Her husband, Tom, doesn't know what to think since she went out without her purse and ID and didn't leave him a note as she usually does, and those are only the first in a string of out-of-character actions for Karen. The instant his pristine Stepford life is disrupted, he devolves from loving husband to paranoid adulterer. Along the way, they’ll unlock wisdom for those of us navigating our own coupledoms, and for those still seeking their perfect match. When several members of the ring soon turn up dead, Billy abruptly pulls Kate out, blowing her cover. This story moves along at a brisk pace and has several very nice twists along the way, but it also has one of those annoying tacked on codas I’ve begun to despise.

Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. To make matters worse, Karen became a person of interest in a murder case that presumably occurred that same night.Despite the fact that a few reviewers before me have remarked that this was predictable, I enjoyed the journey I was taken on with Lapena and her characters of A Stranger in the House.

But he finds nothing alarming–no phone knocked off the hook, no broken window, no smear of blood on the floor. This beginning was chilling and had the potential for an exciting mystery which I was sure I would enjoy. From 1945, more than four million British servicemen were demobbed and sent home after the most destructive war in history.For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be more than he can cope with.

In Stranger in the House, Julie Summers tells the women's story, interviewing over a hundred women who were on the receiving end of demobilisation: the mothers, wives, sisters, who had to deal with an injured, emotionally-damaged relative; those who assumed their fiancés had died only to find them reappearing after they had married another; women who had illegitimate children following a wartime affair as well as those whose steadfast optimism was rewarded with a delightful reunion. I was also unimpressed by the conversational nature of the writing style as it made it seem choppy and too simple.Having really enjoyed Shari Lapena’s bestselling debut, The Couple Next Door, which was a worthy slice of fast-paced and atmospheric domestic noir with some very unexpected twists, I was keen to read A Stranger in the House. Karen looks forward to spending the money she stole from her first husband to start things over with Tom. A bitter and greedy retired businessman is killed in a mysterious fall, and his adult daughter blames his manipulative and creepy but seductive new wife, Samantha. All of this lying and relationship conflict and – did I mention – amnesia makes for quite the intricate web that Lapena leaves her readers to untangle. And that's the way it is the whole world over, she tells herself, watching out the train window, people falling in and out of love, as their perception of reality changes.