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WORK TITLE: The House Swap
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Previously published, but under unknown pseudonym.
LC control no.: n 2018020445
Descriptive conventions:
rda
LC classification: PR6106.L424
Personal name heading:
Fleet, Rebecca
Found in: The house swap, 2018: ECIP t.p. (Rebecca Fleet)
Penguin Random House website, viewed April 12, 2018 (about
the author: Rebecca Fleet was educated at Oxford and
works in marketing. She lives in London. The house swap
is her US debut.)
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Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Children: one.
EDUCATION:Attended Oxford University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Works in Marketing.
WRITINGS
Two literary novels published by 4th Estate under a different name.
SIDELIGHTS
Based in London, British writer Rebecca Fleet was educated at Oxford University and works in marketing. In the past, she has had two books published under different names. Her debut suspense novel, The House Swap, was released in the United States in 2018. In this noir thriller, Caroline and Francis are a British couple who have been married for fifteen years and are trying to heal their marriage after Caroline ends an affair and Francis is recovering from pill addiction. They answer an Internet ad for a house swap, leaving their city apartment in Leeds and staying for a child-free week in a stranger’s house in the upscale London suburb of Chiswick. The owner was known only as S. Kennedy. Soon in the house, Caroline notices subtle clues that indicate S. Kennedy is someone who knows her intimately and knows her secrets. For example, she finds the same brand of cologne that her former lover and coworker, Carl, had used hidden behind the headboard of the bed. And there are flowers and music that have special meaning to her. Caroline suspects that it is really Carl who is leaving items around and stalking her, angry over their breakup.
The story is told from three points of view: Francis, the mysterious swapper, and Daily Mail reviewer Christena Appleyard found the conflicted mother and lover Caroline to be the most compelling voice. Appleyard praised Fleet’s talent for portraying exhilaration and naked danger, adding: “Fleet shows skill in timing the gradual reveal of Caroline’s past.” According to a writer online at Years of Reading Selfishly, the book would be enjoyed by readers “looking for a very different type of psychological thriller, a novel which cleverly plays with the genre and portrays characters who are flawed, but who are all looking for a sense of peace and resolution.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor said the story at times strains credibility, questioned why Caroline didn’t just leave the house, and noted the multiple coincidences and contrivances and unsatisfying denouement. The contributor concluded: “While this mediocre thriller may provide a fix for some die-hard fans of domestic noir, most readers will be disappointed.” On the other hand, in Rebecca Vnuk’s review in Booklist, she found the twists satisfying, and said the domestic noir will hold appeal to readers who like British thrillers. Vnuk admitted: “As the pace picks up in the second half, it will keep them turning the pages.” Lynnanne Pearson acknowledged in Xpress Reviews the poorly defined character motivations and relationship between Caroline and Francis, however, “there is still enough creepiness here to keep the pages turning.”
In an article on the Dead Good website, Fleet explained that she has been fascinated by the gap between the personas we portray to the outside world and the people we are when we’re alone. She said “Our houses are the places where our private selves come out to play… I think the house swap trend taps into a kind of trusting vulnerability in all of us that can be dangerous.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer reported on the character-challenged story, as Caroline is intensely narcissistic and Francis suffers from depression and pill addiction. Nevertheless, the book is consummately plotted, has a stunning twist, and “Fleet is a writer to watch,” said the reviewer. Despite a letdown of an ending and the remorseless adulterers, a Roaring Bookworm website reviewer stated: “This was an intelligently-written, tense exploration of relationships–and how far we’re willing to go for them. Fleet has a knack for crafting complex, layered, painfully real characters, which makes for a dark, sexy, charged and tense first novel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 1, 2018, Rebecca Vnuk, review of The House Swap, p. 54.
Daily Mail, May 18, 2108, Christena Appleyard, review of The House Swap.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of The House Swap.
Publishers Weekly, March 5, 2018, review of The House Swap, p. 48.
Xpress Reviews, May 18, 2018, Lynnanne Pearson, review of The House Swap.
ONLINE
Dead Good, https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/(May 16, 2018), Rebecca Fleet, “Rebecca Fleet: Why I’d Never Do a House Swap.”
Roaring Bookworm, https://roaringbookworm.wordpress.com/ (March 8, 2018), review of The House Swap.
Years of Reading Selfishly, https://yearsofreadingselfishly.blog/ (May 3, 2018), review of The House Swap.
REBECCA FLEET was educated at Oxford and works in marketing. She lives in London. This is her suspense debut.
Rebecca Fleet: why I’d never do a house swap
By Rebecca Fleet on May 16, 2018
house swap rebecca fleet
We all have our secrets, even if we don’t consciously define them as such. Parts of our lives that we choose to keep hidden away – perhaps because we fear the reactions of others, perhaps because they stir up feelings of guilt, shame or embarrassment in us that we would rather not confront, or perhaps simply because they feel too private and precious to share. I’ve always been fascinated by the gap between the personas we portray to the outside world and the people we are when we’re alone. For some people this gap is little more than a sliver, a series of subtle alterations; for others, it’s a vast chasm. And it’s almost impossible to tell who falls into which category.
It’s for this reason, I think, that I first became intrigued by the idea of house swaps. The concept has become so commonplace these days, popularised by Airbnb and the like, that we rarely stop to think about its significance. Our houses are the places where our private selves come out to play, and whether we realise it or not, they’re littered with clues and signposts as to who we really are. These clues accumulate steadily over years; so much so that if I were asked to remove them, to anonymise my house, I wouldn’t even know where to start.
There is something more than a little sinister about the idea of someone being in your own space when you aren’t there to direct and divert them, to guide them towards the most palatable interpretation of who you are and how you live. And it cuts both ways… in the first chapter of my novel, The House Swap, my protagonist Caroline recalls a television programme she has seen, where a psychic wanders around a haunted house talking about the tragedies ingrained in its walls, the infected heaviness of the air. Caroline’s own experience of living in someone else’s house turns out to be similar, only the ghost of the presence she senses there is very much alive – and rather less than friendly.
Ultimately I think the house swap trend taps into a kind of trusting vulnerability in all of us that can be dangerous. We wouldn’t dream of picking a stranger off the street (or the internet) and sitting them down to tell them all the intimate minutiae of our lives. Yet we’ll open up our houses to them, give them the time and space and solitude to pick over our possessions, form their judgements and do what they want with the knowledge they’ve gained. Of course, most people are pleasant and harmless. But not all of them.
It’s for all these reasons that I’ll be checking into a hotel the next time I go away, and leaving my own door firmly locked. After all, when you leave that key under the plant pot, do you really know who’s picking it up and letting themselves inside?
Rebecca Fleet’s brilliant page-turner The House Swap was pre-empted by Transworld for publication in May 2018 and has sold in 16 territories. The novel combines psychological suspense with domestic drama. When a young couple organises a house swap to have a break away – a first step towards rebuilding their faltering marriage – the wife slowly begins to realise from clues left in the house that the person staying back in their home is someone she used to know and, for reasons that gradually become clear, was very much hoping to forget. Rebecca had two literary novels published by 4th Estate under a different name.
'Rare, creepy' psychological thriller The House Swap to Transworld
Published July 5, 2017 by Katherine Cowdrey
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Transworld is publishing psychological thriller The House Swap, and another as-yet-untitled novel, by Rebecca Fleet.
Frankie Gray, publishing director for commercial fiction at Transworld, pre-empted world English Language rights including audio from Caroline Wood at the Felicity Bryan Associates. It will publish The House Swap in hardback in May 2018.
The book's story begins as a couple, Caroline and Francis, arrive at their new home for the week, a house swap they've organised in a bid to repair their marriage, still reeling from Caroline's affair with a colleague. The house is "stark, pared back and almost sinister in its emptiness", but slowly Caroline begins to uncover signs of life - signs that suggest the person they have swapped with is someone she used to know and had hoped to forget.
Gray said the book lived up to the expectations raised by its premise as "creepy, compelling and suspenseful" and, moreover, pushed the boundaries to evolve the psychological thriller through its exploration of a betrayal and its aftermath.
"How rare and special it is to find a book that excites you with its mere premise, and then lives up to the weight of that expectation in its delivery," said Gray. "The House Swap is one such book. It’s creepy, compelling and suspenseful but it’s much more besides, with raw emotion and believable, complex relationships the like of which I haven’t seen for some time. Rebecca shifts the parameters of the psychological thriller, from the well-trodden ground of doubt and suspicion within a relationship, to the realities of the aftermath of a betrayal if you yourself are the guilty party. We’re so excited to take this original and extraordinary book confidently to market as a satisfying evolution of the genre, and launch a standout new voice with all the focus and dedication she deserves."
Transworld’s Helen Edwards sold US rights to Pam Dorman Books (Penguin Random House) and Canadian rights to Doubleday. Rights have been sold in pre-empts or auctions in Germany (Goldmann), Italy (Longanesi), Spain (Penguin Random House), France (Robert Laffont), Catalan (Penguin Random House). Auctions are ongoing in Denmark and Poland.
Fleet, the book's author, said: "I am absolutely delighted that Transworld will be publishing The House Swap. Right from the start it was evident to me that Frankie, and indeed the whole team, genuinely loved and understood the novel - and I know it couldn't be in better hands. I can't wait to embark on the journey with them."
Rebecca Fleet: (2) The House Swap (mystery, May, Pamela Dorman Books/Viking)
Baihley Gentry
Writer's Digest. 98.5 (July-August 2018): p20+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 F+W Media, Inc.
http://www.writersdigest.com/GeneralMenu/
Full Text:
Things take a turn when Caroline and her husband enter into a holiday house swap with a stranger they met on the internet.
WRITES FROM: London, England. PRE-HOUSE SWAP: Around 10 years ago, I had a couple of literary novels published under a different name. After my first two books I took a hiatus, partly because I had a baby and partly because I wasn't really sure what direction I should be moving in. I did write on and off, and even wrote another couple of [unpublished] novels, but it wasn't until I started on The House Swap that I felt a sense of real purpose again. TIME FRAME: I wrote the first draft in about six months. After finishing the first draft, I put it away for several months because I was unsure anyone would want to buy it. ENTER the AGENT: It was important that I found someone who would genuinely appreciate and understand what I was trying to do with the book. I queried my now-agent, Caroline Wood of Felicity Bryan Associates, after seeing her reading interests online. She read it very quickly and I signed with her within a week, then we spent the next three months editing and polishing the book before she sent it out. WHAT I DID RIGHT: I didn't lose faith that it would happen for me someday, even though sometimes it didn't feel it would. ADVICE FOR WRITERS: Don't sit around waiting for inspiration. If it happens, that's great, but a lot of the time you have to make yourself write even if you don't feel like it--or the book will never get written. NEXT UP: I'm working on my next book, a psychological thriller.
Baihley Gentry is the associate editor of Writer's Digest.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gentry, Baihley. "Rebecca Fleet: (2) The House Swap (mystery, May, Pamela Dorman Books/Viking)." Writer's Digest, July-Aug. 2018, p. 20+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A542966442/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f82e8d83. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A542966442
Fleet, Rebecca: THE HOUSE SWAP
Kirkus Reviews. (Mar. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Fleet, Rebecca THE HOUSE SWAP Pamela Dorman/Viking (Adult Fiction) $26.00 5, 22 ISBN: 978-0-525-55883-5
Marital infidelity, drug addiction, house swapping, stalking, and a surprise ending add up to a psychologically suspenseful story in British novelist Fleet's U.S. debut.
