Review of LITTLE RED HOUSE by Liv Andersson (New Release)

3 Stars 

This psychological suspense thriller works with readers willing to turn off their critical thinking. 

There are alternating plotlines.  In 1997, Eve Foster is in Nihla, New Mexico, looking for her daughter Kelsey whom she believes may be the latest victim of a serial perpetrator who has kidnapped, abused and eventually killed several young women in the area.  In the present, Connie Foster, Eve’s adopted daughter, inherits a small property in Nihla while Connie’s twin Lisa receives the wealthy estate in Vermont.  The derelict house includes a mysterious caretaker whom Connie cannot fire.  Connie learns about murders and disappearances of women twenty years earlier and discovers that there have been more recently.  Though she believes her house may be somehow connected to these crimes and she may be in danger, residents of Nihla are reluctant to speak to her. 

The relationship between Connie and Eve is important to understand.  Connie believes that Eve is continuing her mind games from the grave because she played sadistic games for years, and Connie was always the target of the cruelty.  Because of this past, Connie suspects that her paltry inheritance is just another example of Eve’s vindictiveness.  And because the caretaker carries out Eve’s demands, Connie doubts that she can trust him.  In fact, Connie wonders if there is anyone she can trust so her isolation adds to the suspense. 

The book has several weaknesses.  For instance, people behave in unbelievable ways.  There are obvious solutions to problems that main characters ignore.  When a person slips her a piece of paper with a name on it, why doesn’t Connie return to get more information about the named individual instead of wasting time doing research herself?  A lawyer would actually draw up a will with such outrageous conditions as the ones found in Eve’s will?  A character who is repeatedly described as weak is capable of the acts described?  The reader is supposed to believe that virtually every police officer in Nihla is corrupt?  Sex scenes seem gratuitous.  And the novel relies heavily on tropes:  dirty cops and corrupt public officials, a distrustful community, and the evil stepmother among them.  The men tend to be manipulative and the women are submissive victims.  In short, the behaviour of some of the characters is so extreme as to be implausible.

Actually, there are many events which require a suspension of disbelief.  This is certainly the case of the ending.  Its twists are so farfetched as to be ridiculous.  There are clues, mostly repetition, which foreshadow some of these twists so astute readers may guess some of them.  But there are also unanswered questions:  What’s the deal with the majolica crucifixes?  Why must the caretaker remain for three years after Connie takes possession of the house?  Connie gives her age as 26 so how could Eve’s driver, who worked for her only the last five years, have given Connie lollipops when she was a kid?

More than one character plays mind games in the novel, but the author also plays games with readers.  Some readers will enjoy them, but I don’t like having to set aside my disbelief to be entertained. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.