Written by Louise CandlishI loved it! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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The blurb:
Nothing strange about that.
Except it's your house.
And you didn’t sell it.
FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.
When Fi Lawson arrives home to find strangers moving into her house, she is plunged into terror and confusion. She and her husband Bram have owned their home on Trinity Avenue for years and have no intention of selling. How can this other family possibly think the house is theirs? And why has Bram disappeared when she needs him most?
FOR RICHER, FOR POORER.
Bram has made a catastrophic mistake and now he is paying. Unable to see his wife, his children or his home, he has nothing left but to settle scores. As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of the events that led to a devastating crime. What has he hidden from her – and what has she hidden from him? And will either survive the chilling truth – that there are far worse things you can lose than your house?
Mystery
Legal thriller
Fiction
My thoughts:
Our House was the book chosen for review at our book club meeting this month. I am not familiar with the author, and it is not one I am likely to have chosen for myself. And having just finished it, I would say that that would have been a great loss!I knew from the blurb that this was the sort of story that I would find appealing. I loved the cover which spoke to me of good and evil, night and day, right and wrong, before I even got into the story.
The plot intrigued me within seconds of starting it. How could someone sell your home... the one you were living in... without your knowledge?
Fi (Fiona) and Bram (Abraham) Lawson have separated following a second incidence of adultery by Bram. As they have children to consider, Fi has instigated a "bird's nest custody" arrangement with Bram, whereby she lives in the family home - a beautifully decorated house in an expensive suburb of South London - with the boys during the week, while he lives in a small flat nearby. At the weekend, the arrangement is reversed, with him at the house and her in the flat. The aim is to give the boys stability while Fi and Bram are separated, and heading towards divorce.
Fi arrives home alone, after a short break away with her boyfriend, Toby, to find Lucy and David Vaughan moving into her home. This cannot be! There must be some mistake. Fi knows nothing about the sale of the house, nor the whereabouts of her young children, Leo and Harry. The boys haven't been in school today. How much worse can this get?
Our House is a story full of twists and turns, told from the perspectives of both Fi and Bram, and also has events told in a timeline for Friday 13th January, 2017 - the day the house was sold.
Fi is relating her account in a series of podcasts to be streamed in March 2017. She is using the hashtag #VictimFi as she tells her side of the story, of having her home sold without her knowledge. Some of these are followed by tweets from the listening public, commenting on her story.
Bram is telling his side, including some rather important details which he has omitted to tell Fi, in a word document which he intends will serve as his suicide note.
The events for Friday 13th January are simply set out as they happened.
The timeline jumps about a bit between losing the house in January and the events that follow, but I found it easy enough to follow. My devious mind worked out some of the twists in advance, but I found that I was overthinking the part of the plot around the accident. The ending has one final twist which I didn't see coming, and leaves the reader to make up their own minds as to how this will play out.
Our House, while a bit of a slow burner, is compulsive reading, and one I'm happy to wholeheartedly recommend.
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