The House on Rye Lane
‘Sublime, elegant and exciting… beautifully written and entirely gripping. I’m a big fan of Susan Allott’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘The lovechild of Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests and Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs… confirms Susan Allott as a huge talent’ ERIN KELLY
They thought they’d found their dream home. They were wrong.
2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain – a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn’t resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right – and as the problems mount up, Max starts to doubt her relationship as well as her decision. Is Seb all he seems to be? And why are the neighbours so evasive about the house’s previous owner?
1994. Cookie and his parents have been forced by his dad’s gambling debts to move into the attic room of a big old house, as lodgers. Tensions run high between them and their elderly landlady, and there’s something odd about the place that Cookie can’t quite put his finger on…
1843. Horatio built this house for his beloved wife, who then died in mysterious circumstances. After a second death on the premises, both his servants and the locals are starting to talk. Horatio’s grief is tinged with shame and guilt. What is he hiding? And will the house ever be free of his legacy?
THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is a tense, taut, beautifully crafted novel about the treachery of secrets and the many ways the past can echo into the present, from the acclaimed author of THE SILENCE.
'Terrific' SUNDAY TIMES -
'A sinister tale, beautifully told' THE SUN -
”'Had me captivated from beginning to end. A haunting thriller that flawlessly weaves the past with the present. Tense, engrossing and unputdownable” - LOUISE HARE
”'Beautifully written, and so intricately plotted with utterly compelling characterisation and narratives that draw you relentlessly through the story to the shattering climax. An absolute gem of a literary thriller” - PHILIPPA EAST
”'A terrific spine chiller” - TELEGRAPH
”'A House of Usher for the 21st Century: unnerving, unsettling and increasingly hard to put down” - PHILIP GRAY
”'A haunting and hypnotic story that creeped me out and then made me cry. Tautly written and subtle - what a book! Loved it” - FIONA MITCHELL
”'What a read! Twisty, turny, beautifully written, just brilliant” - FRANCES QUINN
”'A highly accomplished literary thriller… Allott is establishing herself as one of the most talented new writers around” - TREVOR WOOD
”'Such a cleverly crafted, suspenseful and moving novel, I absolutely loved it” - ZOË SOMERVILLE, author or The Night of the Flood
”'Utterly compelling…. will live with me for years to come. At times this thriller made me think of Sarah Waters, at times Belinda Bauer - it is gripping, intelligent and deliciously dark” - FRANCESCA JAKOBI
”'A wonderfully atmospheric, darkly brooding novel which had me transfixed from the first page to the last… a novel to lose yourself in, to savour, and one which will linger, disturbing and magnificent in equal measure, long after it is finished.” - LOUISE FEIN
”'Spooky, gothic splendour - this book will creep under your skin and keep you enthralled to the very last page… Stunning prose, drenched in atmosphere… the best book I’ve read in ages” - ELENI KYRIACOU