Stella Hudson has chosen a difficult profession. She serves as an appointed attorney for children in custody cases. For personal reasons, she does not accept cases for children under the age of thirteen. Because of a personal request from her mentor, Stella makes an exception and agrees to handle the case of nine-year-old Rose Barclay whose parents are in the midst of a contentious custody battle. Stella plans to interview her parents, her grandmother and everyone else in Rose's life, as well as Rose. Based on what Stella learns she will then make recommendations to the court about which parent should have permanent custody. However, interviewing Rose isn't easy as she stopped speaking the day her nanny, who was pregnant with Rose's father's child, fell to her death from an attic window. Was it an accident or murder?
In HOUSE OF GLASS, by Sara Pekkanen, readers are thrown several curves. It becomes obvious there is no shortage of suspects if in fact there was a murder. The Barclay family are master-class liars and their house itself is an enigma. Why is there no glass anywhere in it? Could it be it was all removed so that Rose couldn't use any of it as a weapon? The more Stella learns about the family it becomes clear she can't trust any of them. Still, her determination to represent and protect Rose never waivers even if it is found that Rose is guilty of the unthinkable.
There is high wire tension throughout the narrative from start to finish. In this cleverly constructed tale, several aspects of the story come together as it races to its conclusion and readers are given one more unexpected curve.
I found House of Glass to be a fast-moving and engrossing psychological thriller. Highly recommended.
The next thrilling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen, House of Glass.
On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.
A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?
Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny - in the midst of her parent's bitter divorce - and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella's mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.
From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there's something eerie about the house itself: It's a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.
As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny's boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?