“Her perfect new start… or her worst nightmare?”
- Book: The Houseshare
- Location: Birmingham
- Author: Carla Kovach
You know when you get that strong feeling of deja vu? Well, that’s what happened to me almost as soon as I began reading this story. It definitely wasn’t that I had read the previously published version of the book, then titled The Let, so I can only conclude that the premise is very similar to that written by another author and I am still trawling through my review index to root it out, as I am a bit like a dog with a bone about things which niggle away at me!
However, coincidences aside, one of my favourite genres will always be that of heart-pounding, tense psychological thrillers and this one didn’t disappoint. Just to bring you up to speed a little, but not in too much detail, as ‘spoilers’ are never too far away from the surface here…
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Libby Worthington, together with her cat Einstein, have finally taken the plunge and escaped from a mentally coercive and physically abusive relationship with Gary, although it soon becomes apparent that he isn’t going to let her get away from his clutches that easily, or without a fight. Libby’s older sister Olly, whom she idolises and looks up to, has managed to find her a small and anonymous house share flat, where she can take time to lick her wounds, before starting to rebuild a new life for herself. The set-up is just what Libby needs right now, four flats, one of which is lived in by the landlord Tim Simmons (who she has to admit is quite cute), making her feel safe and secure.
Everything would be great, if only technology and social media weren’t so darned good at keeping tabs on a person. Gary is never silent and on top of that, one of Libby’s clients, Trevor, who is on the books of the recruitment company where she works, has begun a personal vendetta against her for a minor error in his payroll, which was corrected almost immediately. The two girls, Kirsty and Michaela, who share one of the downstairs flats, together with Tim, Olly and Chrissie (one of Libby’s more mature work colleagues), all offer her their full support in moving forward with her life, so Libby takes the plunge and disconnects her private profile from prying eyes.
Even though the illusive fourth tenant of the house, one Mr Bull, has still never been seen, for a short while life moves on quite smoothly for Libby. Then things begin to go awry, as personal belongings inside her flat are misplaced or lost, Einstein goes missing and she gets the idea into her head that her every move is being watched. Olly and Libby had a very complicated and rather traumatic childhood, with Olly taking on more of the role of surrogate mother, rather than big sister, so she seeks to reassure a very vulnerable Libby that there is really nothing to worry about. However, when Ricardo makes contact with Libby, claiming that his daughter Bettina, the previous tenant in her flat, has gone missing without trace and what little information Ricardo does have to share doesn’t tally with Tim’s version of events, it is obvious that there is cause for concern, especially when Libby’s unwanted voyeur ups the ante, Ricardo himself goes missing and Olly is left for dead by an assailant she can identify.
Inexplicably, Libby discovers articles about events which took place during her own and Olly’s school days, which points to there being more than meets the eye to her landlord’s chequered past and indeed potentially, that of her own sister. A hidden message left by a clearly petrified Bettina, leads Libby to a discovery so terrible, it is clear that she will have to fight with all her strength to escape in one piece, if at all. Meanwhile Kirsty realises that her own judgement about people has been severely challenged and found wanting, when Michaela shows her true colours and her part in the scheme to trap Libby is revealed.
The end for some is dramatic, final and probably what they deserved. For others there are only answers and closure, as nothing can turn back the hands of time and change fate. For a small group there is a renewed strength of the bonds of family and friendship, which will inevitably last far beyond the trauma of the last few weeks.
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I realise that doesn’t give you much to go on, however there are so many twists in this gripping, disturbing, swiftly evolving and multi-layered storyline, that to write anything else would be sure to give the game away to some degree.
I did get fooled by a craftily clever and deliberately vague prologue, which set me off on completely the wrong track for a while, although it made for an excellent opening sequence, as it tracked back twenty years to the beginning, with events which were never going to be forgotten by some or allowed to remain unavenged. The opening chapters were spent carefully setting the scene with more of those sneakily laid red herrings, which did exactly what they were supposed to do, tripping me up and sending my thoughts off at the wrong tangent every time. More creepy twists and turns led to a couple of “Wow! I never saw that coming!” moments right near the end, despite me knowing who the perpetrator was by then.
I did feel that the plot was maybe a little melodramatic in places, however that, together with some fluent and immersive writing, only helped to create a wonderfully oppressive tension and claustrophobic atmosphere, which ran throughout the book. That feeling of not being safe behind closed doors, of being constantly watched and ‘played’ by an unseen and unknown nemesis. This was a story built on lies, secrets, duplicity, long buried emotions and manipulated versions of the truth. No matter where Libby went, the air seemed thick with tension, as if she somehow managed to suck all the oxygen out of a space, with her permanent aura of impending dread and menace over just about everything, which was emotionally draining for us both, although her extreme angst was fully vindicated with the deeply dark and disturbing way events ultimately played out.
Author Carla Kovach explored many different psychological issues with her characters and illustrated the long-term effects, vulnerabilities and scars some of those events might have left. A fractured and abusive childhood which left both Libby and Olly distant from parents they know full well never wanted them. A perpetrator who had been relentlessly bullied by their fellow pupils and peers during those very formative years, with teachers finding it convenient to turn a blind eye to the truth, and who was still therefore unable to move on from the situation. Libby’s fear of being trapped in a toxic and abusive relationship with the manipulative powers of Gary’s gaslighting techniques making it almost impossible for her to disengage from the situation. The shame yet physical relief which came with Libby’s self-harming as an escape mechanism for her frustration and fear. The relentless pain which comes from having a child go missing in mysterious, unexplained and unusual circumstances on foreign soil.
For those readers who relish the ‘armchair traveller’ status which comes along with a good premise and interesting characters, this storyline might not be quite enough to satisfy. However, within the confines of its single location of Birmingham City, Carla made the most of the opportunity to use plenty of descriptive narrative and dialogue, to make me feel as though I was walking the streets alongside the characters, seeing what they were seeing and feeling what was happening to them.
Carla created an excellent cast of characters, who were obviously divided into two distinct halves. There were those who were complex, emotionally starved, vulnerable and even a little naive. Whilst this might have made them a somewhat unreliable, raw and passionate, they were nonetheless genuine or believable. Then there were those characters who were innately wickedly clever, genuinely twisted, manipulative and duplicitous, with the only certainty in this particular jigsaw of human emotions, being that their own volatility would be their eventual downfall. Whilst all were authentic to the roles they had been assigned and were well-defined and fleshed out, I felt that there was little or no synergy between them, offering me no compelling reason to relate to, invest in, or engage with any of them.
I always enjoy psychological thrillers written by an author who has a wonderfully twisted style of storytelling, making for an unputdownable reading experience, so this definitely won’t be my one and only foray into Carla Kovach’s book list!
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