Thriller
House of Glass
Repeat author
Sarah Pekkanen is back at Book of the Month – other BOTMs include Gone Tonight.
Early Release
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by Sarah Pekkanen
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Quick take
Who killed the nanny? That question lies at the heart of this story of a family coming undone in a creepy DC mansion.
Good to know
Psychological
Creepy
Whodunit
Marriage issues
Synopsis
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 parents’ 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?
Free sample
Get an early look from the first pages of House of Glass.
Why I love it
Regina Montoya
BOTM Editorial Team
An unclear, untimely death. A menacing mansion, with not one piece of glass. An outwardly beautiful family with a turbulent, potentially violent, inner life. These are the elements great thrillers are made of!
Rose is nine years old, collects sharp objects, and may have witnessed her nanny’s murder. In the midst of her parents’ acrimonious divorce, she sees her young caretaker fall to her death, and Rose ceases to speak. Her moods become volatile and she seems only to enjoy the company of animals.
Stella, a “best interest attorney,” takes this bitter custody case against her own personal philosophy. Her own childhood trauma has dissuaded her from working with young children, but at her mentor’s insistence, and the similarity of Rose’s situation to her own, Stella agrees to help.
As she begins to spend time with Rose and her family, Stella finds more questions than answers, and soon fears she made a grave mistake by involving herself with this family. Was the nanny’s death an accident? Did someone in this plastic house kill her? Is everyone hiding some dark secret?
Tense, sinister, and gripping, Sarah Pekkanen’s House of Glass will have you flipping the pages at a rapid clip. Don’t miss out!