#Review - House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen #Domestic #Thriller

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 354 pages
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thriller / Domestic

The past and the present collide in the most unexpected ways in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen's latest thriller, The House of Glass.

Rose Barclay is an 8-year-old girl who witnessed the death of her nanny —in the midst of her parents' contentious divorce— and immediately fell into traumatic mutism. Stella Hudson is a Best Interest Attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under 13 due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella's mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, sprawling D.C. home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far creepier, than she feared. And there’s something off about the house itself: its a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays hold close, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present collide in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from? From bestselling thriller writer, Sarah Pekkanen, comes a new, riveting novel filled with buried secrets and page-turning twists.

Sarah Pekkanen's House of Glass is a psychological thriller focusing on a family named Barclay whose nanny fell to her death at her place of employment, and now it is up to Stella Hudson, a woman whose past is fraught with horrors, to sort what happened. It is up to her to decide whether 9-year-old Rose Barclay is safe with her father, Ian, or mother, Beth, or Grandmother, or if Rose played a role in the nanny's untimely death. Stella is what you call a best interest attorney or guardian ad litem. It is up to Stella to represent the children in any divorce proceedings. 

Pulled into this case thanks to her mentor and friend Judge Charles Huxley, Stella is supposed to assess Rose's world and make reports back to the court who will determine who Rose will end up with. But as Stella gets a better look into the home, and Rose's living situation, she notices that Rose seems to be collecting sharp objects. Why? Here is what Stella has been told. Rose, who is 8-years-old, witnessed death of her nanny Tina in the midst of her parents' contentious divorce and immediately fell into traumatic mutism. 

It seems as though Ian, the father, had an affair with Tina, and Tina ended up pregnant. Stella normally doesn't accept clients under 13 due to her own traumatic childhood of finding her own mother murdered when she was a child, which also sent her into a phase where she was unable to talk to anyone. From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, sprawling D.C. home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far creepier, than she feared. 

And there’s something off about the house itself: its a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found. As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays hold close, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present collide in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend, and yes, even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from? From bestselling thriller writer, Sarah Pekkanen, comes a new, riveting novel filled with buried secrets and page-turning twists.

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#Review - An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen #Thrillers #Suspense

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense

The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.

When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking…and what she’s hiding. As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone

 

An Anonymous Girl, by co-authors Greer Hendricks, and Sarah Pekkanen, is their follow up to 2018's The Wife Between Us which has apparently been picked up as a possible movie by Amblin Entertainers. 28-year old Jessica Farris is a Beauty Buzz Cosmetics specialist who struggles to pay her bills. Jess moved to NYC dreaming of a career in the theater. After a visit to a client, Jessica discovers that a professor named Dr. Shields is offering $500 for a ethics and morality study. 

You're Invited: Seeking women aged 18-32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality conducted by a preeminent NYC psychiatrist. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed. Call for more details. 

Finding extra money to send home to her parents and special needs sister, who she supports, sounds like a fantastic opportunity. The questions start out innocent enough but get darker and deeper as she continues. They range from questions like can you tell a lie without feeling guilt? Have you ever kept a secret from someone you loved to avoid upsetting them? After the first part of the questions are over, Jessica meets the mysterious Dr. Shields.  

As the study goes on, Jessica finds herself in a quagmire of her own doing, really. She opens up about secrets that she has never told anyone, but is the money really worth the emotional toll? Readers will ask ourselves just how far and how deep would we get involved What motivates us in our own lives to make the moral choices that we do? Is there ever a line drawn and set in concrete or is it a moveable barrier depending on odd circumstances? Is bartering an option?

As the sessions continue, and the payoff increases, Jess can't help but wonder what the study really is all about. Dr. Shields starts to tell Jess where to go, how to dress, and whom to meet—and in some cases, that entails striking up a conversation with a specific man. Dr. Shields watches from behind the scenes and snares Jessica into a web of deceit and trickery to expose her own husbands infidelity. Jessica ends up so deeply trapped in the study, that she can't get out of, even once she learns how dangerous it is and how far Dr. Shields will go.

This is a cleverly written psychological thriller full of deceit, obsession, twists and unreliable narrators. I haven't read the Wife Between Us yet, but I might just as well since I now have some understanding at how well these writers actually work together. It's also nice to have new authors churning out entertaining books, instead of the same repetitiveness that leaves us with Hollywood making the same movies over and over again.

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