The Glass House, Eve Chase's follow-up to the successful Black Rabbit Hall, sees her create another domestic mystery with an apparently golden family at its centre. 

It's 1971 and young nanny Rita can't believe her luck when she gets a job working for the glamourous Harrington family. With their stylish townhouse and fashionable manners, Walter and Jeannie Harrington appear to be the perfect couple. Immediately charmed by the couple's two children, Hera and Teddy, Rita is soon embroiled in the family's life - and their secrets.

After a tragedy that threatens to tear the Harrington family apart, it's only natural that Rita accompanies Jeannie, Hera, and Teddy to Foxcote Manor, the family's dilapidated country house hidden amidst thick woodland. Walter hopes Jeannie will heal at Foxcote - and he's conscripted Rita into helping him ensure it. But within days a baby will be discovered abandoned in the woods. And days after that, a body will be found in the grounds of Foxcote Manor...

In the present day, newly separated Sylvie is struggling to get her life back on track. When she learns that her beloved mother is in a coma following a nasty fall, and that teenage daughter Annie's summer romance has ended in an unexpected pregnancy, it feels as if Sylvie's carefully curated life is coming apart at the seams. And when Annie discovers a folder at her grandmother's cottage filled with clippings about a long-forgotten crime, it begins a journey that will cast light on Sylvie's shadowy past- and alter the course of Annie's future. 

The Glass House captured me within its spell from the very first page, which sees Rita, Jeannie, Hera and Teddy apparently exiled to Foxcote Manor. Clearly something very bad has happed within this family. But what? And the mystery only deepens with the change of time and perspective to Sylvie. What does this newly-separated 40-something have to do with the Harringtons and their summer at Foxcote Manor?


Answering those questions makes for an extremely enjoyable journey, with a slow drip-feed of revelations in both timelines and an ever more tanged web of connections being formed as the book develops. 

Rita and Sylvie both make for sympathetic narrators. Rita, affectionately called 'Big Rita' by the Harrington family on account of her height, is warm-hearted, generous, and loyal almost to a fault. Her blossoming relationship with Foxcote's gardener is a joy to read about, as is her tender-hearted affection for troubled 12-year-old Hera and 5-year-old Teddy. By the end of the novel, I had really warmed to her and wanted everything to work out for the best.

Sylvie, meanwhile, is a woman trying to do her best whilst staying true to herself. Having finally screwed up the courage to leave her unsatisfactory marriage, she's desperate to re-build her relationship with teenage daughter Annie. As with Rita, Sylvie works hard to make the best of a bad situation so I could forgive her her slightly neurotic tendancies and the lack of curiosity she has about her shadowed past. 

The plot also whips along, alternating between Sylvie and Rita to keep the tension flowing and the pages turning. Admittedly some of the plot elements stretch the bounds of plausability a bit - I don't want to give away anything that would spoil the ending but let's just say that, by the finale, connections have been made between the two timelines that, at times, felt just a tad convenient. However, for me, the strength of the characters and the vividly realised world of Foxcote more than made up for the more incredulous moments.

With its dual timelines, multi-latered mysteries and relatively large cast of characters, The Glass House could easily become unwieldly in lesser hands. Fortunately Eve Chase keeps tight hold of the reins, ensuring a slow drip-feed of information that allows the reader to slowly connect the dots but keeps the narrative tension at a constant high. 

With it's dual-timeline narrative and clever weaving of family drama across multiple generations, The Glass House is an intriguing, emotional and thrilling novel  that will delight fans of Rachel Hore and Kate Morton.

The Glass House, my first book by Eve Chase was a great read for me. It's 1971, and Rita arrives at Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, nanny for the Harrington family, looking after Hera and Teddy. The children's mother, Jeanie Harrington is fragile, having recently suffered a terrible trauma, whilst their reserved but friendly father, Walter runs the family business, Harrington Glass, based in Mayfair, London. When a baby girl is found abandoned in the woods close by the Manor House, the Harrington's take her in with the intention of informing the local authorities, but Jeanie is insistent that they keep her, instead. As the gorgeous baby fills everybody's lives with joy during a blissful summer, will the Harrington's dreams be sustained or shatter like glass?

