House of Glass: A NovelAudio CD

This sucked me right in. If you've read as many of these psychological thrillers as I have, you'll figure out at least one of the twists, but I didn't figure out all of them. There is a romantic connection towards the end that felt a bit out of nowhere at first, but it worked eventually. There were no extraneous characters or plot lines - it was beautiful. It's hard to find a book that well-constructed. The climax was intense and the ending was satisfying without being too neat and tidy. I'm a little wimpy and am pleased to report that this didn't get too disturbing.

If your'e a fan of psychological thrillers, this is one of the best-written ones I've read.

I fully expected House of Glass to be amazing, because everything Sarah Pekkanen writes is amazing, but I did not expect to be on the edge of my seat, looking over my shoulder, frantically turning pages because I couldn’t settle on who to trust, who was telling the truth – who did it?? The characters in House of Glass are like dice in a cup: shake it up, toss them out, and it’s different every time. Everybody has a motive, everybody has an ironclad alibi – until they don’t – and everybody clams up whenever 9-year-old Rose is mentioned.

Best interest attorney Stella Hudson serves as counsel for children in custody cases, and Rose’s parents’ divorce is a doozy. Bitter, confrontational, each parent afraid to leave the house in case Rose is swayed to the “other side.” Stella’s own life is kind of a mess, though. Still trying to adjust to her divorce and deal with the effects of her own traumatic childhood, some of which likely contributed to her divorce. Rose is younger than the clients Stella usually accepts but Stella’s mentor believes Stella is the only one who can help Rose, so she reluctantly shows up at the fancy, elegant Barclay family home. The fancy, elegant, cold Barclay family home. The fancy, elegant, cold, scary home, where Stella soon realizes everything is plastic, including the windows, and that Rose likes to steal away sharp objects.

Actually, everybody and everything in this story is scary. Rose stopped speaking after witnessing her nanny’s horrible death, and therefore Stella can’t talk to her about which parent she would be most comfortable with. Her parents distrust each other, have nothing good to say and are suspicious of every action the other takes. They are, though, united in their determination to protect Rose. But protect from who or what? Is Rose the one who really needs protecting? Why is her mother so wary around her? Rose seems more at ease with her father, but did he have a relationship with the nanny? Was her death accidental or not? And let’s not forget the kindly grandmother, who is fierce in her protection of Rose. Who favors her daughter-in-law as guardian because her son “didn’t behave well.”

There is a lot going on right in front of Stella and a lot behind the scenes. She also wants to protect Rose, even if the one Rose needs protection from is Rose herself. But as she becomes more involved with the Barclays the more danger seems to lurk around every corner, the more it seems everyone is lying and hiding something. And the more her personal life and past traumas pop up and affect her handling of this case.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of House of Glass via NetGalley. It was superb: smoothly well-plotted, a thrill a minute and a satisfying conclusion that was a surprise/not surprise. I can’t recommend it enough. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

It should come as no surprise that Sarah Pekkanen’s latest thriller HOUSE OF GLASS is a wild ride of psychological suspense.

When Stella Hudson, a “best interest attorney” (guardian ad litem) Is tasked with finding the most suitable custody arrangement for Beth and Ian Barkley regarding their nine year old piano child prodigy, Rose, she believes it is just another case. Ian and Beth are divorcing after Ian had an affair with Rose’s nanny, Tina Dela Cruz, who becomes pregnant and then falls (or is pushed) from a third floor window at their estate. Since Beth holds the very affluent purse strings in the family, Ian is worried about losing his money source and the home for his family, including his disabled mother, Harriet who has a very close bond with Rose.

Stella has had a very tumultuous upbringing with a mother who apparently overdosed when she was a child and a father who died in a car wreck. She was then raised by a cold, sinister aunt. Rose has also had an unstabled upbringing. A piano prodigy, she is now homeschooled and is continuing to hone her craft and even learning to speak Chinese. Unfortunately, she saw her nanny fall and was so upset by the event she is now traumatically mute. AND there are very strange things happening in this creepy home. There are no sharp objects immediately available and the windows do not contain glass but plexiglass. Stella cannot seem to put her finger on it but things are not as they seem. Some of her things are disappearing, she is receiving warnings and threats and she is now having flashbacks of what happened when her mother died. While she still has a loving and supportive ex-husband in Marco, her biggest supporter is and has been Charles since she was about 19 years old. An issue of trust brought them together and he has acted as a father figure in her life ever since. As Stella continues to dig into Rose’s family life, more inconsistencies become apparent, like why she is homeschooled, what’s up with the glass and what really happened with the Nanny. After meeting with the various people in Rose’s life, Stella becomes even more convinced that all is not right in the Barclay home. She and Charles come up with a plan to try to get to the truth. Then, at the 12th hour, Beth and Ian decide not to divorce and call off the entire divorce/custody plan, but Stella can’t let go as she feels a visceral connection to Rose.

As with most previous Sarah Pekkanen novels, I could not put this down. It had me by the throat on page one and did not let up until all the secrets came to life. I could feel myself creeping through the old estate as I tried to put the pieces together. My blood was racing and my heart was in my throat.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.

A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there’s something eerie about the house itself: It’s a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?

My Thoughts:

From the very beginning of House of Glass, I was caught up in the family dynamics and in Stella’s efforts to help the family through the custody agreement. I was reminded of my own career in social work, trying to choose what was best for the child or children.

We learn about the strange setting in the home, from its old fashioned arrangement to the absence of anything glass. No glass anywhere, from the picture frames missing to only plastic dinnerware.

Slowly we realize that there is so much more going on, and just when we think we have figured it all out, we are stunned by what is really happening. A tense five star read.

Stella is an attorney who has the best interest of a child in mind when parents are going through a divorce but can’t agree on custody. Stella takes on the case of Rose whose parents are going through a divorce. The case isn’t simple for Stella since the nanny who was pregnant with the dad’s baby, ended up dead. What really happened the night the nanny died? Did anyone in the house do it or was it an accident? Stella doesn’t want to give the killer custody after all.