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House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Thriller

House of Glass

Repeat author

Sarah Pekkanen is back at Book of the Month – other BOTMs include Gone Tonight.

Early Release

This is an early release that's only available to our members—the rest of the world has to wait to read it.

by Sarah Pekkanen

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Quick take

Who killed the nanny? That question lies at the heart of this story of a family coming undone in a creepy DC mansion.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Psychological

    Psychological

  • Illustrated icon, Creepy

    Creepy

  • Illustrated icon, Whodunit

    Whodunit

  • Illustrated icon, Marriage_Issues

    Marriage issues

Synopsis

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 parents’ 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?

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of House of Glass.

House of Glass

CHAPTER ONE

Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. That’s her routine.

I stand on a grimy square of sidewalk near the busy intersection of 16th and K Streets, scanning the approaching pedestrians.

My new client will arrive in seven minutes.

I don’t even need to meet her today. All I have to do is visually assess her to see if I’ll be able to work with her. The thought makes my shoulders curl forward, as if I’m instinctively forming a version of the fetal position.

I could refuse to take on this client. I could claim it’s impossible for me to be neutral because the media frenzy surrounding the suspicious death of her family’s nanny has already shaped my perceptions.

But that would mean lying to Charles, who is the closest thing I have to a father.

“You know I hate asking for favors, Stella,” Charles said last week from across the booth in his favorite Italian restaurant. He unfolded his heavy white napkin with a flick of his wrist, the crisp snap punctuating his words.

Perhaps a reminder that in all the years I’ve known him, he has never asked me for a single one?

“I’m not sure if I can help her,” I’d told Charles.

“You’re the only one who can. She needs you to be her voice, Stella.”

Saying no to the man who gave me my career, walked me down the aisle, and has provided a shoulder during the dissolution of my marriage isn’t an option. So here I wait.

My new client won’t take any notice of me, a thirty-eight-year-old brunette in a black dress and knee-high boots, seemingly distracted by her phone, just like half the people in this power corridor of DC.

Two minutes until she’s due to arrive.

As the weak October sun ducks behind a cloud, stealing the warmth from the air, a nasal-sounding horn blares behind me. I nearly jump out of my skin.

I whip around to glare at the driver, and when I refocus my attention, my client is rounding the corner a dozen yards away, her blue sweater buttoned up to her neck and her curly red hair spilling over her shoulders. Her expression is wooden.

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Why I love it

An unclear, untimely death. A menacing mansion, with not one piece of glass. An outwardly beautiful family with a turbulent, potentially violent, inner life. These are the elements great thrillers are made of!

Rose is nine years old, collects sharp objects, and may have witnessed her nanny’s murder. In the midst of her parents’ acrimonious divorce, she sees her young caretaker fall to her death, and Rose ceases to speak. Her moods become volatile and she seems only to enjoy the company of animals.

Stella, a “best interest attorney,” takes this bitter custody case against her own personal philosophy. Her own childhood trauma has dissuaded her from working with young children, but at her mentor’s insistence, and the similarity of Rose’s situation to her own, Stella agrees to help.

As she begins to spend time with Rose and her family, Stella finds more questions than answers, and soon fears she made a grave mistake by involving herself with this family. Was the nanny’s death an accident? Did someone in this plastic house kill her? Is everyone hiding some dark secret?

Tense, sinister, and gripping, Sarah Pekkanen’s House of Glass will have you flipping the pages at a rapid clip. Don’t miss out!

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