Title: Halfway House

Author: Helen Fitzgerald

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Orenda Books

Publication Date: 18th January 2024

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

They’re the housemates from Hell…

When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O´Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders.

Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou…

And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.

Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…

Review:

I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from Halfway House, which judging by the blurb I expected to be pretty dark! Whilst it certainly is dark in many ways, it’s also bizarrely funny and frankly bonkers in the best way. I flew through this book, it almost reads sort of as a stream of consciousness novel, so entirely in main character Lou’s head we are as the reader. Halfway House is like a mad rollercoaster, peppered with a mix of quirky, colourful, bad and often downright dangerous characters.

Lou herself is one of these compelling, if not particularly likeable, characters. She is fascinating to follow and enjoyably unpredictable in a way that makes for a surprising read throughout. I also loved the setting of Edinburgh (though I may be slightly biased being Edinburgh born and bred myself). Fitzgerald brings both the beauty and the strange quirks of the city to life with a great sense of atmosphere and captures the madness of Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival perfectly. I don’t quite know how to describe Halfway House, but I can say that it is an unusual, violent, funny and intense read that I won’t forget in a hurry. If you’re looking for something a little different then I’d definitely recommend picking it up!

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Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon