The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding
Genre: Domestic suspense
Read: 14th September 2024
Published: 16th August 2022
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
A woman hires a housekeeper to care for her aging parents--only to watch as she takes over their lives inthis riveting novel of suspense from the New York Times bestselling author called "an ingenious master of domestic suspense" (Samantha M. Bailey).
In the end, I have only myself to blame. I'm the one who let her in.
She's the breadwinner, a top-notch real estate agent. Her husband, Harrison . . not so much. Once, he had big dreams. But now, he's a middling writer who resents his wife's success.
Jodi's father, Vic, now seventy-nine and retired, is a very controlling man. His wife, Audrey, was herself no shrinking violet. But things change when Audrey developed Parkinson's eight years ago, and Vic retired to devote himself to her care.But while still reasonably spry and rakly handsome, Vishic is worn bywife's iorating condition.
Exhausted from trying to be all things to all people, Jodi finally decides she's had enough and starts interviewing housekeepers to help care for her parents. She settles on Elyse Woodley, an energetic and attractive widow in her early sixties, who seems perfect for the job. While Vic is initially resistant, he soon warms to Elyse's sunny personality and engaging way.
And Jodi is pleased to have an ally, someone she can talk to and occasionally even confide in. Until .
She shuts Jodi out. And Audrey's condition worsens--rapidly. Who is this woman suddenly wearing her mother's jewelry? What is she after? And how far will she go to get it?
MY THOUGHTS:
"In the end, I have only myself to blame. I'm the one who let her in."
Joy Fielding was an author I discovered in the 90s and I devoured her books back then at a rapid rate along with Mary Higgins Clark. Now the market is flooded with so many books in the genre that it's hard to keep up with who's bringing out what!
So when I saw this book come up as a new release some time back I put it on my "to read" shelf, which is ever growing. I finally got around to picking it up, feeling like a revisit with an old friend again, and so I delved into this tale of domestic suspense with plenty of woe.
Jodi Bishop is someone I sympathised with as everyone, and I do mean everyone, simply took advantage of her or was just downright rude. Despite her fractious relationship with her parents she wanted what was best for them in their ailing years. Her father had been caring for her mother who had Parkinson's and he was 80 himself. And so she decided to hire a housekeeper for them, one who would help her father care for her mother and keep the house in good order so that he didn't have to. He was very wealthy and could afford the expense.
Enter Elyse Woodley. Perfect housekeeper. But no truer was the old age adage of "if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is" as little by little, Elyse inveigles her way into the Dundas' lives and little by little, shutting Jodi and her sister Tracy out. What was meant to be godsend for her parents, turned out to be her family's worst nightmare.
Their mother Audrey deteriorates at a rapid rate under Elyse's care and the housekeeper wearing some their mother's belongings, giving Jodi reason to invesitgate the so-called perfect housekeeper. Just who is this Elyse Woodley and what does she want with their family? I would have thought that was obvious given how wealthy Jodi's father is. So it came as no surprise to find her mother dead and her father in bed with the help. Elyse is nothing if not resourceful and manipulative.
But when her father begins acting strangely, Jodi becomes concerned. She tries raising her thoughts with husband Harrison, but he's too wrapped up himself to notice much of what is going on around him. He even abandoned his wife for a "writing retreat" when her mother died and she needed his support most. The guy was a selfish prat, resentful of Jodi earning the money that supported them.
As for the other characters...her sister Tracy came across as mostly fickle and shallow but she was smarter than she looks and had more depth to her than at first seen. Their father Vic Dundas was a controlling bully who could see no good in Jodi and yet the sun shone out of Tracy. He treated Jodi with disdain constantly sniping at her looks, her weight, anything and everything about her. Harrison was a self-obsessed philanderer who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw. And Elyse? Well, the proof is all there as to what that two-faced cow was like.
This book had vibes of John Marrs' "The Stranger in Her House" where handyman inveigles his way into the home and life of a woman with dementia, soon taking over her life and shutting her daughter out. I feel John Marrs did it so much better and the twists were greater and more fantastic. There are so many scams out there that target the elderly and while it highlighted that fact, it played out predictable and not quite as enjoyable as some of her earlier ones I've read. It took me three weeks to read this book (but I have been in a slump for some months which didn't help) but at the same time, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed some of her earlier ones. "See Jane Run" and "Kiss Mommy Goodbye" were one of my favourites along with "Missing Pieces", which was one of the last books by her I think I read.
I struggled with this book, mainly because the characters were all so unlikeable. Even Jodi was barely likeable despite sympathising with her at times. I kept hoping we'd be wowed at the end with a surprising twist and it did come...but maybe a little late. And her father still showed no gratitude.
Overall, it is an engaging read with despicable characters and somewhat entertaining in a mindless way in that it whiles away the hours. It did feel tedious in parts, but that could be due to the fact I took so long to read it.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.
Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.
At the age of 8, Joy Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972. She has published to date 22 novels, two of which were converted into film. Fielding's process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months. Joy Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in "big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity. Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband's name is Warren, and they have two daughters, Annie and Shannon. They have property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.
Fielding had an interview with the Vancouver Sun in 2007, just after her publication of Heartstopper. She enjoys catching readers off guard with the endings of her stories, but insists that "[it] isn't what her fiction is about", but rather more about the development of her characters. Discussing her novels with the Toronto Star in 2008, she said "I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialog is good. And my stories are really involving. I'm writing exactly the kind of books I like to write. And they're the kind of books I like to read. They're popular commercial fiction. That's what they are."
Fielding has been noted as a novelist who is more popular in the United States and foreign countries, rather than in her native Canada. For example, the novel Kiss Mommy Goodbye was more popular in the States, and See Jane Run in Germany. In addition, she had an American agent and publisher, although she has now switched to a Canadian publisher.
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