A Stranger in the House: A Novel Hardcover – August 15, 2017

I do not...do not understand the five star reviews. I pre-ordered this book because I really enjoyed Lapena's debut novel "The Couple Next Door" and actually have a hard time believing the same person wrote both books.This book is pedestrian beyond belief. Sentences like "Tom felt sad" or "Karen was nervous" read like an adult version of "Dick and Jane." There were sentences just that short and I don't believe that I have ever read adult fiction that was this juvenile sounding. After reading books like "Gone Girl," "The Girl on the Train," "Behind Closed Doors" and other thrillers that were not only compelling plot-wise but well-written, this book was just plain terrible.I don't care that none of the characters were likable (that's not a prerequisite for me) but they were so intrinsically uninteresting and boring that I had to finish the book by breezing through the short sentences to get to the end.If it's not clear by now that I hated this book, I'll say it right now. I hated this book.Lisa is annoyed.The End.

If I could put NO Stars I would. Very disappointing after the first one. I could not like even one of the characters. She used a tired and boring formula. Not everyone is having an affair with the neighbor. Having to repeat how much the couple loved each other in their soliloquies was the only evidence that it was a fact. Sorry Shari.

The characters had no depth, the book was predictable and I battled on to the end hoping that at some point it would improve. Unfortunately it didn't apart from a feeble attempt at a twist in the last couple of pages.

I rarely give a bad book review. The very fact that someone had the talent to actually write the book means a lot for me. However, this was the most juvenile book I've read since the 3rd grade. It feels like something a 6th grader would have written for the 3rd grader and I'm not kidding. I feel totally tricked out of my money on this one. I'm shocked this book was actually published for adult reading. I could have pulled out an old Hardy Boys book and had more fun. At least I would have been reading at teenage level. Not only was the writing completely dumbed down, the storyline and events were completely stupid. She panics and insists someone has been in the house in her absence because a water glass was on the counter. If I panicked every time I returned home to find a glass of water here or there I'd be locked up by now. Who remembers if they drank all their water, put the glass in the dishwasher or left it out? I'm always drinking water and so is my husband. Even so, I'd need more than a water glass out of place before I assumed someone had been in the house. Why would anyone break into your house just to drink a glass of water and do nothing else? And the police ask her if she's missing a pair of rubber gloves from the kitchen -seriously? Is this an item anyone would seriously miss? I wouldn't have a clue if a police officer asked me about my rubber dishwashing gloves. These are items that get tossed out from time to time anyway when they wear out or you poke them with a sharp object in the sink. They go missing all the time. Wouldn't you just open another pair? As for my husband, he would have no clue what color the kitchen gloves are. And the husband in this story knew hers were pink - and that they were missing. This is about as deep as the plot gets in this book. A mysterious glass of water left on the countertop and missing pair of pink kitchen gloves must add up to murder! Be kind to yourself and bypass this book. Dear lord!

I noticed that some reviewers loved this book, and others were less than enthusiastic. I can appreciate both sides of the opinions. I think that the basic mystery was a good one, and the answer to "whodunit?" changed in my mind during several points in the story. I even started to suspect one of the less visible characters as the guilty party. So for the imagination that created all the twists and turns, I say "I Liked It" - and that's 3 Stars.My main criticism concerns the author's writing style. It seemed immature and used an overabundance of short sentences that began with the character's name and then completed the thought in almost childlike simplicity. For example: "Karen's happy again, for which Tom is grateful. And Tom is happy ..." The notion of a consistent point-of-view seems to get lost sometimes. I think that a more polished writing style with some verbal complexity would have made this story much better.Still, I enjoyed it enough to complete the book, even if I did skim a few pages of short declarative sentences. Also, I never require an author to give me a surprise ending because I just like to let the plot lead me. But this book did have a mystifying turn that kept me puzzling, and it was interesting in that way. So three-stars - I liked its twisty plot.

