Our House (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I have read quite a few books by Louise Candlish over the past ten years, and on the whole have liked them very much. Even when the characters are not particularly likeable, her plotting is excellent, and her writing style often gripping. I was in two minds about putting ‘Our House’ on my wishlist as it was listed as a thriller rather than general women’s fiction, and I’m not really a fan of thrillers. But the reviews were good, so I added it to my list, and was given it for Christmas.

‘Our House’ has over 400 pages but I have finished it in just a few days. It opens with a scenario that feels at first like a bad dream… Fiona (Fi) is walking down her road, on her way back from a short holiday, when she sees removal men delivering furniture to her house. She then discovers another woman in her kitchen, and is told that the house has been sold, with completion that morning.

Fi is convinced there must have been a serious misunderstanding, but she can’t reach her estranged husband Bram on the phone - the number says it has been disconnected. She becomes more and more worried: Where are her two young sons? Who are these people who have moved into her home? How could it possibly happen? And where is all the furniture and other possessions which were in the house when she last saw it, only a few days earlier?

The last page of the first chapter takes us to Geneva, where Bram is lying on a hotel bed, wondering if Fi has yet discovered what has happened. He is very nervous, and worried that someone might recognise him…

The majority of the book is told in alternating viewpoints. Fi is talking on a popular show about victims, a couple of months later, telling her story. Bram is typing his story - we don’t know who for until the end - in a Word document on his laptop. Most chapters have a section where Fi explains her perspective, and the same time period is covered by Bram shortly afterwards, with his differing view of events. That sounds rather awkward, but it works extremely well and gradually builds up a picture of what has happened since the event that triggered their separation.

Every so often the action returns to the present day, just half an hour or so forward each time. Fi and Bram’s parents are contacted, and the new alleged owners of the house manage to get in touch with their solicitors. But it’s not until the last few chapters that the two accounts of past events catch up to the present.

Both stories start with the event which caused the marriage to break up; Bram is not entirely sure how or why he was so stupid, but he’s hidden some things from his wife, and gradually has to hide more, or tell more lies, in order to cover up his initial deception. The entire theme of the book is about the depths to which someone can fall when they get involved in a web of lies.

I didn’t much like Bram as a person. He’s an exuberant, wild, fast-living person who likes to drink a bit too much, and enjoys driving fast. He’s a risk-taker and also trusts rather too much in luck. But he’s a good father; his sons mean a lot to him, and he genuinely doesn’t intend to do the increasing number of things he has to hide. He acts on the spur of the moment, not thinking about consequences, and not appreciating what he has until much later.

I could believe more easily in Fi, who comes across as a likeable, friendly person who manages to balance her work and family life pretty well. Even when she and Bram split up, she proposes an arrangement that seems to suit them all. Her friends think she is too forgiving; but she generally comes across as a competent and warm-hearted.

This book is not a family saga, nor a character-based book as such; indeed, Bram’s character becomes progressively worse, over the course of the book, as he falls further and further into deception. Instead, it is a thriller. It could be termed a domestic thriller, since it focuses on a household rather than international espionage or politics, but still this is a tense, page-turning story. There are so many twists and turns that I had to put the book down every so often, to breathe more easily and distract myself with something else. It was not a good book to read at bedtime because it was difficult to put down, and my mind would keep churning. The initial problem - the new owners of Fi’s house - runs throughout the book, but is relatively minor compared with everything else that transpires.

I hope that the general plot is not possible, although apparently the author based the initial premise on an article she read about. But the downhill spiralling that leads to the initial shock, albeit both rapid and extreme, feels all too believable.

The last few chapters provide yet more shocks, more evidence that even the best of people can do terrible things under stress. The ending is not entirely conclusive; I could see the final twist in the outcome from a chapter or two earlier, and hoped I was wrong. The future is not spelled out; instead the book finishes quite abruptly. Yet it was the right place to finish. I need to read something much calmer next, and stop thinking about ways in which things could have turned out differently, in particular related to the last chapters.

Highly recommended if you enjoy tense drama, or if you appreciate extremely clever plotting. I expect I will read this again in another eight or nine years though I can’t imagine I will forget this most unusual story.

Review by Sue F copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews