The New House

Three couples, three houses, one chain.

Stacey and Felix own the Glass House: pool, floor-to-ceiling windows, the sort of property people slow down outside. They are downsizing, but Stacey will not sell to just anyone. She needs a buyer who will keep what she knows about the place to themselves.

Millie and Tom have wanted the Glass House for years and can just about reach it if their own sells fast enough. Harper and Kyle want Millie and Tom's, for the school catchment, and it will cost them everything they have and a bit more than that.

Tess Stimson runs all three households at once and lets the chain do the work. When one of the sales collapses, everybody's plans depend on somebody else's, and the question the book is actually asking is what a person will do when the house they have already decided is theirs is about to go to someone else.