Friday, May 24, 2024

#Review - The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass #Mystery #Thriller #Suspense

Series:
 Standalone
Format: Paperback, 304 pages
Release Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Graydon House
Source: Library
Genre: Thrillers / Psychological

The Paris Apartment meets The Wrong Family in this thrilling tale of crime, passion and murder set in a run-down apartment complex packed with shady characters willing to go to deadly lengths to keep their darkest secrets from the stranger in their midst.

When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande. 

Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all? 

But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.

 



Seraphina Nova Glass's The Vacancy in Room 10 is a tale of crime, passion and murder is set in a run-down apartment complex packed with shady characters willing to go to deadly lengths to keep their darkest secrets from the stranger in their midst. The book alternates between Cassidy Abbott and Anna Hartley. When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. 
 
But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande. Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. 
 
The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all? But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. But when Anna starts getting threatening notes and unsettling packages, her fear of her surroundings may trump her desire to get at the truth. Should she pack it all in and return to her safe and pristine world? Or will the mystery surrounding Henry’s death drive her into the danger zone?
 
Meanwhile, Cass recently found out just how much her former lover Reid actually felt about her. She learned the hard way that she allowed herself to be dictated to, and stopped from living the life she always wanted, only to find out that he was slurping on the side with a much younger woman, and lost all her so called friends. Cass found a job at the Sycamore Apartments where people who seem to be down on their last chance live. Cass is the live-in manager who gets free rent for fixing what’s broken-and since she is barely scraping by, she also has a side hustle of blackmail. 
 
She seems to know everything that is going on. But one day, her encounter with a married man sparks an idea—she can punish these men for what they do to their wives, seeking retribution for what her boyfriend did to her. This side job of blackmailing can help her pay the bills, but what if she chooses the wrong man, one who could ruin her entire life? Until the day she tries her scam on the exact wrong man—and things go horribly awry. Now she has to keep the new widow who has been poking around out of her business. Can Cass keep her secrets hidden? Or is Anna going to wreak everything in her hunt for the truth?
 
*Thoughts* If you are old enough to remember Peyton Place, Sycamore Apartments reminds me of that place. There are some very strange characters living here. The women spend most of their days playing games, and chasing kids from doing silly games on the adults. There is a man who collects swords. There is a woman who may be married to a man who belongs to the Cartel. And, there is a 10-year-old kid who is as charming and funny as he is smart, and soon becomes Cass's apprentice. The mystery was pretty good. I didn't see it coming, but I should have. It was nice to see how Cass’s character grew, changed and evolved over the course of the book and finally accepted that the people at Sycamore are her family and what more does she need?




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