A Stranger’s House

Ruby has just left her boyfriend of over a decade with not a whole lot more than the clothing on her back. Her best friend has a solution: her cousin Nate has a house-sitting business and just happens to have a new client who needs someone right now. Nate isn’t sure that a woman who looks like a homeless person is the best choice, but Steph says she’s fine. What none of them realize is the owner of the house has set things in motion that will eventually include a body count.

Set in Cambridge, England this tale has more twists and turns than the roads. Ruby might have been knocked down a bit by life, but she doesn’t sit around and mope. She works through her grief in a realistic way while dealing with an absent but creepily controlling homeowner. Nate is also on his own journey, but tries to forget his past. Told in the dueling 1^st/3^rd POV that readers sometimes don’t like, it becomes jarring to read because both POVs are mashed inside each chapter. Having to stop and re-read multiple times because of the large amount of colloquial terms can become tiresome to U.S. readers. The owner of the house, and starter of all the chaos and mayhem—Damien Newbold—never appears but his name in full is on every page and not a pronoun. The mystery and whodunit is excellent and not to be missed. Ruby and Nate are perfect foils for each other, both healing and growing while trying to stay alive and solve crimes.

Julie York