Whether writing by herself or with her partner Greer Hendricks, Maryland-based author Sarah Pekkanen has a knack for creating complicated, empathetic, curious heroines and putting them into dangerous situations. In House of Glass, her protagonist is lawyer Stella Hudson, who’s tasked with determining which parent is best for nine-year-old Rose Barclay. But Rose hasn’t spoken ever since her nanny Tina fell out of a window and died. Or was Tina pushed? Rose’s father Ian was having an affair with Tina, and she was pregnant. Rose’s mother Beth is guarded and on edge. How is Stella supposed to recommend one of these parents, when one of them could be a killer?
Even though House of Glass takes place in the present day, because the Barclays are wealthy and live in a sprawling old Potomac home, the novel has a gothic, haunted feel. Pekkanen adds touches such as a doll that looks just like Rose, spiraling staircases, and creaky floors to enhance the gothic atmosphere. Beth supposedly has a “glass phobia” that requires all the glass in the house being replaced with plastic. There’s even a creepy old lady—Harriet, Ian’s mother, who walks with a cane after botched knee surgery.
As Stella investigates, the case brings up her own issues—she also developed selective mutism after her mother died of a drug overdose. And as she gets to know the Barclays, she starts to suspect that Tina’s death was murder, and that the killer could be nine-year-old Rose herself.
Creepy kid stories are wonderful, and Pekkanen does a fabulous job with Rose, who reads books about serial killers and likes to collect sharp objects. Her pacing is wonderfully slow; she draws out the tension until it’s brittle enough to snap. At the same time, Pekkanen adds in the complications of Stella’s personal life—her divorce, prompted by her unwillingness to have children; her relationship with the judge who gave her her first job; the truth about her mother’s death. And the specifics of the D.C. locale are a treat for those of us who live or lived there.
Pekkanen has created many memorable characters over the years: Stella, Avery Chambers in The Golden Couple, Jessica Farris in An Anonymous Girl. They all live in D.C., and they’re all inquisitive and supportive. Maybe in her next mystery, Pekkanen can throw them all together.
For more thoughts on this novel, see Melissa's review at Goodreads.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the book in exchange for an honest review. They have one copy for a lucky reader!
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Gone Tonight
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16 comments:
The last time I broke a glass object was a drinking glass! I placed another glass on it accidentally in the sink and it shattered!
An old teacup since the tea was very hot.
An empty glass jar I dropped when startled by a blast from nearby construction.
It was a mug. It broke in the dishwasher so I must have loaded it wrong. House of Glass looks good!
To tell the truth, I really can't remember.
The last time I broke a glass object it was a drinking glass. I'm actually very good at breaking them and have broken quite a lot over the course of my life so far!
I dropped a drinking glass a while back.
I was vacuuming my elder daughter's empty bedroom where my younger daughter had stored some things, including pictures. I smashed into one of the picture frames.
The last time I broke a glass object was when I was unloading the dishwasher. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity.
Oh, that was a long time ago when I was putting a plate away in the cabinet, and it slipped out of my hand, and next thing I knew, there were glass shards on the floor.
I broke a drinking glass when I was putting the dishes away.
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Long stemmed wine glass hanging upside from a hanger when I carried bags in - have 3 now. Lol
I broke a drinking glass last week.
I broke a wine glass the other week-that's all I'm saying about that!
Last month while changing a bathroom light bulb, I dropped the bulb in the sink.
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