Murder mystery set in CROWHURST, East Sussex
Domestic thriller set in and around WASHINGTON DC
14th January 2026
Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino, domestic thriller set in and around Washington DC.
I read this novel for Grazia Book Club and I had no sense of what was coming down the line as I opened it. This is a story, written with dark humour, set in the over-heated property market around Washington DC.
Margo Miyake – a rather loathsome character with balls – is determined to get pregnant with her husband Ian. She is even more determined to find the right, beautiful house in which she will establish her family, but the housing market is over-inflated and they have lost out too many times on a dream house. She needs to address the situation, which she certainly goes on to do!
She gets wind of a beautiful home in Bethesda, just outside Washington DC in Maryland, and she goes into overdrive by engineering a meeting with one of the current owners. Her charm wins through and she and Ian are soon invited to dinner with the resident couple, Curt and Jack. A misstep by her, revealing her intentions, sees them summarily ushered out of the door. But no-one has reckoned with her determination to somehow close the deal on this house.
A formidable commitment to research unearths some interesting, rather damning findings, which she is prepared to use.
Suffice it say she will stop at nothing to get the house of her dreams, and as her early days of stalking morph into more sinister actions, she becomes more determined and unhinged as the days pass. Her plan ensnares those unwittingly in her orbit and, goodness, she is a piece of work as she drives her mission along.
It is – in parts – a funny plot, gripping in so many ways, a kind of satirical look at the housing market in and around Washington DC, it has real bounce as it bowls along. I would have loved to know more about the areas in which she is operating, so that I could understand the neighbourhoods and what they signify for locals and hopeful purchasers.
An entertaining (and at times pretty daft) read that might just have you looking over your shoulder if you are about put your property on the market.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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