Our House

"This book has the most brilliant premise and as a reader you just can’t believe Candlish is actually going to be able to stand it up. A woman, Fi Lawson, returns from a few days away to find a family she’s never met before moving into her beautiful, beloved house on Trinity Avenue in a very affluent part of South West London. They insist that they’ve bought it and they now own it. Fi Lawson’s husband, Bram, has disappeared. That’s the premise. It’s a dual narrative, mostly from her point of view, but we also hear from the husband and his thread is about how one miscalculation, one error of judgment, sets in motion this snowball effect that ruins all their lives and that ends up with the house being sold without his wife’s knowledge. I can’t say more than that without giving it away. “Psychological thrillers explore the very human fear of our home not being safe, not being a refuge. The fear of not being able to trust the people closest to us” The book is a puzzle. First we must work out whether these people, these new owners, have the right to be there. Second, how they got there; and third, what happened to enable Bram Lawson to sell the house from under his wife’s nose without her knowing it. It’s all revealed incrementally and it all makes complete sense. No. Everything’s normal. It is all legal and there is nothing she can do about it. The rug of her entire life is pulled out from under her feet in one go. She’s come home to discover that her home isn’t hers anymore and that her husband isn’t there anymore and the life she knew no longer exists. It subsequently transpires that Fi herself has been hiding things. So, she’s got secrets and her husband has secrets. And between the two of them these secrets unseat both of their lives. The book also has the best closing line, a late twist that makes you gasp out loud. It’s brilliant."