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 – in the midst of 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?

Review:

Ominous, edgy, and intricate!

House of Glass is a fast-paced, compelling thriller that takes you on a journey into the life of best-interest lawyer Stella Hudson as she juggles a new case involving a philandering husband, an extremely wealthy wife, a doting grandmother, a pregnant nanny who may or may not have accidentally fallen to her death, and a nine-year-old client who hasn’t uttered a word since the tragic event.

The prose is crisp and tight. The characters are secretive, protective, and vulnerable. And the plot is a complex, menacing tale of family, friendship, deception, lies, drama, manipulation, secrets, revelations, suspicious personalities, violence, and murder.

Overall, House of Glass is another suspenseful, twisty, intense tale by Pekkanen that does a remarkable job of highlighting that people aren’t always who they seem to be and that desperate people often do desperate things.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it’s been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother’s past or background. But when Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth’s carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

Review:

Ominous, tense, and clever!

Gone Tonight is a sharp, compulsive, psychological thriller that delves into all the deep, dark secrets people keep even from those closest to them and highlights just how easily people can be emotionally manipulated, controlled, and exploited by those they love.

The writing is crisp and edgy. The characters are distressed, unreliable, and vulnerable. And the plot, told by alternating perspectives, unfolds subtly into a murky tale full of twists, turns, surprises, familial drama, lies, secrets, manipulation, love, dysfunction, wickedness, deception, mental illness, and murder.

Overall, Gone Tonight is a crafty, sinister, engaging tale by Pekkanen that kept me engaged from start to finish and was a fantastic reminder of all the complex bonds and emotional ties that bind mothers and daughters.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.