The Stranger in My House

LoveReading Says

Domestic thriller fiction at its most heart-wrenching, Judith Barrow’s The Stranger in My House is also utterly un-put-down-able — readers will be desperate for a family broken by cruel coercive control to be reunited.

The novel opens in 1967 when twins Charlie and Chloe are introduced to their “new mummy” Lynne while they’re still bereft at losing their mother to cancer. Early on, Lynne’s behaviour causes alarms bells to ring for the twins — and readers — which only adds to the mounting tension and fear of where things are going, with their father, Graham, vulnerable to emotional manipulation, rendered powerless to do anything to stop his life from careering out of control, which it does at alarming speed.

Before Graham can catch his breath, he’s lost everything, as have his children, who are separated from their father and each other, while Lynne and her bully of a son continue their campaign of cruelty.

Years later, the twins are living separate lives in different parts of the country, both scarred but their hearts lifted by kind souls. And then comes a race-against-time to find each other and save their dad.

Though weighty and harrowing in subject, The Stranger in My House is grippingly easy-to-read in delivery, which makes it a powerful page-turner that will have fans of family drama thrillers reading long after they’d planned to turn out the lights.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
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