A Stranger in the House

By: Shari Lapena

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A perfect holiday gift.

Shari Lapena’s new thriller, An Unwanted Guest, is available now!

“Smart and suspenseful... you'll never see the ending coming.” (PureWow)

In this neighborhood, danger lies close to home. A domestic thriller packed full of secrets, and a twisty story that never stops - from the best-selling author of The Couple Next Door

He looks at her, concerned. “How do you feel?” She wants to say, Terrified. Instead, she says, with a faint smile, “Glad to be home.”

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy - they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished - her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse - complete with phone and ID - behind.There's a knock on the door - the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes.  

Still, she’s mostly okay - except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good. Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won't stop asking questions.

Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.

©2017 Shari Lapena (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Wow! Just WOW!!

The audiobook A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena. narrated by Tavia Gilbert is EXCELLENT! I was so excited when I found out Shari Lapena had a new book coming out because I loved The Couple Next Door. I pre-ordered A Stranger in the House...and waited...and waited! Finally, the day came when it was delivered to my Audible app...WooHoo! As I listened, I kept feeling like I had it all figured out. I wasn't sure if there was really an underlying mystery at all. I was still fully engaged in the well-written storyline, though, because new discoveries, twists, and turns continued to pop up at every corner. Needless to say, I WAS WRONG about everything, and the underlying mystery of it all came at me full force! The ending was awesome!!! Because of the ending, this book went from good to absolutely AMAZING! I'm still sitting in disbelief! I loved the characters, too. I'm dying to hear more about what happens next in their lives! Please, say we get a sequel to this book! :-)

The narration by Tavia Gilbert was perfect. I thought her performance was outstanding, all around! She was easy to listen to and made for a very enjoyable listening experience. I felt everything was right on....tone, inflection, volume, and pace. The way she would change from speaking to almost whisper-like, really kept me on the edge of my seat. I defintiely plan to check out more books she has narrated. Great work!

I'm sure it is no surprise that I give A Stranger in the House 5/5 stars. I am glad I loved The Couple Next Door so much because it had me eagerly wanting more from Shari Lapena! I thought my favorite of the two books was going to be The Couple Next Door, but after hearing the ending of A Stranger in the House, I really have no clue which one I enjoyed more. Both books are now listed in my Top 10 Favorites! I plan to buy every book from here on out by Shari Lapena, 100%! I recommend this book to those enjoy the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery genre. It's definitely one you don't want to miss out on!

Thank you so much for reading my review. I hope it was helpful. :-)

Great Sophomore Book from Shari Lapena

I loved the premise of this book. A law abiding housewife has an out of character traffic accident. At the same time her husband comes home and finds her missing but her purse and cellphone are still there it looks like she left in a hurry or in a panic. The problem is the wife Karen now has amnesia and has no idea why she left the house and ended up in the terrible accident.
The story slowly starts to unravel with twist after twist right up to the thrilling conclusion. The character development is great as you learn that all parties involved have secrets.
I recommend this for fans of mystery/thrillers like Gone Girl, The Couple Next Door, I See You, I Let You Go, and The Girl On The Train.

Ugh

I love a good housewife thriller. This was not that. The plot points were not only predictable but annoying. The characters didn't have depth and, therefore, neither did the story. The narration was OK although a little overly dramatic for my taste.
I tend to rate thriller novels based on how many times my mouth drops open or how many times I think "I didn't see that coming". This novel had none of those moments but about 10 to 15 eye rolls. What was supposed to be horrendous or daunting for the characters made me say "Oh, shut up!" several times. Very superficial and uninspired. Would not recommend.

Very simple, generic predictable plot

If you’ve ever read a mystery, you’ve probably read this story. There’s nothing original, unique, or surprising about it. Waste of a credit, in my opinion.

I'll Buy Anything by Lapena Now!

I thought her first book was good and had some surprising twists. This one was even better and still had twists I didn't expect. I can't find any fault in this story. The performance was very good. Tavia Gilbert does a good job of differentiating between male and female voices without unnecessarily lowering her voice too much. She's a little dramatic for my taste, but she that's understandable. Overall good recording.

Stranger things

This book started out very good, I was hopefully if a good mystery, especially after the last one I read

Alas not to be

To many twist and turns that made no sense. Too many repeated details, I guess the Author thought we couldn't get it the first time

And poor Tom, what a sap

Didn't like the ending

Boring

If you are a psychological thriller addict, then this is not the book for you. Amateur. I had the plot figured out in the first 15 minutes.

The Stranger in this house is the TWIST!

I also reviewed this book on my podcast, called AudioShelf. Look it up!

Shari gone and done it again. I absolutely LOVED this book! I found the story to be absolutely mesmerizing. The twists were delivered with raw and disturbingly confident sass. The entire book, I thought I knew the ending of the book, but I was proved wrong the entire last two hours. I think that's the genius of Shari Lapena--making you honestly think you are correct in your assumptions, then ripping your brain out to make you second guess your thought process.

People are complaining on here that the characters were horrible and that no character was likable--well guess what?! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO LIKE ANYONE. Karen was a shady b*txh, Tom was a jack*ss, and Bridget was a nut job! If you liked anyone, then I feel sorry for you because you were PLAYED!

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Tavia Gilbert. She was phenomenal and read the story exactly how the story should have been read. Her interest in the story, emotions, cadence, and inflection were 100% genuine and effortlessly poignant. I would highly recommend this audiobook to EVERYONE!

Predictable

Don't waste your money. The narrator was great but the story was too boring and too predictable even for her to try to bring to life.

Someone Said Sophmoric, More Like Moronic

Really juvenile writing, I am halfway through and don't care what happens. The only thing that could make this book worse if the characters names were Tommy and Meggy. I read another of Tavia Gilbert's books that was intense and scary this is one is not unique, same story, different day. Girl has amnesia after hitting her head in an accident she can't remember. Guy found dead, girl may have done it, cops after girl, girl has no history before turning 30. blah, blah, blah.....Need I say more?