March 1, 2024
Best-selling Irish author Mara makes her U.S. debut with this psychological thriller. Anya is enjoying a bath when she sees the attic hatch open and a masked person emerges--then she's dead. Meanwhile, Anya's friend Julia sees an online video of a masked figure climbing out of an attic--inside her own house. Who could be after them? Prepub Alert.
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June 17, 2024
In Mara’s spine-tingling latest (after No One Saw a Thing), a woman finds evidence of a stalker inside her Dublin house. After selling her San Diego consultancy, Julia Birch has returned to Ireland with her ex-husband, Gabe, and their two children. The family’s luxurious new home in a gated community seems ideal until Julia’s 13-year-old daughter, Isla, stumbles on a TikTok video of a black-clad man climbing down from the attic of a house that looks remarkably like their own. Julia passes it off as a coincidence until her nine-year-old son, Luca, reports hearing strange noises and seeing a pair of eyes peering at him through the air vent. When Julia’s childhood friend, Anya, is found dead in her bathtub nearby, the police declare it a suicide, but Julia can’t shake the feeling that the case is connected to her unwelcome visitor. Terrified, she turns to her neighbors for support, but soon worries she can’t trust anyone—and worst of all, that her tormentor might not be a stranger. Mara skillfully weaves multiple mysteries into her bustling plot, with story lines about Gabe’s strange behavior and Julia’s and Anya’s shady pasts ratcheting up the suspense. When it all comes to a head, readers will be equal parts shocked and satisfied. Agent: Diana Beaumont, Marjacq.
July 15, 2024
A TikTok trend threatens a family's sense of safety--and may be connected to a previous crime. Most people are probably familiar with this urban legend: a babysitter receives creepy, threatening phone calls and later finds out they're coming frominside the house. Mara offers a more complex, grown-up version of that legend here, updated to include TikTok and hidden cameras, but the sense of dread is similar: What would you do if someone seemed to be filming themselves insideyour house? Julia has recently relocated with her family from California to Ireland to return to her roots and escape an unsavory incident involving her teenage daughter, Isla. She and her ex-husband, Gabe, are divorced but share custody and living space with the two kids in a luxurious gated community; when an anonymous user starts posting videos on TikTok that seem to show the inside of their house, Julia is spooked but figures it's probably a really good fake. She's got a lot on her mind, from Gabe's secretive behavior to Isla's teenage drama to the memories raised by her return. She and her three best friends grew up in this town, and it's also where one of them, Donna, died tragically nearly 20 years ago. When another friend dies of what seems to be an accidental drowning just after Julia's arrival in Ireland, Julia and her one remaining friend, Eleanor, are forced to confront the pain of the past as they look for clues to who is posting the increasingly alarming videos. Are the neighbors who they say they are? What happened to Donna's socially awkward brother? Is Julia's son telling the truth when he says there's a man watching him at night? Mara skillfully layers red herrings and discoveries at a satisfying pace, sprinkled with a few flashbacks that lend even more insight into Julia as a tough and resilient character. The ending rushes a bit, offering a few too many neat bows to tie up all the threads, but it's a minor complaint. Well paced and creepy--especially if you're alone in the house while you read.
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August 1, 2024
It isn't real. That is Julia Birch's initial thought when her daughter Isla shows Julia a video posted anonymously online of a masked figure who seems to be creeping out of the attic of the house Julia and her family are renting in Dublin. Almost immediately after Julia watches the video, it disappears. However, soon afterward, another similarly styled video appears, only to vanish as well. Is this someone playing around with AI-generated images and riffing on a popular reality show game called The Loft? Or is it someone targeting Julia and her family? More importantly, should Julia now be worried about those odd noises she hears late at night? Bestselling Irish crime fiction writer Mara makes her U.S. debut with a meticulously crafted suspense tale replete with fiendishly clever twists and turns and a claustrophobic sense of menace that will have readers themselves wondering about the odd noise or two they hear at night in their own homes. VERDICT A highly readable suspense novel in the style of Riley Sager, Alice Feeney, and Lisa Jewell, with a dash of Liane Moriarty thrown in for good measure.--John Charles
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2024
Irish author Mara's latest thriller, her U.S. debut, hits the ground running, briefly introducing Anya moments before a shadowy figure drops in from her attic and kills her in her bathtub. Anya's former friend Julia has just moved home to Dublin from San Diego following a bullying incident involving her 13-year-old daughter Isla. Julia and her ex-husband, Gabe, trade off living in their upscale gated community and co-parenting Isla and 9-year-old Luca. When Isla alerts her mother to surreptitious videos of their home on the social media site Loft, life quickly turns sinister: a missing pet, inexplicably moved household items, Gabe's odd behavior, and Luca's increasingly distressed insistence that there is a man living in their attic. Julia's paranoid tension crescendos as she enlists help from a quirky assortment of friends and neighbors. Fans of Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware will relish Mara's delicious nail-biter, sure to inspire U.S. readers to check out her earlier titles. Lock the doors and keep the lights on!
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