The Woman at 46 Heath Street by Lesley Sanderson
Genre: Thriller
Read: 30th March 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 28th March 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
This book should have been called 46 HEATH STREET or THE SECRETS OF 46 HEATH STREET rather than the titled THE WOMAN AT 46 HEATH STREET. Why? Because it has more to do with the house and its secrets rather than any one woman who has lived there. It is a beautiful home in a desirable area backing onto the affluent Hampstead Heath. A home that has been owned by the same family for several decades. A home with secrets hiding behind its doors and buried within its walls. So what IS going on at 46 Heath Street?
Ella lives at 46 Heath Street, a house she and her husband Chris inherited from his mother Nancy. Abandoned by her own mother, shifted from foster home to foster home, then finding love with Chris and a mother figure in Nancy whom she nursed right up to her death, Ella loves her house at 46 Heath Street and finally has somewhere she can call home. Her life at 46 Heath Street has been nothing short of perfect...until the day she receives a letter, informing her that her husband is having an affair. Confronting Chris upon his return home she is shattered when he not only admits to the affair but that she has six weeks to move out. Ella is devastated. This is her home. The only place she has felt safe and that she could put down roots. The only place she has been able to call home. How can Chris be so cruel? He knows how much this house means to her.
Then Ella begins to receive anonymous messages. A single word through the mailbox - LEAVE. Her car alarm going off exposing scratches down the side, also with the word LEAVE etched in the paintwork. A package on the doorstep revealing dead meat inside crawling with maggots. A bloodied dead mouse with a note informing her to LEAVE. Phone calls in the middle of the night - a woman on the other end asking for Chris, laughing. Is this her? Is this the other woman who has stolen her Chris? All this has to be the work of this other woman. Chris certainly wouldn't be that cruel - would he?
So Ella hatches a plan of her own. She asks her friend Alice to move in, to help keep her anchored. She hates being alone and having Alice there will keep the loneliness away.
Only Alice has her own reasons for moving in to 46 Heath Street.
But for Ella, having Alice in the house helps keep her grounded. She has someone to talk to, to confide in...and before long the whole sordid mess involving Chris and the house is revealed. But instead of being put off, Alice consoles Ella and helps her put things into perspective. But Alice herself is a closed book. She doesn't reveal anything about her own life beyond the photo of the tanned woman in her room - her cousin, she tells Ella. And it isn't long before we wonder what Alice's game is. What is she doing at 46 Heath Street?
Then Ella finds herself being woken in the night to sounds coming from outside, where she sees a torchlight roaming behind her house. Who is out there? What do they want? Is it Chris, trying to scare her? Is it the other woman?
Then when Ella opens the door one day to an estate agent informing her that her husband Chris has arranged with him to put the house on the market, Ella is furious. Armed with a new-found strength she didn't know she had, Ella stands her ground. This house is half hers; she pays half the mortgage and Chris cannot sell it without her.
Soon Ella begins to hear things about her husband she had no idea about and finds herself wondering just what is really going on? Is Chris in trouble?
Then there is the diary entries dating back to the 70s up to the 90s by an unnamed woman who we soon begin to realise must be Nancy, Chris' mother. These entries are something all together different starting when they first moved into 46 Heath Street. It tells of a life so completely apart from the one in the present. As the entries progressed, the story Nancy told was one of horror; a life so awful to live in constant fear as she did. But as each entry came to an end, it left you wanting to find out more. What happened to Nancy that left her as the last one standing? What happened to her children? To her husband?
And why, when she was dying, did Nancy make the emphatic plea to Ella to ensure that whatever happens that Chris NEVER sell the house? That 46 Heath Street must remain in the family forever? If only the walls could talk!
There are so many facets to THE WOMAN AT 46 HEATH STREET that are woven into the story you find yourself wondering is Ella going crazy? Or is something more sinister going on? It added an extra creepiness to the story that could also make one question their sanity. Was there an element of "gas-lighting" taking place, or was it just made to scare Ella out of her home? With Chris' drastic personality change, one wonders just what is really going on and why did he want to suddenly force her out of the home she loved? Did he want to move his new woman in? Or did he want to sell? Questions begin to mount as things spiral out of control for Ella and she uses everything in her power to hang onto 46 Heath Street.
The POV shifts in the present day between Ella and Alice and in Nancy's diary in the past. I love this aspect and I am always drawn to books that shift between the past and present. It helps give them an extra perspective and adds that little bit of mystery, wondering how both stories relate. Then when the past and present meet it leaves you with that sense of closure.
And I must comment on the descriptions of the house and of the surrounding Hampstead Heath. It was breathtaking and really gave a sense of foreboding of Hitchcockian proportions.
I must say that the story was slow to start, with Ella coming to terms with her perfect life falling apart to becoming obsessed with finding out who this other woman was. Alice seemed like a perfect fit when she moved in as she got Ella to shift her focus and helped her grow from strength to strength. Whatever her underlying goal was, Alice was good for Ella in that respect. Of course, as the reader we just want to tear strips off Chris the more we learn about him. His behaviour is so random - one minute he is demanding Ella move out, the next he is all apologetic with her - it is clear that there is something more going on with him. But what?
While it is slow to start, THE WOMAN AT 46 HEATH STREET is an intriguing and compelling thriller that will have you turning pages late into the night! I read the bulk of this book in one sitting as I simply could NOT put it down. Some may find it predictable, others may not. And although I pieced together most of the puzzle from early on, it didn't deter my enjoyment of the ride. I really enjoyed it and loved unearthing the secrets of 46 Heath Street.
I would like to thank #LesleySanderson, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for this deliciously disturbing ARC of #TheWomanAt46HeathStreet in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment