The House where Nobody Lived (by Sue Jones)

(Amazon UK link)

Sue Jones, a member of my local writing group, was so pleased with the ease of publication via KDP that she asked for our help with publishing her second novel, ‘The House where Nobody Lived’. I had very much enjoyed her first novel, ‘The Legacy’, and felt privileged to read this one in advance of publication, to do the formatting prior to my husband laying it out and uploading it.

This book is very different in style from Sue Jones’ first book. The main character is a man called Jack, recently divorced and extremely likeable. He moves into a house and hears a voice in the next-door back garden. It’s a small child, who says she is called ‘Nobody’. And it’s clear, by the end of the chapter, that this little girl is treated very badly by the adults who she lives with.

Jack slowly tries to unpack boxes and meets some of his neighbours, but when he mentions this unfortunate small child, he is warned off. The occupants of that house are vengeful, he is told, and if he reports them he might find himself in huge trouble. So he’s unsure what to do, his conscience pricked by the pitiful voice, but also not wanting to be the target of attack.

Chapter Two then switches to an entirely different storyline. We meet Esther, a young woman who has been arrested at an airport, caught by sniffer dogs. It’s clear that her passport is fake, and that she’s doing something for a criminal, against her better judgement. We don’t know why until a bit later in the book, but she’s very concerned that she’ll be in serious danger if she tells the truth.

It’s an exciting book, albeit not at all the kind of novel I would usually read. The characterisation of the significant people is good, although some of the ‘bad’ guys were so awful I couldn’t entirely believe in them. There are some scenes of violence sufficiently unpleasant that I wouldn’t suggest a teenager read the book, and some quite shocking events that I wasn’t expecting. A lot of issues are covered, and I found myself a tad confused about details a few times - but that didn’t matter.

As with the author’s first book, the writing is excellent, and the pace such that it was quite difficult to stop reading, in places. Maybe some of the conversation is a tad too extended for my tastes, not really adding to the story or the characterisation. But I’ve noticed that this style is becoming increasingly common in modern novels.

All in all, I would recommend this if you like this genre of book: it would perhaps fall into the ‘romantic thriller’ genre. Available inexpensively in Kindle form as well as paperback.

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