I enjoyed this authors first book and was looking forward to reading this one. I did enjoy it but preferred her first book. This was still a really good read and I enjoyed the twists and turns and not knowing who to believe. Would recommend this book

This is the 2nd book by this author I have read. Same as the 1st book i was not in the least bit disapointed. It had good characters in the book. Strong storyline, with lots of twists and turns to keep you interested. Saving the best until the last few sentences. Really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend to others.

This book was enjoyable perhaps a little on the predictable side. A woman leaves the house in a hurry whilst in the process of cooking dinner leaving a worried husband. What drove her to leave in a hurry. Then to be involved in an accident that leaves more questions than answers. A book that's easy to get into and enjoy

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of A Stranger in the House, a psychological thriller set in New York State.

Tom Krupps arrives home to find his wife missing although the house is unlocked and her bag and mobile are still there. He soon finds out she has been in a car accident in the bad part of town. He has no idea what she was doing there and she can't tell him because she has amnesia. In the meantime Detective Rasbach is investigating the murder of an unidentified man in the same part of town and when he hears about Karen's accident he puts two and two together but getting to four is not straightforward.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Stranger in the House. Ms Lapena has a good writing style which is easy to read and invites the reader to believe what she is saying. I swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker for the first half of the novel but found that I was ahead of the game in the second. I had guessed most of it by 50% but it didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest as the twists and turns still threw up a few surprises, as did the characters' reactions.

I wouldn't say the plot premise is the most believable I've ever read but Ms Lapena does an excellent job with the situation. The novel is an abject lesson in the perils of gullibility. It is Tom I feel sorry for. He has no idea whom to believe and allows himself, through his own innate goodness, to be manipulated. His bewilderment at every turn of events is well done and very credible. I also like Detective Rasbach's keen instinct and investigative smarts. He is not man easily fooled and his puzzlement forces the reader to think carefully about what they think they know.

A Stranger in the House is a good read with the typical, fashionable twisted personalities and motives. It's not a genre I normally enjoy but Ms Lapena has produced a very readable novel which I can recommend as a good read.

I had just finished Shari's first book on audio book and dived straight into this one.
Karen is preparing dinner for her husband and then she wakes up in hospital. She has no idea what happened or how she got there. The police say she was in a car accident in a really bad part of town. But what was she doing there?? She has no memory of any of it and cannot figure out how she ended up there? What could have made her get in her car and leave the house so suddenly?
This book had so many twists and turns that I nearly had whip lash. It was a fantastic read from start to finish. It is the kind of book that makes you want to turn just one more page incase there's another shocker on the next page. And the ending was spectacular so worth the read.

Great book, well written suspense story with three main characters, all well described and easy to 'understand'. A sense of unease throughout the book, knowing that something was going to happen, just not knowing what. Then the final twists, not completely unexpected, but still a surprise.

I have no idea what possessed me to request this book on NetGalley when I absolutely disliked this author's debut, The Couple Next Door. Whatever happened I did request it and was offered an ARC, which, just as the first novel, is a terribly written mess.

Once again this author confuses the great tool that an unreliable narrator is for thrillers, with just plain and simply lying to the reader. You can't have an omniscient narrator that is unreliable. You can't just keep throwing new information that directly contradicts other offered before just to move your plot and use the "unreliable narrator" excuse when writing in 3rd person, with an omniscient narrator. If I keep repeating this for, let's say, perhaps a dozen times, alternating a bit the word order--like you do, Shari Lapena, with just about all info in your books because you apparently don't trust your readers are capable of remembering anything--maybe then you will get it? Maybe your 3rd book (that I will definitely NOT read) will not follow the same formula?

The characters could not be more stereotypical. The dialogue is preposterous. The writing is juvenile at best. The plot makes so little sense that the only way for it to "work" is by lying to the reader. Oh, and let's not forget how, once again, the detective has "intelligent eyes." He is clever. Oh, so clever. How do we know that? Because we are told so, certainly not for actions we are shown, nope. Because the actions show a very slow detective work, with lots of implausible and far-fetched sidelines that do not amount for any police procedure I have ever heard or read of. So much so that the super smart detective never solves the case.

Seriously, this was a huge waste of time. I cannot believe I finish it. It is short, at least.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my (perhaps too) honest review.

I was disappointed by this book after reading The Couple Next Door. The continuous jumps around and change in view point broke the flow of the story and i didn't care about any of the characters. Much of the inner monologue of the main character was repetitive and i couldn't connect with her at all.

Excellent book. Great main characters and plot. I would recommend this book.

This title had so many twists and turns I pretty much suspected every character at one point or another. A definite read in one sitting title!

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!