by Mark Edwards
First published 2020
Ruth and Adam jump at the chance to housesit in New York for the summer. The young British couple feels their luck turning as love and career prospects align. Then Eden appears at their door, soaked by rain and storm. She's beautiful, magnetic, and says the homeowners told her she could stay anytime. Ruth and Adam invite her in. Why wouldn't they help someone who knows their hosts? Eden settles into the house like she belongs there. But small details don't add up. Her stories shift. Her connection to the homeowners grows murky. Ruth and Adam start questioning whether Eden is who she says she is. They realize they've broken the cardinal rule about strangers. Now they're trapped in a house that isn't theirs with someone who might be lying about everything. Their perfect summer begins unraveling as they wonder if their act of kindness was actually a terrible mistake.
Genres: fiction, suspense, mystery, adult-fiction, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, paranoid, suspenseful, tense, unsettling
Tropes: deception, forced-proximity, gaslighting, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York, British
Period: summer
291 pages · Paperback · Thomas & Mercer
Content warnings: gaslighting