House of Glass: A Novel by Sarah Pekkanen
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House of Glass: A Novel

by

Sarah Pekkanen

(Author)

4.4

-

823 ratings


“Wow, I loved this one so much! I didn’t want it to be over because I was enjoying it so much, but I couldn’t stop turning pages! House of Glass is a gripping thriller that was packed with surprises and compelling characters.” -- Freida McFadden

The next thrilling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen, House of Glass.

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?

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ISBN-10

125028399X

ISBN-13

978-1250283993

Print length

352 pages

Language

English

Publisher

St. Martin's Press

Publication date

August 05, 2024

Dimensions

6.6 x 1.1 x 9.55 inches

Item weight

2.31 pounds


Product details

ASIN :

B0CGRZHX2H

File size :

3077 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

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X-Ray :

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Word wise :

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Editorial Reviews

“If you like some light familial terror, this book is pleasantly diverting.” --New York Times Book Review

“Wow, I loved this one so much! I didn’t want it to be over because I was enjoying it so much, but I couldn’t stop turning pages! HOUSE OF GLASS is a gripping thriller that is packed with surprises and compelling characters.” -- FREIDA MCFADDEN

"Brimming with tension and full of surprises, HOUSE OF GLASS may be my favorite Sarah Pekkanen thriller yet. Eerie, unsettling, and so very, very good. I couldn't put this book down!" -- MEGAN MIRANDA

"A terrifying gothic thriller. The excellent portrayal of fragile psyches and knife-edge suspense throughout make this a winner." --Booklist (Starred Review)

Praise for Sarah Pekkanen's books

"Filled with buried secrets and jaw-dropping deception." --Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"[I was] flying through the pages." -- Hoda Kotb, Today show

"Jaw-dropping. Layered. Triumphant." --Clémence Michallon, The New York Times

"I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen's books... riveting, original and powerful." --Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Gripping reading." -- People magazine

"In an oversaturated market where even the best authors seem to be phoning it in, Pekkanen is here to remind readers that thrills can still be shocking, twists can still be unexpected, and reading can still keep you up way past your bedtime." --Bookreporter

“Startling, breathtaking.” --Reader's Digest

"Gripping. Packed with surprises and compelling characters." --Freida McFadden, New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid

"Prepare to stay up until the wee hours." --Real Simple

"Captivating from beginning to end." --Samantha Downing, bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

"A standout among standouts." -- Glamour magazine

“Unsettling in the best way possible, Sarah Pekkanen’s 2024 novel, House of Glass, is a slow-burn thriller that’s suspenseful straight out of the gate. Part psychological study, part meditation on the nature of evil, the novel skillfully made me question who and what to believe. If you love creepy-kid horror but don’t want a scare―or appreciate stories that keep you guessing till the end―this is the book for you.” --Reader's Digest, July thriller roundup

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Sample

CHAPTER ONE

Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. That’s her routine.

I stand on a grimy square of sidewalk near the busy intersection of 16th and K Streets, scanning the approaching pedestrians.

My new client will arrive in seven minutes.

I don’t even need to meet her today. All I have to do is visually assess her to see if I’ll be able to work with her. The thought makes my shoulders curl forward, as if I’m instinctively forming a version of the fetal position.

I could refuse to take on this client. I could claim it’s impossible for me to be neutral because the media frenzy surrounding the suspicious death of her family’s nanny has already shaped my perceptions.

But that would mean lying to Charles, who is the closest thing I have to a father.

“You know I hate asking for favors, Stella,” Charles said last week from across the booth in his favorite Italian restaurant. He unfolded his heavy white napkin with a flick of his wrist, the crisp snap punctuating his words.

Perhaps a reminder that in all the years I’ve known him, he has never asked me for a single one?

“I’m not sure if I can help her,” I’d told Charles.

“You’re the only one who can. She needs you to be her voice, Stella.”

Saying no to the man who gave me my career, walked me down the aisle, and has provided a shoulder during the dissolution of my marriage isn’t an option. So here I wait.

