A closed door (attic??!!) mystery revolving around two families- one past, another present, connected to a house with a sinister secret- this is the central premise of this novel. Like so many other novels having a similar storyline, you can guess the basic premise along with the characters and the final whodunit. What differentiates these books from one another is the writing style and how the familiar plot idea has been executed. So, it’s great to come across this novel, which elevates this run-of-the-mill central theme with unpredictable characters and surprising twists and turns.
As I said before, this story centres around a house that is infamous because of its tainted past. However, its new owners- Clara and Mike- are unaware of these earlier incidents and have no inkling about what had transpired in their dream home in the not-so-distant past. Rather, their world is centred around their toddler daughter Poppy, who is becoming quite a handful for her mother. But we soon realize that there is someone else who is taken by Poppy’s exuberance and especially her cherubic looks. That someone else is a woman in no. 3 called Josie, who is fixated on the house and especially on Poppy.
Besides Josie, there is another neighbour whose past is entangled with the earlier occupants of Clara’s home. Her name is Belinda, who used to live on the other side of this property and continues to visit her mother, Mabel, who has been a witness to all those horrific events. Although both mother and daughter act aloof in the beginning, they soon get pulled into the unfortunate events stemming from the house’s dreadful past. There are hints at the end of this book indicating that Belinda and her mother might be the main protagonists for the next story if the author decides to write a sequel.
However, in this book, at least Mabel and Belinda come across as two-dimensional characters. We get quite limited information about them, and the plotline does not let them develop into fully formed characters. Likewise, with Josie’s husband and Clara’s friend, Laila, whose characters are limited to supporting roles only. Although Laila gets more page space, it still feels like her character lacks certain depth. Similar character depth is lacking for Mike, too. Then there is Clara, who is the protagonist here but doesn’t act like one, and her character arc dips and rises throughout the plotline.
But what I really didn’t like about this book was the clumsy story progression and illogical plot holes. I understand that the story progresses from three three-person perspectives, still, it becomes difficult to identify who was breaking into Clara’s house from the beginning- was it the ghost from the past or Josie all along? What takes Clara so long to take a look at the attic, or at least someone else to do it for her, like Laila, for example? How come the pest control guy did not notice the flimsy partition between these two houses? What takes Clara so long to realise that her next-door neighbour happens to be a builder and is well aware of his wife’s psychotic obsession? And most importantly, why is there no nanny camera installed in Poppy’s room in this day and age? Maybe if all these questions are answered by applying logical solutions, then perhaps this book will turn out to be a short story or novella at best rather than a full-fledged novel. So, that should give you an idea about how much weight the actual story holds.
Having said that, I will recommend it for a one-time read for a few shots of clever writing and giving a somewhat new twist to a formulaic thriller. Do give it a try and let me know in the comments section your thoughts after reading it.