As the story moves between 1971 and the current day, the reader is privy to the thoughts and feelings of the main characters. The author's character creation is first-class and I particularly appreciated her portrayal of Rita's caring, stoical and imperturbable personality. The Forest of Dean provides a wonderfully atmospheric setting and is also vital to the story which is wonderfully depicted in the smart descriptiveness that gives the place a life of its own.

Overall, The Glass House is a very fulfilling and rewarding read that will keep you guessing.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Penguin UK - Michael Joseph via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Beautifully told, intricately woven, the past and present intertwine seamlessly to unfold a story of secrets and intrigue. Slyvie's past has always been shrouded in secret but when her mother, Rita, has a potentially fatal accident and is in a coma in hospital, it makes her start questioning all the secrets of her past. Rita had once worked as a nanny for a wealthy family, while they were grieving the loss of a child. During their summer holiday in the forest, they find an abandoned baby that gives the whole complicated household new life. The events of that summer will impact multiple generations.

A captivating mystery with interesting, complex characters that come alive and kept me entranced making me desperate to know where the story would lead. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to predict the story until the book was ready to reveal a hint and images have remained imprinted in my memory. A riveting, highly recommended read.

4.5 stars
This story takes place in 1971 and the present day and is told from the viewpoint of three of the characters, Rita, Hera and Sylvie. There are a few connections that are revealed as the story continues and a few surprises near the end. Once I got into this story, it was difficult to put down. There are some vivid descriptions throughout the story that evokes a number of memories. Who could forget the colour of Germoline pink! The main characters were very strong and interesting people. This was a most engaging story that will keep you reading until the end. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Glass House is a constantly moving story that keeps you paying attention from the first page to the last. When Slyvie's beloved mother has a stunning, potentially life changing accident, her search to keep her going amidst the craze of her own life ends up giving her answers to her beginnings. Answers that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't quite ready for...

I have a feeling that this book will be added onto that list we all mentally have of "books we obsess about and tell everyone to read". I finished at at 2am in the morning, fell asleep, and woke up thinking about it, having had dreams of forests and light falling through trees. It was such a lovely dream after such a wonderful book.

Told from multiple perspectives and multiple points in time, this technique works well in The Glass House where it often fails, a tribute to the talent of Eve Chase, and her natural story telling skill. The descriptive work is both brutal and elegant where applicable, conjuring tales of love in all its forms: wild sexual passion, maternal desperation, sibling bonds, and what it means to be mixed in the middle of it all.

One of the things that really struck me in this book was the accurate, and harrowing, way that women's mental health in the near past was handled. Drugged and sent off to institutions, well off women especially were expected to fit into a neat little mold, the failure to do so being so terrifying that faking being well was grasped at. It also uses the multiple time and perspective points to reflect on this brutal treatment, acknowledging the suffering of characters, and the way they should have been treated instead.

A large theme in the novel is the impact of infant loss. I won't reveal any spoilers or go any deeper into the specifics of the way the story uses this, but we find out within pages that one of the lead characters had a baby who died fairly recently. Again, treated awfully as was the time appropriate way, her grief is earth shaking, and as someone who has, in modern times, seen that blank screen where there should have been a heartbeat, I was hit so physically hard by the way her suffering was described that I wanted to both run away and keep on reading. I'm glad I did the later.

The Glass House draws together an unlikely cast of people who are designed someway or another to fit into one another's lives. You feel their pain, their joy, their love and their horror over the course of a summer that changes everything for so many. Full of unraveling secrets and sometimes even more unraveling truths, the real power behind this novel is the desire to control and oppress women, both in the 1970s and the current day. It is where this fails that we see the power of human nature in full, and what that really means in a time where "yes sir" is the only correct answer.

Beautiful, painful, and ready for absolutely anyone to fall in love with, Eve Chase has written a masterpiece that will stand the test of time, a reminder of what can go so wrong - and what can go so right.

