214 Palmer Street by Karen McQuestion
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 14th April 2022
Published: 6th April 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
A house with a secret. A woman with nothing to lose.
When Maggie sees the beautiful Venetian blinds moving in the Caldwells’ front window, she freezes. Her favorite neighbours Cady and Josh are away, so who is in their house?
The pretty young woman who answers the door tells a convincing story. She’s Sarah. The house-sitter. Just here for a month. An old friend of Cady’s who needed a place to stay. She’s pleasant and warm, and Maggie wanders back to her house thinking she might have made a new friend. Yet she can’t help but wonder why Cady never mentioned Sarah.
What Maggie doesn’t know is that on the other side of the door, Sarah is starting to panic. No one was meant to see her at 214 Palmer Street…
An unputdownable psychological thriller from number one bestseller Karen McQuestion, which will make you question what secrets your own neighbors are hiding… For fans of The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window and Gone Girl.
MY REVIEW:
"No one was ever meant to see her at...214 Palmer Street..."
I've never heard of this author before but the premise was so intriguing I felt I had to dive in and check it out. Who is the woman in the front window of a supposedly empty house? And why is she there? She says she's the housesitter...who who is she really? Immediately I was intrigued. It oozed secrets and suspicions I just knew I had to uncover.
Sarah Aden thought she had a happy life with her husband Kirk, who so obviously adored her to the point of stifling her. They met and married on his parents' estate in a quiet wedding and for three years have enjoyed a life of wedded bliss. Until one afternoon when Sarah comes home from work and is attacked by an unknown assailant, Kirk returning to find her unconscious on the backyard patio. Sarah had sustained a head injury from being hit with a rock and in the aftermath Kirk wraps her up in cotton wool as if she were porcelain. She takes extended leave from a job she enjoys while Kirk says she doesn't need to work and that she should quit her job and stay home. He didn't much like her physical therapist either, believing he pushed her far too hard too quickly. But Sarah thought that was exactly what she needed to get her life back.
As weeks turn into months, the investigation into Sarah's attack seemed to be going nowhere and Kirk was growing impatient with the lack of results. He calls on his old high school and childhood friend Gavin, now the Chief of Police, in an attempt to speed things up. But Gavin has no news to give his old friend.
When Kirk returns to work, he asks his mother to keep an eye on Sarah who he's convinced is far from recuperated. Sarah loves her in-laws and when Judy brings out some old albums with a young teenage Kirk, she is eager to find out more about her husband as a teenager. But her trip down memory lane opens up a lot more than she bargained for when she discovers he has been keeping secrets from her...about his past and the people she thought she knew.
Over the course of the six months since her attack, Sarah finds herself standing outside 214 Palmer Street. The house of the Caldwells. And the secrets that it holds. And so she makes a plan. Extracting the hidden key, she lets herself into 214 Palmer Street unseen by everyone, except one - Maggie Scott from next door.
And as she closes the door, Sarah begins to panic. No one was meant to see her at 214 Palmer Street...
What a delightful quick read this was! I devoured it in a matter of (reading) hours and was kept entertained throughout...despite wanting to knock some sense into at least three of the characters. 214 PALMER STREET is a story of secrets, suspicions and a past that doesn't want to stay buried.
Although the narratives switched throughout, Sarah was the primary narrator with the story alternating between THEN and NOW. There are also chapters narrated in the first person by someone alluded to as HER and it was fairly obvious who that was, having worked that out by about 20%. The mystery that tied the three friends to the past was also pretty predictable and I had that figured out around the same time as identifying who "HER" was. But none of that detracts from an entertaining story which this was. Sure, it wasn't the best thriller I've read but it wasn't the worst either. And the main thing is that it kept me entertained and engaged throughout. As soon as my interest wanes...then we have a problem. But that was not the case here and I remained engaged throughout.
I honestly don't know why there are so many negative reviews about this book. Yes, it's predictable. But so what? There are plenty of thrillers out there that are and yet they still get rave reviews. Maybe because none of the characters were entirely likeable...except maybe for Sarah and Judy. Everyone seemed to have a hidden agenda and it leaves the reader wondering who to trust. I certainly didn't trust any of them, except (again) Sarah and Judy. And I think the author did a good job of making them equally likeable and unlikeable respectively.
While the story is predictable, the tension remains throughout and the story quickly unfolds. There are twists and clues along the way keeping the reader guessing despite its predictability. 214 PALMER STREET is a solid domestic thriller that I found compelling and slightly addictive. It's short chapters and fast pace made it an enjoyable quick read.
I would like to thank #KarenMcQuestion, #Netgalley, #Bookouture for an ARC of #214PalmerStreet in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Her publishing story has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR and she has appeared on ABC’s World News Now and America This Morning. McQuestion’s books share common themes of connection and kindness. She lives in Hartland, Wisconsin.
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