a man is found dead,more questions start and that is where the fun begins! Highly recommend!

A gripping story with so many twists. I wasn't sure who to believe right to the very end. Well worth more than the five stars that I can give. Too good a book to miss

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.

i got to be honest i loved this book but not as much as the couple next door. i guessed the outcome, but having said that i really did enjoy this book i think it was very fast paced and truly enjoyable its definatly a worthwhile read i really enjoyed it.

The story starts with an accident, a car plunging into an utility pole and a bewildered husband, Tom Krupp, searching for his lost wife, Karen. With the door unlocked and dinner half prepared, Karen has disappeared without her purse or cell phone. Her car is also missing. And then the Police appear at the door, Tom fears the worst.... Karen is alive but amnesiac. She alleges that she has forgotten the accident and the hours preceeding it... Has she really or is she faking it?? She seems to remember everything else and everybody including best friend/ neighbour, Brigid.
Adding to this confusion, there is a murder, in the neighborhood of Karen's car accident. Who is the murder victim and is Karen a murderer???
Thus begins a roller-coaster of doubt, suspicion and wariness between Tom and Karen, with Brigid thrown in the midst. Karen seems to remembers nothing about the accident, Tom seems to have a shaky alibi and Brigid seems to want to know everything..
The story revolves around these three characters, their connection to each other and to the murder victim. Tom and Karen drift apart, when they should have been supportive, the lies, the unanswered questions and hurt gaining space between them. Brigid as a friend/ neighbour is the counterfoil. The police detectives soon start joining the dots, there are allegations cast, doubts raised, arrests and search warrants, anonymous tips, all that make a good police investigative story.
This is Shari Lapena's second book after "The Couple Next Door" . She has written well. The story appears deceptively calm, reading like a routine murder mystery, cruising on, till the last few pages where the whole story reaches a different unexpected twist. The ending is simply fabulous ... I loved it.. I loved the intelligence, the cunningness of the ending, totally worth a read.
The book is fast paced, I finished it in a few hours, easy reading; where Karen is scared yet strong and calm, Tom appears spineless yet shows a rare loyalty, Brigid is supportive yet sly. A totally entertaining book where pages just seem to keep turning. It's not a psychological thriller or a dark suspense, it's just a different murder mystery like the calm before the storm...

I had requested this ARC before reading the author’s debut The Couple Next Door. In spite of rave reviews, I found it totally underwhelming. But I remained optimistic when approaching this book.

There are a very small number of characters in “A Stranger In The House. And unfortunately each is as annoyingly boring as the next. There is nothing memorable or likeable about anyone. I found the plot very predictable and I really struggled to finish it.

That said I do think others will enjoy this book, just as they did her first one. It definitely was not for me.

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.

A deliciously twisted thriller, maybe one of the best I've read this year. I found it even better than The Couple Next Door and I cannot recommend Shari Lapena enough now. Her books are perfect summer reads too if you are looking for great compelling thrillers.

The writing style is more polished in this novel, making it addictive, simply unputdownable. I had trouble focusing on the daily chores with a toddler while reading this one. Luckily it is also a quick read and with the ending somewhat gratifying in the end.

Some of the characters are so multi-faceted that it spins the mind. Sure, I expected Karen to have secrets, just not as deep as it turns out in the end. Hence the deliciousness of the book so to say. Mind-twisting plans that were realised in favor of this powerful woman, leading at the same time to moral questions of all kind. So if she were really a battered woman it would all have made so much sense morally. Yet, there is a wow factor in her real secret that boggles the mind. It made me wonder how people and situations can surprise and trick others.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am so glad I have asked for this one on Netgalley. Watch out for the publication date, coming up soon in July.

Another riveting read from this author, wish I could give it more than just 5 stars. One of this years absolute MUST READS.

A gripping thriller that is just as good as her first book. Could have been predictable, but a few twists prevented this.