The Glass House is the a time slip set during the early seventies where we meet Big Rita, who has escaped from her grandmother's home where nothing much happens to become a nanny for the ill-fated Harringtons in London. But when a tragedy occurs Big Rita has travelled with Mrs Harrington to their rambling unloved manor in The Forest of Dean. She's terrified of forests because something dreadful happened to her in one when she was a child, but she's there to watch over Mrs Harrington, who is struggling to cope with the loss of her baby and above all Big Rita is determined to ensure that the children in her charge are kept safe.

In the present day we have Sylvia who's recently left her husband and having to cope with her daughter Annie's issues with her when her own mother has an accident. The story is one of secrets and tragedy and is told from Big Rita, Sylvia and Mrs Harrington's daughter Hera's point of view. Hera is barely a teenager but is much more aware of what's going on than those around her realise.

This is a beautifully descriptive book but it took me a little while to become become engrossed in the story. This was probably because I was more fascinated at the beginning by the story set during the seventies than I was in the present day side, but I loved how everything was tied up at the end and all my questions were answered. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

I'm sorry to say that I found this book to be rather rambling in the extreme. From the start the book meandered along with the story very slowly unfolding and I had to push myself to keep reading. Blow me - the last two chapters zipped along and tidied up all the loose ends in a brisk fashion. What a shame all the action happened so late on!!

The Glass House is the third standalone novel by Eve Chase and is as lush, rich and suspenseful as her previous books featuring explosive family secrets that threaten to shatter countless lives. It's August, 1971 and Jeannie Harrington decides to relocate her children, twelve-year-old Hera and five years old Teddy, to Foxcote Manor in the beautiful Forest of Dean after a fire gutted their London home. Then one day, as though a gift from the gods, a baby girl is discovered perched precariously on a tree stump in the deserted forest by Hera who takes the tot home with her knowing she can't be left there another second longer without someone to supervise her. They decide to keep the baby girl and with Jeannie having sadly not long lost her own baby she feels it'll go some way to mending her soul and easing the depression caused by such a devastating loss. Jeannie is extremely careful not to do anything which may alert the authorities as to the babies location but how can they possibly keep this up, what must they sacrifice in order to do so and what about the child's real parents?

This is a gripping, evocative and beautifully-imagined tale full of mystery and intrigue and the type of dysfunctional family life most readers will only have read about in fiction. It is an immersive read you can easily lose yourself in and therefore the pages turn themselves. A wonderful page-turner with a cast of intriguing and superbly developed characters, they manage to strike the perfect balance between being interesting enough to be thoroughly engrossing but relatable enough to be believable. The wondrous descriptions of the greenery and countryside in all their sprawling beauty are profoundly intoxicating and the mystery contained within these pages nothing short of riveting. This is a book that'll appeal to loyal fans of Ms Chase whilst also gaining her many new readers. Recommended to those who enjoy solid historical family dramas teeming with the darkest secrets and skeletons that will come tumbling out of the closet despite best efforts to keep them hidden from sight. This is the ideal escapist page-turner. Many thanks to Penguin for an ARC.

Absolutely brilliant twists and turns. I hadn’t got a clue what the ending might be. Super believable characters.

I just finished this incredibly captivating family mystery and really, really liked it!

Big thanks to to Penguin UK – Michael Joseph and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book!

When I saw this beautiful cover and heard what the story was about I KNEW I had to read this! Pretty soon I started to turn the pages faster and faster because the secrets kept piling up and the mysteries were getting bigger!

Both the setting and the characters stood out to me the most. I think my favourite has got to be Rita. She is so sweet and kind and warm, and the children loved her from day one. I can totally see why! I love that during her job interview – even though she tried so hard to stay super professional – she slipped once and giggled with the kids, which later turned out to be the reason she got the position as their nanny. On top of that, I found it incredible that at her young age she took on such a big responsibility.

There are two other POVs which are adding to the fact that this was a great read for me. I recommend it to everyone who loves mysteries, family secrets, dual timelines and multiple POVs!

4.5 stars from me!

This novel is structured in a fairly predictable way. There is the 'before' and the 'now', the perspective moves from first to third from character to character...I guess I just didn't particularly care for the story or the characters. The writing style itself was fine.

Thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review. This is the first time I’ve read one of Eve Chase’s novels, and I’m sure it won’t be the last one as I found it a totally immersing and wonderful experience.
The plot has something of the fairy tale (or of several fairy tales), as this is a dual-timeline story where we read about some events that took place in the early 1970s —although that part of the action (in fact, the whole book) has something timeless about it— and then others that are taking place in the present. The story is told from three different points of view, those of Rita (told in a deep third person, as readers are privy to her feelings and thoughts), a very tall nanny (they call her ‘Big Rita’) with a tragic past; Hera, one of her charges, an intelligent and troubled child (almost a teen), who is more aware of what is truly going on around her than the adults realise; and Sylvia, a recently separated woman, mother of an eighteen-year-old girl, Annie, and trying to get used to an independent lifestyle again. Both, Hera and Sylvia, tell the story in the first person, and the chapters alternate between the three narrators and the two timelines. Rita and Hera’s narratives start in the 1970s and are intrinsically linked, telling the story of the Harrington family and of a summer holiday in the family home in the Forest of Dean, intended as a therapeutic break for the mother of the family, which turns up to be anything but. Most readers will imagine that Sylvia’s story, set in the present, must be related to that of the other two women, but it is not immediately evident how. There are secrets, mysteries, adultery, murders, lost and found babies, romance, tragedy, accidents, terraria (or terrariums, like the lovely one in the cover of the book), cruelty, fire… The book is classed under Gothic fiction (and in many ways it has many of the elements we’d expect from a Victorian Gothic novel, or a fairy tale, as I said), and also as a domestic thriller, and yes, it also fits in that category, but with a lot more symbolism than is usual in that genre, a house in the forest rather than a suburban or a city home, and some characters that are larger than life.
Loss, grief, identity (how we define ourselves and how we are marked by family tradition and the stories we are told growing up), the relationship between mothers and daughters, and what makes a family a family are among the themes running through the novel, as are memory and the different ways people try to cope with trauma and painful past events.
I’ve mentioned the characters in passing, and although some of them might sound familiar when we start reading about them (Rita, the shy woman, too tall and scarred to be considered attractive, who seeks refuge in other people’s family; Hera, the young girl growing in a wealthy family with a mother who has mental health problems and a largely absent father; and Sylvia, a woman in her forties suddenly confronted with having to truly become an adult when both, her mother and her daughter need her), there is more to them than meets the eye, and they all grow and evolve during the novel, having to confront some painful truths in the process. I liked Rita and Sylvia from the beginning, even though I don’t have much in common with either of them, and felt sorry for Hera. Although the events and the story require a degree of suspension of disbelief greater than in other novels, the characters, their emotions, and their reactions are understandable and feel real within the remit of the story, and it would be difficult to read it and not feel for them.
I loved the style that offers a good mix of descriptive writing (especially vivid when dealing with the setting of the story, the forest, Devon, and the terrarium) and more symbolic and lyrical writing when dealing with the emotions and the state of mind of the characters. At times, we can almost physically share in their experiences, hear the noises in the woods, or smell the sea breeze. This is not a rushed story, and although the action and the plot move along at a reasonable pace, there is enough time to stop to contemplate and marvel at a fern, the feel of a baby’s skin, or the music from a guitar. This is not a frantic thriller but a rather precious story, and it won’t suit people looking for constant action and a fast pace. I’ve read some reviews where readers complained about feeling confused by the dual time lines and the different narrators, although I didn’t find it confusing as each chapter is clearly marked and labelled (both with mention of the time and the character whose point of view we are reading). I recommend anybody thinking about reading the book to check a sample first, to see if it is a good fit for their taste.
The ending… I’m going to avoid spoilers, as usual, but I liked the way everything comes together and fits in. Did I work out what was going on? Some of the revelations happen quite early, but some of the details don’t come to light until much later, and the author is masterful in the way she drops clues that we might miss and obscures/hides information until the right moment. I guessed some of the points, others I only realised quite close to the actual ending, but, in any case, I loved how it all came together, like in a fairy tale, only even better.
This is a novel for readers who don’t mind letting their imagination fly and who are not looking for a totally realistic novel based on fact. With wonderful characters, magnificent settings, many elements that will make readers think of fairy tales, and a Gothic feel, this is a great novel, and an author whose work I look forward to reading again in the near future.

