Safe House by Jo Jakeman
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 20th November 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 31st October 2019)
★★★ 3.5 stars
I've not read Jo Jakeman before so I wasn't sure what to expect from SAFE HOUSE. I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't wowed either. I think the story had great potential to be better, though it was still reasonably enjoyable.
It's the first day of Charlie Miller's life. That is, as Charlie Miller. For that isn't her real name...just her new one. She used to be Steffi Finn and she has just been released from prison after serving a 10 month sentence for perverting the course of justice when she gave her boyfriend a false alibi for the night a woman was murdered. Undertaking various courses in prison to both keep her busy and enable her to put those new skills to good use, she kept her head down and awaited her release to put it all behind her. And now that time had come.
Leaving "Steffi" behind, Charlie made her way down to a sleepy Cornish village where her solicitor friend had bought a dilapidated cottage on her behalf. The cottage was in such disrepair, those skills she acquired at Her Majesty's pleasure would be put to good use. Charlie was happy to keep to herself but then wouldn't that draw attention to her if she failed to mingle with the community? So when two women walking their dogs came upon her one morning, despite being wary Charlie was grateful for the opportunity to make new friends. She even made an impression on her curmudgeonly neighbour, Aubrey, whose gruffness was just a front.
But someone is watching Charlie. Someone knows who she really is. And they mean to harm her. Or do they?
You see, having her whole life scrutinised by the public where the truth didn't really matter gave credence to Charlie's paranoia. The public just wanted justice for the murders of two women, one of which Steffi/Charlie could have prevented had she been truthful from the beginning. Charlie knows this. She understands this. She has long blamed herself for the death of the second woman she could have prevented. But could she really? Was she really responsible for her boyfriend's actions? Lee Fisher was a killer; she wasn't responsible for that. But Lee made her think she was.
Steffi Finn was a naive young woman who, desperate for love and affection, had fallen head over heels for Lee Fisher. They had only been together a short time before he moved into her house, and it wasn't long until she was completely under his spell. You see, Lee was manipulative charmer. He had a way of making you feel that you were responsible for his actions...after all, he was only reacting to something YOU had done. Hu used coercive control to make subtle demands on Steffi to which she happily complied, knowing that he loved her, and because she loved him.
At Lee's request, Steffi had given up drinking alcohol and yet she came home from a colleague's leaving do, wreaking of wine and stumbling over her own feet. Lee was livid. They'd argued, he stormed out and she went to bed. That night Katy Foster disappeared and when the police came calling, Steffi had said Lee was home all night, assuming he'd slept in the spare room.
And here lies the point in question: upon hearing a woman has provided an alibi for her boyfriend for the time he was in fact murdering women - what would you think? That she was foolish, stupid, naive? Or maybe she knew? The public are fed tidbits by the media who have their own slant on a story, because the fact that she couldn't be oblivious to what he was doing is ludicrous! I mean, how could she not know? But that is what the public are always lead to believe...whether it was true or not. However, it is completely possible to live with someone and share your life with them and be completely unaware of a secret life they may be harbouring. How else do you think some men keep two families for years without detection? Or affairs are kept from partners? And the secret lives as killers some people in real life have maintained until caught out? Everyone has secrets, even from each other. Steffi was just naive and I didn't for one minute believe she was aware of Lee's activities. To say it was hard not to blame her is absurd. People are just too quick to taint others as guilty merely by association. How could she not see?? Simple....he was good at hiding it. Men like that are chameleons.
So now Charlie finds herself living in fear and paranoia in the quaint yet remote little Cornish village of Penderrion with the sinister feeling of being watched. A creak in the floorboards. A broken safety catch on a ladder. A shadow in the window. Nothing can possibly be a coincidence anymore as suspicion clouds her every interaction. What if someone knows who she really is? And what will happen when the rest of the village finds out? Is she in danger?
SAFE HOUSE is told in dual timelines that slowly reveal Steffi and Lee's backstory from Steffi and Charlie's perspective and newspaper articles. There is also the POV from a Ben Jarvis, whose role is exposed in the climatic throes of the penultimate finale, as well as an unknown narrative. Each of these chronicle the transformation from Steffi to Charlie with some very tense moments, and the story surrounding her.
An interesting premise and somewhat thought-provoking, SAFE HOUSE was a fairly enjoyable read. Its slow build promised a final reveal that would crash and devour all other possibilities in one fell swoop, leaving the truth battered and bruised and laying bare by the end. It worked well enough but didn't completely satisfy. I don't know why...I just felt there was more to be said.
However, SAFE HOUSE is a twisty thriller filled with suspense that will have you questioning everything.
I would like to thank #JoJakeman, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK and #VintagePublishing for an ARC of #SafeHouse in exchange for an honest review.
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