My new client won’t take any notice of me, a thirty-eight-year-old brunette in a black dress and knee-high boots, seemingly distracted by her phone, just like half the people in this power corridor of DC.

Two minutes until she’s due to arrive.

As the weak October sun ducks behind a cloud, stealing the warmth from the air, a nasal-sounding horn blares behind me. I nearly jump out of my skin.

I whip around to glare at the driver, and when I refocus my attention, my client is rounding the corner a dozen yards away, her blue sweater buttoned up to her neck and her curly red hair spilling over her shoulders. Her expression is wooden.

She’s tiny, even smaller than I expected. She appears to be closer to seven years old than nine.

Her mother—tall, brittle-looking, and carrying a purse that costs more than some cars—holds my client’s hand as they approach their destination: a gray stone building with its address discreetly displayed on a brass plaque. Inside is the office of DC’s top child psychiatrist.

In another few moments, they’ll disappear through the doors and be swallowed up by the building.

She’s just a kid, I remind myself. One who has been through more in the past month than some people endure in a lifetime.

I’m good at my job. Maybe the systems and strategies I’ve developed will carry me through. I can put a favor in Charles’s bank for a change.

A few steps away from the entrance of her therapist’s building, little Rose Barclay stops. She pulls her hand out of her mother’s and points down to her shoe. Mrs. Barclay nods, busying herself by removing her oversized sunglasses and placing them in a case while Rose bends down.

I squint and crane my head forward.

People stream past Rose like water around a rock, but no one seems to notice what she’s doing.

Rose isn’t adjusting the buckle on her shiny black Mary Janes, as I’d assumed.

Her left hand is stretching out to the side. Seeking something.

I’m drawn forward. Closer to her.

It happens so quickly it’s almost over before I realize what she has done. If my angle had been off—if I’d been watching from across the street or inside the building—I never would have noticed.

Rose straightens up, her left hand slipping into the pocket of her sweater as her right hand reaches up for her mother’s.

The evidence is gone now, tucked away.

But I saw it. I know what this shy-looking girl collected off the sidewalk and concealed to keep.

A shard of broken glass, shaped like a dagger, its end tapering to an evil-looking point.

CHAPTER TWO

My first rule for meeting a new client: It’s always on their turf.

Sometimes that means at a skateboard park, or in side-by-side chairs at a nail salon, or in their backyard while they throw a tennis ball for their golden retriever. Food is typically involved. My clients rarely want to confide in me early in the process, and eating pizza or nachos provides space for silence.

I never press hard during the first meeting. It’s all about establishing trust.

By the time I see them, any trust my clients once held in adults has been shattered.

When divorce court judges are presented with the most brutal, complicated custody cases—ones in which no resolution seems possible—they appoint someone like me: a best interest attorney, or guardian ad litem. We represent the children.

My particular area of expertise is teenagers. I never take on clients younger than twelve. But Charles—or Judge Huxley, as he’s more widely known—wants me to break that rule. One of his colleagues is the presiding judge on the Barclay case, and she is having trouble finding the right attorney for Rose.

I take a last glance up at the gray building Rose disappeared into only moments ago. She’s in a safe space, being tended to by a highly trained professional. Her mother is present.

So who does the girl think she needs to protect herself from with a shard of glass that could double as a knife?

My Uber pulls up to the curb. “Stella?” the driver asks as I slide into the backseat, and I nod.

He turns up the radio, and an NPR reporter’s modulated voice pours out of the speakers. I’m relieved the driver doesn’t want to make conversation. I need to gather myself before reaching my next destination, another office building close to the National Cathedral. This appointment is a personal one.

I stare out the window as the driver winds his way north through clogged streets, muttering under his breath when he gets stuck behind an illegally parked Tesla.

My mind feels overly full, a dozen discordant thoughts buzzing through it. I reach for my phone to send a text to Marco, my soon-to-be ex-husband, then discard the idea. He knows I’m coming, and he won’t be late. Like all the partners in his prestigious law firm, he parcels out his days in six-minute billing increments, which makes him acutely aware of time.

I step out of the Uber at the stroke of five o’clock, heading for a nondescript brick building that holds more than its share of heartbreak.

I bypass the elevator and climb the stairs to the fourth floor, then walk into the small reception area of suite 402. Marco is waiting, leaning back in a chair as he smiles at something on his phone.

The sight of him still takes my breath away. His Italian roots show in his glossy dark hair, tan skin, and eyes that turn to amber when the sun hits them. Our coloring is so similar we’ve been asked more than once if we’re related.

“Just one of those old married couples who start to look alike,” Marco used to joke.

He rises now, placing a hand on my shoulder as he leans in to brush a kiss across my cheek. I start to wrap my arms around him, but he pulls back before I can embrace him in a real hug.

We both speak at the same time, our words entwining instead of our bodies.

I aim for a joke: “Fancy meeting you here.”

Marco pulls out a DC cliché: “How was traffic?”

He gestures to the coffee table where two sets of documents topped by identical blue pens await. “Lakshmi already brought out the paperwork.”

I blink hard. This is happening fast. “So all we have to do is sign?”

He nods and hands me one of the slim stacks of paper.

Unlike the divorces I encounter through work, the one Marco and I are going through is as amicable as it gets. Our biggest disagreement came when Marco insisted on giving me the little row house we’d bought together near the DC line. We both know why: He makes twenty times as much as I do now. I accepted the house. But I insisted he take our fancy espresso maker. It was a bigger sacrifice than it sounds; I love a good cup of coffee.

I hesitate, then scrawl my name across the bottom of the final page of our divorce agreement. When I look up, Marco is recapping his pen.

Lakshmi steps into the waiting room. “Hey, Stella. You guys all set?”

I nod, my eyes skittering away from her sympathetic ones. This is the final step in the dissolution of our marriage. After Lakshmi files the papers, I’ll get a letter in the mail notifying me our uncontested divorce has been granted.

My gaze roams across the box of tissues on the coffee table. Next to it is a sculpture of an eagle in flight, its wings outstretched. I recognize the symbolism: tissues for grief at an ending, the bird an image of hope for the future.

Marco and I wed on a crystalline winter day nearly ten years ago, just as the first snow of the season began to fall. Even before I said the vows I meant with my whole heart, I knew we’d end up here.

It was only a question of when.

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About the authors

Sarah Pekkanen

Sarah Pekkanen

Sarah Pekkanen is the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of four novels of suspense including THE GOLDEN COUPLE and THE WIFE BETWEEN US, and the solo author of the thriller GONE TONIGHT, will be published Aug. 1, 2023. Colleen Hoover says it is "Riveting, original and powerful. I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen's books, and GONE TONIGHT is her best yet!"

Sarah is also the author of eight USA Today and internationally-bestselling solo novels: THE OPPOSITE OF ME, SKIPPING A BEAT, THESE GIRLS, THE BEST OF US, CATCHING AIR, THINGS YOU DON'T SAY, THE PERFECT NEIGHBORS and THE EVER AFTER. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages.

In her free time, Sarah is a dedicated volunteer for rescue animals and serves as Ambassador for RRSA India, working hands-on to vaccinate and heal street dogs in Anand, India. She also volunteers weekly for a horse rescue group in Maryland, mucking stalls and helping mistreated horses heal.

Sarah lives just outside of Washington, D.C. with her family. Please follow Sarah on Facebook and Instagram @sarahpekkanen and visit www.sarahpekkanen.com

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

823 global ratings

BeckyW01

BeckyW01

5

Great intense read

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2024

Verified Purchase

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.

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2 people found this helpful

Sally Schmidt

Sally Schmidt

5

Gripping, unsettling, couldn't put it down

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2024

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.

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3 people found this helpful

Mama Dukes

Mama Dukes

5

ANOTHER EXCITING THRILL RIDE

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2024

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.

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3 people found this helpful

Laurel-Rain Snow

Laurel-Rain Snow

5

INTENSE!

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2024

Verified Purchase

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.


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5 people found this helpful

Carrie Lynn

Carrie Lynn

5

What Really Happened In The House?

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

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.

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