I really enjoyed this book. In the early seventies, Rita arrives at Foxcote Hall in the Forest of Dean. She is nanny for the Harrington family, looking after Hera and Teddy. Jeanie Harrington has recently had a stillborn child, and is very fragile. Then, one day, a baby girl is found abandoned near the house. Rita takes her in, with the intention of informing the local authorities, but Jeanie is insistent that they keep her, and she takes on a new lease of life. The story moves between this time and the current day, where Sylvie has just separated from her husband. What is the connection between these 2? This is a real page turner, full of secrets and lies, and will keep you guessing to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last as I loved every moment of it.
The author is a talented storyteller and created an enthralling and fascinating plot that mixes familiy drama and mystery keeping you hooked till the last page.
I loved Rita, a great and well thought character, as much as I liked the others as all of them are well developed and interesting.
It was an excellent read and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The glass House is told between two timelines; Past and present day, and is based upon the life of Big Rita, who in her earlier days was a nanny for two children of a dysfunctional family. However, after a tragedy occurred, Rita is ordered to move the mother and her two children to a small remote village and to care for them there until the situation improves.
Present day. Rita is in hospital after a terrible fall. While her family try to come to terms with the accident, they also try to figure out what secrets Rita has been hiding all these years.

I went in to reading this book without reading the synopsis, but I'm glad that I did as it brought such an element of mystery not knowing where this book was going. I'm not going to lie, it did take a while to understand the present timeline and what this story was about, but the author, Eve Chase, kept me hanging with just enough suspense to keep turning the pages. I loved reading about Rita's past days, not so much the present, it lacked something that I can't quite put my finger on, but not enough to deter me away from carrying on reading.
As it turns out, The Glass House was very well written bringing moments of happiness, sadness and complete shock, and I really did like the ending.

The Glass House is the first Eve Chase book that I have read. It won't be the last.

Thankyou to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Glass House in exchange for an honest review.

I’d give this book 10* if I could. I was gripped from page 1. Having read The vanishing of Audrey Wilde courtesy of penguin Uk-Michael Joseph and netgalley I was delighted to receive an ARC of The glass house. What a fabulous story.
Big Rita is the Harrington family nanny to Hera and Teddy. Following a fire at their London home Mr Harrington sends them all off to Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean along with Jeannie the children’s mother. Jeannie has been struggling mentally following the recent still birth of a baby girl. The story is related in two time frames. 1971 by Rita and Hera and in the present day by Rita’s adopted daughter Sylvie and Hera. This gives the reader an insight into the history and backgrounds of the characters.
The arrival at Foxcote Manor in 1971 is where the story begins. And it has everything! Mystery, intrigue, a body in the forest and a foundling baby taken in by the family. Mystery also surrounds the stillborn baby girl. Quite a dark story with so many twists and turns and so many characters I wondered how it could possibly all come together at the end but it did. Slowly but surely all was revealed. And unlike many books I was kept guessing till the very end where there were even more surprises. I have already highly recommended this book to several friends. I’ve now downloaded Black rabbit hall and am already looking forward to Eve Chase’s next book. My thanks to penguin Uk-Michael Joseph and netgalley for ARC.

