The House Guest

Madeleine Frost has reached the point where staying with Liam is more dangerous than leaving. He is controlling, and she no longer feels sure of her own safety or that of her daughter, Poppy. For her, the risk of remaining now outweighs the risk of going.

She goes to Wrea Head Hall, a hotel owned by her father, whom she has not spoken to in years. It is the only place available to her. That makes it a refuge by necessity rather than choice, and it comes with complications of its own.

The book is domestic suspense with a country-house setting, first published under the title House of Secrets. Much of it turns on a single doubt: whether the hall is a safe place for a woman and child who have run from someone.

Madeleine has nowhere else to be, so she and her father must find something to say to each other after the long silence between them. What passes between them, and whether the hall can shelter her, decides how the story plays out.