Title: The House on Rye Lane
Author: Susan Allott
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: The Borough Press
Publication Date: 18th January 2024
Rating: 4.5/5
Cover:
Book Summary:
They thought they’d found their dream home. They were wrong.
2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain – a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn’t resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right – and as the problems mount up, Max starts to doubt her relationship as well as her decision. Is Seb all he seems to be? And why are the neighbours so evasive about the house’s previous owner?
1994. Cookie and his parents have been forced by his dad’s gambling debts to move into the attic room of a big old house, as lodgers. Tensions run high between them and their elderly landlady, and there’s something odd about the place that Cookie can’t quite put his finger on…
1843. Horatio built this house for his beloved wife, who then died in mysterious circumstances. After a second death on the premises, both his servants and the locals are starting to talk. Horatio’s grief is tinged with shame and guilt. What is he hiding? And will the house ever be free of his legacy?
THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is a tense, taut, beautifully crafted novel about the treachery of secrets and the many ways the past can echo into the present, from the acclaimed author of THE SILENCE.
Review:
The House on Rye Lane is one of those books that, whilst not overtly scary, has a creeping unease that manages to permeate every page. The titular house just seems to seep menace out of its pores and infects all the characters that reside there, in each of the three timelines: 1843, 1994 and 2008. The setting actually feels like a living breathing character in its own right.
This is a story about the legacies of secrets and lies that can reach across time, written with a subtlety and elegance that create an incredible sense of atmosphere and tension throughout. The three timelines are all beautifully crafted and intriguing in their own right, as the connections between them are slowly revealed. The characters are strange and compelling, their motives murky and complex. Overall, I found The House on Rye Lane a gothic and sinister, beautifully written, thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. Would absolutely recommend.
✶✶✶✶.5
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Life With All The Books 
Sounds interesting. May have to add it to my TBR. Thank you for your review.
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