Publication Date: 13th June
Formats: Paperback & Ebook
Price: Pb £9.99/ Ebook £1.99
Publisher: Canelo Hera
I would like to say a huge thank you to Canelo Hera for inviting us (SquadPod ladies) to help blast this wonderful book far and wide pre-publication and for its due date. I would also like to say a huge thank you to its devious creator, A.A. Chaudhuri for delivering yet another gripping, tense and disturbing book and one that left me gasping. And lastly thank you to SquadPod for another brilliant book to uplift and showcase. Let’s head to the blurb and find out what this novel is all about.
It seems to good to be true….
When struggling writer Sebastian finds a room to let in a palatial Hampstead residence, he cannot believe his luck. The rent is ridiculously cheap and he immediately feels a connection with his beautiful widowed landlady, Adriana.
It is.
Things take a dark turn when he finds out what happened to the last lodger. Could this be why the house is a fortress of security, and why Adriana seems so fragile? Adriana doesn’t want to talk about the death and sadness that seem to follow her wherever she goes and Sebastian has secrets of his own. Now someone is watching their every move and there is nowhere to hide.
This house of light becomes a dark nightmare as the threat ramps up – what does the watcher want? And how far will they go to get it?
Once again I am left stunned after reading another brilliant and gripping book by this author, every book I have read has a magic (dark and twisted though it might be) of its own which mesmerises you and compels you to read it until the last page. And for me this is another that doesn’t disappoint.
You follow a struggling writer who seems to float around London without any purpose (at first that does seem to be the case) until he sees an advertisement for a rather wonderful and slightly disbelieving opportunity. To stay in a house with the landlord/lady and apart from one room being out of bounds and of course the landlady’s apartments, he has or could have the run of the place. It’s almost too good to be true, and another little mystery that makes him accept the offer.
From there the tension ratchets up just a notch and we see how he meets up with his landlady and the strange and disturbing signs that something is not right. Soon we have a tense thriller on our hands and one that keeps you guessing with its twisted paths, right up to the end. I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil this fantastic book.
But what I will say is that I really enjoyed this disturbing and twisted story about abuse, both physically and of the mind and how such devastating trauma can lead to a mental health crisis which then leads onto what happens in this book. If you love a tense, gripping and thrilling plot that hooks you in and doesn’t let you go, you will not be disappointed with this one.
Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰
Author’s Blurb:
A.A.Chaudhuri is a former City lawyer turned thriller writer, born and raised in Portsmouth, but who now lives in Surrey with her family. Once a highly ranked British junior tennis player, competing in the national championships and a member of the national squad, she went on to tour the women’s professional satellite circuit as a teenager and achieved a world ranking of 650.
THE SCRIBE and THE ABDUCTION, published by LUME BOOKS in July and December 2019, are her first crime book series, plunging readers into London’s glamorous legal world and featuring series’ heroine, Maddy Kramer, fiction’s first female City lawyer amateur sleuth, who teams up with charismatic DCI Jake Carver to solve a gruesome series of murders and a puzzling abduction. THE SCRIBE and THE ABDUCTION were published as audio books by Isis Audio on 1st January and 1st March 2021, both read by David Thorpe.
She has also contributed an original short story THE ENCOUNTER to crime anthology GIVEN IN EVIDENCE published by LUME BOOKS in May 2020, has written many articles and short stories for The Crime Writers’ Association.
Her first psychological thriller with HERA BOOKS, SHE’S MINE, was published in e-book, paperback and audio in August 2021, the second, THE LOYAL FRIEND, was published in all three formats in June 2022 and published in the USA by Canelo US on 20th June 2023. Her third, THE FINAL PARTY, was published on May 25th 2023. It will be released in audiobook on 1st February 2024. Her fourth psychological thriller – UNDER HER ROOF – will be released on 13th June 2024.
Besides being an avid reader, she enjoys fitness, films, anything Italian and a good margarita!
All of Alex’s books have achieved bestseller status on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Australia and Amazon Canada.
If you are looking to connect or find out more you can follow her on any of these links:
Twitter: A.A. Chaudhuri (@AAChaudhuri) / Twitter
Facebook: A.A. Chaudhuri | Facebook
Instagram: A.A. Chaudhuri (Author) (@a.a.chaudhuri) • Instagram photos and videos
TikTok: A.A. Chaudhuri (@alexchaudhuri0923) | TikTok
LinkedIn: A.A. Chaudhuri | LinkedIn
I hope you have enjoyed this dark and disturbing look at rentals and who you might find lurking in the house. If you are wanting a copy you can find this (when it is out) in Waterstones or in any stores and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you soon!!!
Zoe's Book Nook 