Never Lie by Freida McFadden

Hello everyone.  I hope your day is going well.

Hubby and I are old house addicts.  Not just ours but other peoples'.  We have talked our way into gobs of various old houses, some personal residences, some historic sites.  I can't help it; I'm curious and poor hubby gets pulled along to insure I don't end up in jail (which one of my sisters insists is coming any day now). One of the houses looked like ghosts would be frightened haunting it, in fact, it had been used in a haunted house movie.  Finally, someone purchased it to restore and we were right there, getting the full tour.  It was amazing inside, great raised paneling under each window.  There were a few, not open to the public, houses in Colonial Williamsburg..."gosh I'm so sorry, isn't this part of the tour?"  Then there were closed off rooms in Carter's Grove, various other James River plantations, all our neighbors' houses and then some.  Old houses are fun and always surprising.

I recently read Never Lie by Freida McFadden.  This is the author of the very popular books The Housemaid and The Housemaid's Secret. I've read, enjoyed and reviewed both.  Never Lie is about a couple that want to buy a house.  Tricia and Ethan are enjoying married life and are ready to purchase a home.  While going to see a listing, they are trapped in a snowstorm and are forced to walk to the house they were hoping to see.  Although the realtor never shows in the dangerous weather, they count themselves lucky to find a key and shelter in their possible new property.  Impressed with the grand rambling estate, they discover curious things. A light on upstairs, yet a thick layer of undisturbed dust on every surface, including the footprint free floor.  They find fresh food in the fridge, yet again, no evidence anyone has been in the old mansion, just the opposite, it has been and remains vacant.  As the story progresses, we find out that the house last belonged to a famous psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Hale, who disappeared four years ago and is presumed dead. Despite the troubling history it is worth it to live in such an elaborate home, until odd things start happening.  

This story is told in dual timelines following the modern-day homebuyers, Tricia and Ethan, and another exploring the life of Adrienne revealing what happened leading up to her disappearance.  This story is fast moving, never really letting the reader catch their breath.  It is one of those that you gasp out loud wondering how you could have missed the amazing twists that leave you shaking your head and grinning. A wild ride and fun from beginning to end.  A classic domestic thriller.

I might be a bit more careful about seeing old houses, they may hold more secrets than I want to know!

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a great day.

It is funny how every family, no matter what size, has its own communication system.  My family can speak almost exclusively in movie lines. Oh sure, you can say it is somewhat limiting and we should get a larger "vocabulary" to which I respond, "You're going to need a bigger boat!"  My husband has the luxury of being bilingual, he can converse in movies and grunts, often accompanied by just plain no response due to not hearing...more likely not LISTENING... to avoid any topic of discussion he does not approve of.  My dad, he spoke with "the look." The "don't make your mother cry or you'll be sorry" look was especially effective.  My mother could speak in thumps.  We had a family room in our basement and when she wanted your attention, she would stomp on the floor, once.  You would wonder what was going on upstairs, but if it was around dinner time, it was a widely accepted dialect for "get your butt up here, it's time for dinner."  Now if she stomped twice, look out, that was akin to be being called by your first AND middle name.

I recently read The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin.  This is Matlin's first book.  This thriller with horror thrown in, is about an Australian woman, Sarah, who buys a house she has found for a bargain.  She purchased the dwelling for a fraction of what it costs to have a house in such a posh neighborhood.  The house has been empty for quite a while, and Sarah hopes to remodel the home and make a bundle.  The problem is that it was the scene of a grisly murder, making the neighbors insist that the place should be torn down instead of rebuilt.  Sarah, presses on, and as the renovations begin so do the weird events.  Not only is it unsettling with the house being her current home and critical investment, but Sarah is a therapist and self-help book author who should be firmly planted in reality.  As the house's secrets are revealed so are Sarah's, making for an interesting yin and yang.  The story builds to a telling of everyone's truth.

This book was a fun, quick ride.  If you ever read The Amityville Horror, it will remind you of that tale.  The story is short, at under 300 pages, so tends to move along yet there were a few places where it seems like the author is marking time, postponing the next twist.  Sometimes that can be annoying and slow the plot, but anticipation is often the name of the game with building suspense.  The story is pleasant, easy to read, and the characters interesting.  This would make a great book for a spooky October and practically demands fall weather.  Fun and enjoyable.

Spooky things always remind me of Cloris Leachman's famous line, "Stay close to the candles, the staircase can be treacherous." 

From Below by Darcy Coates

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a great day.

I am an odd bird. I can hear you telling me not to be so hard on myself, thanks that is nice of you.  Of note, if you are any member of my family the response to my saying I'm an odd bird would be "That's an understatement!"  Forget them, you read, you get me...although my statement has nothing to do with reading.  I am afraid of dark water, especially deep water.  The thought of being underneath a ship, freaks me out.  Yet, I am obsessed with several large ships, especially the old liner the SS United States.  I think being a naval architect would be interesting, I just don't want to know about the big dark dangerous ocean being around my creation. 

In addition to the water being spooky, there is that whole issue of not knowing what is underneath you.  How can that not scare the marbles out of you?  I keep watching those fishing shows where they pull tuna out of the ocean that are 100 inches long and 500 pounds (2.5 meters long, 227 kilograms...God bless Google). To think about those giants swimming around my feet, I just had a shiver go up my back and it is a bazillion degrees here. Then there is the story of the USS Indianapolis.  If you are a fan of history or the movie Jaws, you know what I mean.  If not just google it, okay I'll shorthand it.  Ship sinks, sailors in the water with sharks. It crushes me just thinking of them.  Terrible way to go.  By the way, did you know that they originally wanted to use a "trained" great white shark for the movie Jaws?  Can you imagine?  Anyway, dark water = no, deep water = no, rain = yes if it creates a rainbow especially if there is a leprechaun at the end with a pot of gold.

I recently read From Below by Darcy Coates.  I have read several Darcy Coates books before and have liked them all.  If you are unfamiliar with her, she writes haunted house books.  Yep, how is that for a niche...just haunted house books.  You would think that it is impossible to make a writing career from such a narrowed genre, but she does a remarkable job.  In fact, she is often nominated as horror writer of the year on Goodreads.  This book is different, and I had to know how the heck she was going to accomplish her spooky norm when the "haunted house" was an old transatlantic liner, sitting at the bottom of the ocean.  Intriguing huh?  The gist of the story is that there are a group of people in modern day that are making a documentary about the ship.  There is much interest in the ship Arcadia because it suddenly vanished while on a routine voyage. At the time, ships close by had received a garbled message about some kind of emergency, not an SOS or Mayday, but something else was happening.  Then the ship disappeared.  Now that the Arcadia has been discovered one team gets permission to dive the wreck and film it for all to see.  The ship is sitting, basically whole, on the bottom in a state of remarkable preservation.  Despite this advantage for exploration odd things start happening.  Are the divers getting too little oxygen or is something more sinister at work?  At the same time the story follows the Arcadia, days before her sinking in 1928, counting down the events that lead to the end of the once great liner. 

I'll start with my only criticism; it is 469 pages and could have been a bit shorter.  That being said, I was "on board" for every single page! The book is moody and atmospheric.  It does exactly what Coates always does so well, hold the suspense.  She is going to make you wait to find out specifically what is going on, but she will give you hints, views out of the corner of your eye, all the while building your interest.  She delivers, so don't worry that you'll be left unsatisfied, won't happen.  Coates will artfully guide you through the story, slowly unraveling things little by little, with finesse and little gore.  Once again, Darcy Coates proves herself the master of the haunted house book, no matter the location or size of the house. 

You take your cruise vacation, I'll be home...on dry land!