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 – amid her parent’s 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?
Genre: Thriller
Goodreads Choice Award:
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2024)
Angela’s Review:
I have read books written by Pekkanen with Greer Hendricks (An Anonymous Girl and The Golden Couple) but this was my first book by just her and I really enjoyed it.
The joint books both looked at dysfunctional marriage in the context of a therapist character. This book was a little different. There is still a divorce in the plot, but the main character— Stella— is a best-interest lawyer tasked with determining which Barclay should get custody of Rose. What makes it a psychological thriller is that the family’s nanny (Tina) had recently “fallen” to her death out of the third story window of their house after her affair and pregnancy with Mr. Barclay came to light. On a side note, I appreciate the fact that Pekkanen has written a thriller without graphic violence and profanity.
It was never determined to be a murder, but both parents and the live-in grandmother were suspects. Before Stella can report back with what is best for their daughter, Rose, she needs to figure out what happened to the nanny. She can’t send Rose to live with a murderer.
“Every detail of the Barclays’ seven-bedroom home and manicured gardens is flawlessly curated. And every person I’ve encountered here is deeply damaged.”
Pekkanen does a good job of making the reader second-guess their predictions. I felt like the story moved at a faster pace than the joint books and it kept my interest the whole time. I also found the main character to be likeable, increasing my interest in the outcome of the story.
Probably my main negative of this book was when— out of nowhere— the author decided that Stella should suddenly be attracted to the female detective that had worked the nanny case. This is a pet peeve for me. Every thriller does not need a romantic secondary plot. Why couldn’t she have just become a good friend who helps Stella’s through the difficult divorce and case that that stirred up bad childhood memories? It really added nothing substantial to the story. I gave this 4 stars.