Lapena’s writing was truly awful in this novel. The entire book features short sentences with the same structure repeated over and over. “The gun was purchased illegally.” “Her lawyer and her husband looked at her.” “Karen stares at him in surprise.” OMG shoot me.The whole thing felt formulaic. Hard to believe this wasn’t written for a 10th grade Honors English class somewhere.... Sorry, but if you appreciate semi-decent writing, even in your occasional junky-book splurge, don’t waste your time.

This book ignores complicated scenarios and ignores police forensics. It talks about how intelligent the police are, but apparently they have no interest in looking into the background of a murder suspect and do not know how to check a pair of gloves to see if they were used while firing a gun. Sloppy writing and just an insult to the intelligence of people who grew up watching police detective work on tv.

I felt the story was predictable and the writing a bit superficial. I enjoyed her book The Couple Next Door but A Stranger in the House was disappointing.

I couldn’t wait to pick this one up because I liked Lapena’s debut, The Couple Next Door, so much and I was totally ready for another thriller. I bought it as soon as it came out, which is the first time that’s happened in a good while. For some reason, I find Lapena’s writing style to be quite captivating.A Stranger in the House has a slightly different tone than The Couple Next Door. This is mostly because Lapena makes use of the various narrators a lot more. Because the narrative jumps around from character to character so much, the reader is kept in the dark until the author wants them to know something. This was an interesting way of dealing with the mystery, and it worked well enough. It’s not my favourite style of writing, but in this case I didn’t mind it and it kept me intrigued.That said, this book wasn’t as intense as The Couple Next Door, possibly because of the way the story was told. I was just as invested in the mystery, but I think it focussed on a few too many characters for my liking. I did like reading the detective’s chapters, though. It added an interesting element as I got to read about both sides of the investigation.I think Lapena was going with a Gone Girl vibe here, and it didn’t really work. Not as well as I would have liked, anyway. I liked the female characters individually as they were interesting and had good backstories, but at the same time I hated their relationship with each other. It wasn’t portrayed very well at all. There was a lot of jealousy there, amongst other things (I’m avoiding spoilers! Gah!), and I didn’t like it all that much.A Stranger in the House is a good thriller, and I would recommend reading it if you’re looking for something to get sucked into. I would start with The Couple Next Door, though, if you’re looking to read something by Shari Lapena. It’s a much stronger novel.

I ploughed my way through this book hoping it would get better but it was so boring and predictable. There is a tiny twist at the end but definitely not worth reading just for this. Unlikeable characters. I won't be reading any more of her books - life is too short!

This is my fifth Shari Lapena novel. It is by far the best of them, including the excellent’ The Couple next Door’. Setting apart Detective Rasbach and his sidekick, there are only three central characters, yet out of this very close situation the author weaves a fascinating story, grounded in a credible event and sustained through a panorama of shifting feelings and perspectives. I can’t recall a more compelling thriller; I read it in three stints and each break was a wrench. Many novels in this genre, are successful in complicating a situation. But then, having built up high expectations, let us down with a melodramatic or otherwise unconvincing climax. Here, I found the whole book wholly convincing. Strongly recommended.

This book speeds along, you will finish it in no time as the chapters are short, always end with a cliffhanger and pick up in the next chapter where the last left off, so you will read "just one more chapter". Ultimately though the book felt thin like a watery soup, not meaty and substantial like a big stew. Not much actually happens and the whole plot centres around one event. The writer is competent but nothing more, no descriptions for atmosphere or character definition, no extra details just he said, she said, he did, she did. There were a few examples of sloppy writing - a detective looks at a corpse and says "if only he could talk", well yes, that would make policing much easier. Another character is describes as "not suited for prison", who on earth is suited to prison?All in all, not awful but not great, don't spend more than 99p, it's a teadand throw away story and won't linger in your memory.

I really enjoyed The Couple Next Door and often like to intersperse reading good quality fiction with light thrillers (with no gore!). Unfortunately, this is a very weak psychological thriller. I didn’t really care who did what. I skimmed the last pages to find out and was neither surprised nor very interested in the ending. I am very surprised, though, by the number of positive reviews.