Book Review: The Stranger In Her House by John Marrs

“A stranger has infiltrated your family… and now he’s taking over.”

Published in February 2024, The Stranger In Her House by John Marrs follows wedding planner Connie who has returned home to look after her elderly mother, Gwen. who is suffering from dementia. So when a helper for a charity for vulnerable people, Paul, starts to spend more and more time with her mother, Connie begins to feel concerned. There’s just something about Paul that rings alarm bells from day one. He’s a little too kind, a little too involved. Worse still, Gwen seems to have fallen under his spell.

The last thing Connie wants is a stranger meddling in the safe routine she’s built around Gwen. She loves being the one Gwen turns to for cooking, cleaning and company. But the more Paul visits, the more Gwen is relying on him. By the time he conveniently finds himself between homes and has no choice but to move in, Connie is certain he’s trying to push her out completely.

It’s her word against his, though, and as her attempts to unmask him become ever more desperate she’s not the only one left wondering if she’s lost her grip on reality. But when events start spiralling rapidly out of her control, should Connie wage all-out war on Paul and risk losing Gwen forever—or has that been his plan all along?

Rating:

John Marrs is one of my favourites so I ALWAYS look forward to his next release, and I’ve been so excited to read this one after seeing so many amazing reviews over the past few months. And I’m pleased to say that this is another clever and gripping thriller full of tension, deception, and sinister characters you’ll love to hate.

This is a great book to go in blind with, as you can start to wonder who the “stranger in her house” is for yourself. Is it too simple for it to be the actual stranger, Paul? Could it merely be Gwen as she becomes more and more lost in her identity? I really enjoyed being able to question this in the first third of the book, trying to figure out the puzzle of who we could trust, and who didn’t belong in this house.

The answers come early as the story moves on to bigger things. But while I had no idea who to trust, one thing for certain was that I hated Paul and was massively hoping that he would meet his demise, even if there could have been a possibility that he wasn’t the one we needed to be worrying about. His character angered me so much, but I loved that this book had this reaction on me as these emotions made it difficult for me to stop reading, as I needed to know how it would end.

The punchy chapters help with that, too, as you always want to read just one more. The first half of the book was a lot more impactful than the first for me, but I still really liked how the second half of the book unravelled. There were still plenty of surprises in store (although I did guess the main twist), but I did feel like the story needed one more dark twist for it to live up to Marrs’ usual. But that’s only because I expect that shock reaction from his books, so this wasn’t a big issue for me. It’s still going to be a top read for me this year, for sure!

Most of all, I think it’s fantastic that Marrs has used his book to shed light on the neglectful laws around the main subject. It’s only right that readers should be angered by this book because this does happen often in real life and something needs to change, so bravo for that. The Stranger In Her House is definitely a book I will think about often!