A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

 A Stranger in the House

by Shari Lapena

Karen Krupp gets into a car accident and loses a part of her memory. What she does remember is that someone had been in her house, many times, moving things. 

She received a phone call that scared her and made her leave behind her identification as she raced to meet a man from her past in the bad part of town, a place no one can believe she would visit. Her husband Tom learns of the accident from the police and rushes to her side.

The story explores a murder that took place that same night in the same neighborhood. The police finger Karen as the suspect and the mystery unfolds. Who is lying and who is to blame?

The Krupps' neighbor Brigid gets involved. She is in love with Tom, but is Karen's best friend. Brigid watches the Krupps from her picture window, is obsessed with their lives because she is unhappy with her own. As the story unfolds, we learn that Tom and Brigid had an affair before the Krupps married, and that Karen is not who she is pretending to be.

The twist at the end of the book was a good one. I wish the writing in the rest of the book was as descriptive and riveting as the last chapter. I didn't care for the way the book was written in the first person present. It felt like a lot of telling, without much visceral feeling. I had a hard time engaging with the story because of it. The plot itself was good, and I found myself pointing the finger at several characters. I really believed that Brigid was the killer. But I was wrong! And that was great.

I give A Stranger in the House 3.5 stars for the plot and the twist. The writing left a lot to be desired for me.