Review of THE QUIET TENANT by Clémence Michallon

 3 Stars

This is a serial killer thriller from a different perspective – that of three women.

Aidan Thomas is an ex-Marine, widower, single father, and serial killer living in the Hudson River valley of New York state.  For five years he has kept a woman captive in a shed.  When forced to move, he takes the woman with him and his daughter Cecilia, telling her that the woman, whom he calls Rachel, is the friend of a friend needing a home.  Once she is ensconced in the house and has met Cecilia, Rachel wonders how she can escape and if she can get Cecilia to help her. 

Rachel is one narrator; her sections are in second person point of view.  This point of view tends to be annoying, but it is appropriate since in a way it indicates how she has been dehumanized.  It also suggests she is addressing her old self, the person she was pre-captivity.  Thirteen-year-old Cecilia is a first-person narrator as is Emily, a lonely bartender romantically attracted to Aidan. 

Aidan’s character development is interesting; he’s definitely a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde figure.  In public he’s charming and seems so normal.  His good looks also help.  He works hard to be liked; he even tells Cecilia, “’It’s easier to go through life if people like you.’”  And he’s successful in convincing people that he’s a good, trustworthy person.  In fact, he’s so popular that townspeople raise money for him after his wife’s death. 

Of course we also see his dark side.  He has killed several women, each of whom is given a brief chapter.  And he’s kept Rachel captive for over five years.  The problem is that his motives are not clarified.  Why does he kill?  The only explanation is that he seeks control after his wife’s illness and death:  “Death was happening to him, to the family he had built.  And there was nothing he could do about it.  It must have unmoored him.  He needed control.”  Why does he let Rachel live when he has already killed four other women by the time he encounters her?  Again, the only reason given is “He saw something in [Rachel] that was more interesting than death.”  And Rachel is able to convince him not to kill her and take her with him into the home he shares with his teenaged daughter?

Cecilia is also a bit of a problem.  She’s a very incurious teenager who asks very few questions.  Though she doesn’t like being controlled by her father, she never rebels?  Rachel’s appearance and behaviour cannot be seen as normal, yet Cecilia doesn’t show any real interest in the strange tenant?  She goes into the basement to look at things that belonged to her mother, but she doesn’t snoop into other boxes?  At the end of the book, she disappears when her perspective would have been interesting.

Emily is not convincing either.  She is so very needy, behaving like a lovesick teenager.  All we learn about her past is that she inherited her father’s restaurant.  More backstory would have been useful.  Some of her behaviour could be called stalking. 

There is considerable suspense.  Of course Rachel’s life is in danger; it is obvious that Aidan cannot be trusted to keep her indefinitely.  She realizes that if his attention falls elsewhere, she could be seen as dispensable:  “If you have to be in his world, then you must be special.  You must be the only one of you.”  There is a sense of urgency because he could be grooming his next victim.  She knows that he has killed others since she has been held captive, and if she doesn’t escape, she endangers others.  And as she gets to know Cecilia, Rachel worries about her and decides, “Whichever way you wiggle out of this, it has to involve her.  You want her safe.”

The reader sees Rachel’s thought processes so her behaviour is understandable, though there are several times when the reader might become frustrated with her reluctance to act.  There is no doubt that she has been traumatized.  However, I preferred Room and Strange Sally Diamond, both of which also examine the psychological effects of being held captive.