In the early 1970s Rita starts working as a nanny for the well off Harrington family, looking after 12 year old Hera and 5 year old Teddy. Mum Jeannie is pregnant when Rita starts working for them but the baby dies during childbirth and Jeannie ends up in The Lawns, a psychiatric facility. Not long after she returns home, there is a fire in the London house so Rita, Jeannie and the kids go and stay in the family's country house, Foxcote Manor in the middle of the Forest of Dean, while Walter, Jeannie's husband is travelling for work. Rita is a great Nanny to the kids - she treats them well and they are all very fond of each other but she is not so happy about being Walter's spy, keeping an eye on Jeannie's mental health and reporting back to him.
A couple of weeks after arriving, Hera is wondering around in the forest and finds a new-born baby abandoned. She brings her back to Foxcote Manor and Jeannie at once sees the baby as a replacement for the one that she has lost. Despite Rita's protests and pleas to call the authorities, the baby ends up staying and they all grow to love the baby whom they call baby Forest.
Meanwhile in the present day we also hear from Sylvie, a makeup artist in her 40s who has just separated from her husband. Her 18 year old daughter Annie takes it badly and decides to go to Devon to stay with Sylvie's mother. Out walking one day, Sylvie's mother falls down a cliff and badly injured, ends up in a coma.
Told from the points of view of Rita and Hera in the 1970s and Sylvie in the present day this was a great mystery novel. I couldn't for the life of me work out the connection between the characters and I enjoyed trying to get figure it out. Hearing from the three different women gave us a great insight into three very different characters.
Rita isn't a particularly happy character - she lost her parents to a car accident in a forest so feels uncomfortable at Foxcote Manor. She isn't confident in her looks - she is known as Big Rita for her height and has recently split from her boyfriend. But she is brilliant with the children, especially Hera, reassuring them when their mother is mentally absent. She is also amazing with baby Forest, despite knowing they shouldn't have kept her.
Hera is a very troubled girl. She was in the house when her mother gave birth and witnessed the midwife taking away the baby who seemed to be alive but deformed. She wants her mothers attention and looks to Rita for reassurance when her mother can't give her any. Rita seems to know just the right thing to say to her, when Hera confides in her, even offering up her precious terrarium for Hera to look after to show her trust.
Sylvia was the character I identified most being of a similar age. The pain and worry she is going through while her mother is in a coma isn't all she has to deal with when Annie, who was on track to go and study Maths at Cambridge reveals she is pregnant.
I really enjoyed this. I enjoy a story that spans the years but also has lots of interconnecting threads that come together in a satisfying way at the end of the book.

Eve Chase is one of my favourite authors. I love her dual timeline stories about old houses, and dysfunctional families with dark secrets in their past. I love her books so much it would be hard to choose a favourite. Like a box of quality chocolates, each is equally delicious!

The Glass House is about Rita, who is nicknamed 'Big Rita' on account of her height. She takes on the job of nanny with the glamorous and wealthy Harrington family but soon things go terribly wrong. Jeannie Harrington loses her baby and suffers a breakdown. Her husband sends her and the children to their country house (the remote Foxcote Manor, hidden away in the Forest of Dean) to recover. Rita is given strict instructions to watch over Jeannie and report back to him. As Jeannie goes into a further decline, her daughter finds a baby in the woods and brings her home...

The Glass House (the title refers to Rita's antique terrarium) is a beautifully written, very atmospheric gothic suspense. It's a slow burn, but all the better to appreciate each layer of the mystery unfold. There are two timelines: the early 1970s and the present day. As well as the family secrets, there is a murder mystery too. The ultimate ending was not hard to work out but there are lots of little twists along the way, most of which took me by surprise! I even got the identity of the murderer wrong! I loved the sweet, touching romance between Rita and Robbie, and found myself still thinking about this story several days after I'd finished the book.

The Glass House is one of my favourite reads this year. It would suit readers who love stories about spooky old houses, with characters who have deep, dark secrets, and anyone who is a fan of authors such as Lulu Taylor, Kate Morton and Daphne du Maurier. Thoroughly recommended!


Thank you to Eve Chase and Michael Joseph/Penguin UK for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

I knew I would love this book just from looking at the front cover. And I was right.

This book is a sweeping family Saga with a mystery at its heart.

The Descriptions of house and the woods are both written so evocatively you really get a sense of place.

The themes running through are: mother and daughter relationship, mental health, loss and grief.

I have been itching to get sucked into a book like this with multiple layers and a colourful cast. It Came along at the perfect time.

Highly recommended for fans of Katherine Webb and Daphne Du Maurier.

I will discuss this further on my podcast SNIFFING THE PAGES, available on all podcast platforms.

A book to sink into like a well-loved armchair and savour every minute. Family secrets in the past, a dual time-line, multi-narrators - its all been done but this is a notch above. There is the upper class troubled family, the faithful Nanny, the house in the forest and it all makes a wonderful story that keeps us guessing to the end. Big Rita, the Nanny, is a great character as are the family, Hera and Teddy in particular. There are twists and turns as down a forest path and danger, excitement and surprise. Great read.