The Other Woman's House by Sophie Hannah

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Mystery

Date of Publication: June 26^th, 2012

Memorable Quotation: “Crazy doesn’t have to mean made up. Insanity’s as real as sanity.” (pg. 67)

Storyline: B

Pace of the Story: C

Characters: B+

Ending: B

Overall Grade: B-

Everywhere we go, we pass houses we admire from a distance.  Our admiration for these houses is usually a fleeting thought as soon as they are out of sight; but for some, like Connie Bowskill in Sophie Hannah’s The Other Woman’s House, houses represent more than living quarters and a place to call home.  For Connie, an obsession with a specific house drags her down a dark road of truth behind her troubled marriage with Christian “Kit” Bowskill and how her paranoia made her closer to the truth than she would ever believe.  The specific house she is obsessed with is 11 Bentley Grove in Cambridge, and after viewing a virtual tour of the home on a popular real estate website, she spots a sight that will forever be engraved into her mind:  a woman lying face-down  in the lounge in what appears to be her own blood, dead.  After waking Kit in a panic and making him watch the tour to confirm what she saw, he tells Connie that there is no murdered woman in the lounge.  To her amazement, the body is not there after viewing the tour again herself.  This befuddlement only adds to her obsession not only with the house but also in proving that she is not as crazy as she appears to be.

The journey as to who this mysterious murdered woman is, though, is not an easy one, for the way Sophie Hannah incorporates several different sub storylines to bring them together in the end takes away from the immediate draw of the murder case.  From the conversations between the three detectives trying to figure out Connie’s story as well as the descriptions of fellow characters troubles in their marriages made the story wane in intrigue and mystery but the wrapping up all the information about the house and the different connections the detectives come up with is very elaborate, very creative, but very confusing. 

It is evident as to what Hannah was trying to create, which was a well-rounded story of who Kit and Connie really were and their struggles in creating their perfect world, but there was too much detail and too many voices to have the psychological twists shine as if they were supposed to.  As to whom the woman is and how she ended up in such a predicament is surreal and unexpected; leaving the reader satisfied with the surprise but somewhat frustrated with how long it took to uncover the truth. After all is said and done, the ending is better than expected, unexpected at that; a small twist that is a nice facet to the story but does not bring forth any strong revelations, as Hannah may have originally intended. 

Although there are flaws in the pace of the story and the amount of perspectives used in the storytelling, The Other Woman’s House is a clever and original piece of writing. It is easy to connect to the main characters and believe in both of their arguments as to who is the crazy one, which will make this a page-turner for anyone who curious enough as to what secrets are hiding behind the doors of 11 Bentley Grove.

~Shelly-Beans