A Stranger in the House

June 19, 2017
At the start of this well-plotted if workmanlike thriller from bestseller Lapena (The Couple Next Door), the cops can’t figure out what upstate New York housewife and bookkeeper Karen Krupp was doing in the sketchiest part of town before running a red light and smashing her Honda Civic headfirst into a utility pole—and neither can Karen, who comes to in the hospital with no memory of that night beyond an underlying feeling of dread. But with the discovery of a murdered man just blocks from the scene, bells start to sound for detectives Rasbach and Jennings, setting in motion an investigation that quickly threatens to expose some unsavory secrets beneath the cozy suburban life Karen and her husband of two years, Tom, have constructed for themselves—not to mention the downright creepy activities of the couple’s intrusive neighbor, Brigid, who’s Karen’s putative best friend. Though the characters pack all the emotional heft of the glossy shelter magazines Karen collects, plentiful plot twists—through the final page—make this a diverting page-turner. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).

June 15, 2017
After a terrible car accident, a woman is left without memory of the events, but a dead body at the scene speaks of something sinister.When Karen Krupp crashes her car into a pole after fleeing an abandoned restaurant in a rough part of town in upstate New York, she's left with a bad concussion and no memory of what happened before her accident. Her husband, Tom, doesn't know what to think since she went out without her purse and ID and didn't leave him a note as she usually does, and those are only the first in a string of out-of-character actions for Karen. The shocks keep coming when a dead man is found in the derelict restaurant, shot to death, a pair of distinctive pink rubber gloves left at the scene. Tom is convinced Karen isn't a murderer, but as evidence piles up, he starts to doubt that he ever really knew his wife at all. Karen won't find comfort in her "friend" Brigid Cruikshank, who lives across the street. Poor Brigid hates her marriage to boring Bob, and all she can think about is the hanky-panky she and Tom were up to before he married Karen. Bob is inadequate, but Tom is her dream hubby, and as cracks form in Tom and Karen's marriage, delusional Brigid only sees opportunity. Detectives Rasbach and Jennings smell something fishy and are convinced Karen is hiding something, and as they dig into her past, explosive secrets come to light. Tom is hapless and self-pitying, allowing himself to be manipulated at every turn, and Brigid, at times unintentionally funny, is the quintessential soap-opera villainess--she delights in spying on Tom and Karen through her window while knitting and nursing fantasies about Tom. Readers will guess the obligatory final twist quickly, and Lapena's (The Couple Next Door, 2016, etc.) attempts at creating any sort of suspense are crushed under the weight of predictability. Readers looking for someone, anyone, to root for won't find it among these well-to-do suburbanites behaving badly.

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March 15, 2017

Lapena wrote award-winning literary fiction, then triumphed with her first thriller, The Couple Next Door. Here, a woman is found injured in a shady part of town. Neither the police nor her husband believes her explanation, and she herself isn't sure what happened.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017

When Tom Krupp comes home from work, his wife's car is gone, but the front door is unlocked and it's clear that Karen has been preparing dinner in the kitchen. Most troubling of all, her purse and cell phone are still in the house. As he tries to understand what's happening, the police arrive to announce that Karen has been in an accident. He rushes to his wife's side in the hospital, but she can't remember the accident, nor why she left the house or where she went. The police are suspicious, Tom struggles with his own doubts, and Karen's best friend seems to be the only one who really believes her. Tension builds and relationships threaten to fall apart as Karen and Tom try to piece together what happened that night and what it means for their future, if they even have one. VERDICT The author of the acclaimed The Couple Next Door has written another fast-paced, engrossing psychological thriller that will have readers guessing until the very end. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/17.]--Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.