Welcome to my review of Our House by Louise Candlish. I saw this advertised as a new series on ITV and rushed to read the book before it started. Unfortunately, I missed the start, but I plan to binge the whole series as soon as I get the chance! I don’t know about you, but I can rarely read a book after watching the film or TV series, so it had to be completed first. (We will exclude Eat, Pray, Love from that as I read the book afterwards and found it painful, but that’s another story!)
On a bright morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought on Trinity Avenue.
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?
TILL DEATH US DO PART.
Taken from Amazon’s Author page for Louise Candlish:
Hello and welcome! I am the bestselling author of 15 novels, a fact I can’t quite believe myself, and my books are published all over the world.
OUR HOUSE is the one you may be hearing about at the moment as it’s now on our screens as a major four-part ITV drama starring Martin Compston, Tuppence Middleton and Rupert Penry-Jones. This is the novel that turned my career around – right when I was about to give up. It won the 2019 British Book Awards Book of the Year – Crime & Thriller and was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Best Crime Novel of the Year Award, and the Audible Sounds of Crime Award. It was also longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Specsavers National Book Awards.
I couldn’t have asked for more, really, and feel so proud that readers are continuing to discover it and recommend it far and wide.
THE HEIGHTS is my newest book – it’s a twisty revenge thriller whose narrator, Ellen, has a strange fear of heights known as ‘high place phenomenon’. You could say she’s my most Hitchcock-inspired character yet! I can’t wait for you to read it and share your thoughts. The paperback publishes in the UK in June 2022.
Out now is THE OTHER PASSENGER (I call it ‘commuter noir’) was one of the biggest sellers of lockdown (a dubious honour), selling over 250,000 copies in the UK to date. It’s my first ever Richard & Judy Book Club pick and was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2021, which makes me very happy.
A bit about me: I live in a South London neighbourhood not unlike the one in my books, with my husband, teenage daughter, and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie who is the apple of my eye. Books, TV and long walks have been my top sanity savers during recent times. Oh, and wine.
For more book news (and doting pictures of Bertie), catch me on Twitter @louise_candlish, on Instagram @louisecandlish or facebook.com/LouiseCandlishAuthor.
So, this is the story of Fiona Lawson and her newly estranged husband, Bram. He appears to have sold their house from under her feet and disappeared with their two children. They have a ‘bird’s nest’ custody arrangement for caring for their children, which I loved the idea of, though obviously, it won’t work for many people, I’m sure. It doesn’t quite work out for them in the end.
It is written in the form of Fiona talking to a local podcast sharing her story and Bram writing his side in a word document in the format of a suicide note. This centres around Fiona, who is quite meek and gullible and Bram, running scared after a run of abysmal life choices. I didn’t feel particularly warm to either character and felt Bram was a coward. I was glad to see that Fiona grew towards the end, though.
I enjoyed how the story was told from Fiona’s and Bram’s perspectives. The podcast and social media comments as the story unfolded; the mixed media sources enhanced the book for me. I did figure out most of the plot before it happened, but I still liked how it developed.
I did really like the premise of Our House, though. Fiona’s love for her house and her street is palpable and how everyone should feel about their own house. She gets that warm, tingly feeling when entering her road. Bram’s deceit is profound and something nobody should ever experience. Of course, you would also imagine that nobody would be able to achieve such a feat given all the checks, but I guess that’s another story!
Our house is well written. Louise Candlish has done a great job weaving the storylines together alongside a shorter current events perspective. The overarching moral of this is that honesty is the best policy. When you begin to make stupid choices, if you own up and take responsibility, it will be better than leaving things to spiral completely out of control. Having said that though, I doubt many would get as out of control as Bram has managed!
| Title | Our House |
| Author | Louise Candlish |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Kindle |
| Page Count | 445 Pages |
| Genre | Mystery & Thriller |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster UK |
| Release Date | 5 April 2018 |
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