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The Stranger in Her House

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The Stranger in Her House

By: John Marrs
Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Soneela Nankani, Steve West
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About this listen

Shortlisted for the CWA Twisted Dagger 2025 Award.

"A proper twisty thriller."—Sarah Pinborough

A stranger has infiltrated your family…and now he’s taking over.

Paul’s just here to help, or so he claims—sent by a charity for vulnerable people to do odd jobs for elderly widow Gwen. But for Gwen’s daughter Connie, there’s just something about Paul that rings alarm bells from day one. He’s a little too kind, a little too involved…Worse still, Gwen seems to have fallen under his spell.

The last thing Connie wants is a stranger meddling in the safe routine she’s built around Gwen. She loves being the one Gwen turns to for cooking, cleaning and company. But the more Paul visits, the more Gwen is relying on him. By the time he conveniently finds himself between homes and has no choice but to move in, Connie is certain he’s trying to push her out completely.

It’s her word against his, though, and as her attempts to unmask him become ever more desperate she’s not the only one left wondering if she’s lost her grip on reality. But when events start spiralling rapidly out of her control, should Connie wage all-out war on Paul and risk losing Gwen forever—or has that been his plan all along?

©2024 by John Marrs. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Domestic Thrillers Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting Fiction

Critic reviews

“Though not yet a household name, Marrs is an incredibly talented storyteller with a built-in audience who knows what he can do. When unfamiliar readers get their hands on this one, they’ll want more.”—Booklist

“I inhaled this book. A novel of second guesses, of mistrustful characters and downright terrifying ones. An absolute ride of a thriller. I loved it.”—L. V. Matthews, author of The Twins and The Silent Waters
All stars
Most relevant
Overall I thought the story was compelling with some good twists and turns as well as interesting character arcs.

The performance though of the voice actor for DS Krisha and Meredith was so forced, stilted and unnatural my toes curled.

I came to hate the sections she was reading. I found it did ruin my overall enjoyment of the story.

It was a serious error to cast that performer and how it passed the editing stage I dont know.

Good story, one poor performance

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An interesting concept with dark undertones! Just when I felt some empathy with a character, there would be more information which altered my view!
Overall I disliked almost everyone!
The swapping of narrators to represent different characters was clumsily done and unecessary. The main female narrator was good, but the pathetic performance of the woman voicing the social worker and of Meredith, who both sounded the same, was cringingly bad! The tone was inappropriately condescending which misrepresented what was actually being said!
I have really enjoyed other books by this author, but he failed to really explain adequately why the main male character was as psychologically damaged as his bizarre actions indicated.
I have many years of experience working with sufferers of dementia and Marrs portrayal of both service users and support services was very poorly researched in my opinion!
Still worth a read, but maybe not a listen and certainly not one to base any judgements on!

Twists and turns

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This was a decent enough story, but a bit too long and a few too many twists and turns, I got a bit past caring what happened. One of the narrators was absolutely bizarre and quite distracting to listen to. It was like she was putting on a fake English accent and didn’t know how to pronounce a lot of words. I don’t know what it is about John Marrs and terrible narrators! I gave it two stars because the main narrator was good.

Another bizarre narrator!

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Usually a fan of John Marrs but not so much this title. A bit slow for me. Had the usual twist and turns you’d expect from Marrs but these were all pretty predictable which was a shame. I almost couldn’t finish it as the voice of Meredith was so annoying, I couldn’t wait to get to the end. Still a fan, this one just didn’t do it for me.

Bit slow and predictable

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So many twists and turns in the plot, really enjoyed it, not always sure about some of the narration but the storyline was intriguing enough to overlook it

Excellent

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