When Caroline and Francis set out from their home in Leeds, they're already struggling to repair their troubled 15-year marriage. Their destination is a house in Chiswick, a London suburb, where they're doing a one-week house swap. As they settle into the sparsely furnished loaner house, Caroline finds pink roses and other things that remind her of a passionate extramarital affair she had two years earlier with Carl, a co-worker eight years her junior. Caroline soon suspects that her house-swap partner, S. Kennedy, is actually Carl and that her peculiar and intrusive Chiswick neighbor Amber may be a co-conspirator. Two timelines, stretching from 2012 to 2015, intersect to reveal why Carl ended the affair with Caroline, who S. Kennedy really is, and why S. Kennedy has gone to such extreme lengths to torment Caroline with reminders of Carl. The premise stretches believability, and why Caroline doesn't flee the Chiswick house is never adequately explained. Nor is it clear why she remains married to a man she dislikes or why he sticks it out with her when he knows she's guilty of more than infidelity. The unmasking of S. Kennedy spins the plot off on a tangent, multiple coincidences and contrivances undercut the story's credibility, and the denouement is unsatisfying as Caroline gets handed easy ways out of her problems. The story has some creepy and subtle moments, but their effect is diluted by an uneven pace, one-dimensional characters (all of whom are unhappy), and a gratuitous threat to Caroline and Francis' 4-year-old son.
While this mediocre thriller may provide a fix for some die-hard fans of domestic noir, most readers will be disappointed.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Fleet, Rebecca: THE HOUSE SWAP." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650891/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=78fe4177. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650891
The House Swap
Rebecca Vnuk
Booklist. 114.15 (Apr. 1, 2018): p54.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The House Swap. By Rebecca Fleet. May 2018. 320p. Viking/Pamela Dorman, $26 (9780525558835); paper, $28 (9780525631903); e-book, $12.99 (9780525558842).
Caroline and her husband, Francis, have been through a rough patch, so Caroline decides to get them out of Leeds and into London, via a house-swapping site. She has never met the owner of the London home, but it's only for a week, so what can possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit. The real reason Caroline wants a change of pace is because she's still bogged down by memories of an affair she had with a coworker, memories that come back with a startling swiftness as the days go by in the vacation home. The narrative moves from the past to the present and from character to character. As mysterious coincidences continue, and she and Francis keep fighting, Caroline is forced to reckon with her past before it rips apart the present. Fleet's debut domestic noir will hold a certain appeal to readers who love British thrillers, and, as the pace picks up in the second half, it will keep them turning the pages as the satisfying twists unfold.--Rebecca Vnuk
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Vnuk, Rebecca. "The House Swap." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2018, p. 54. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534956880/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=49f8c883. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534956880
The House Swap
Publishers Weekly. 265.10 (Mar. 5, 2018): p48.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The House Swap
Rebecca Fleet. Viking/Dorman, $26 (320p)
ISBN 978-0-525-55883-5
British author Fleet makes her U.S. debut with a consummately plotted but character-challenged domestic noir. Working mom Caroline, eager to repair her marriage after she ends an affair, hopes that a low-stress, child-free week away with husband Francis will prove therapeutic. When she accepts an online invitation to exchange their flat in center-city Leeds for a house in suburban London, it's clear from the start that Caroline has unwittingly let a malevolent presence into her home. It doesn't take long in the London-area house for her to come across subtle clues with intense personal meaning--such as an open bottle of the same aftershave that her ex-lover, Carl, wore hidden behind the bedroom headboard--and to suspect she has stumbled into an elaborate game staged by someone who knows her intimately. The final pages include a stunning twist, but some readers may not stick around for the fireworks, since Caroline and Francis make for difficult company--she's massively narcissistic, and he's still fighting the depression and pill addiction that left him near catatonic around the time of the affair. Still, Fleet is a writer to watch. Agent: Caroline Wood, Felicity Bryan Assoc. (U.K.). (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The House Swap." Publishers Weekly, 5 Mar. 2018, p. 48. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530430259/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8c6678c9. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530430259
Fleet, Rebecca. The House Swap
Lynnanne Pearson
Xpress Reviews. (May 18, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Fleet, Rebecca. The House Swap. Pamela Dorman: Viking. May 2018. 304p. ISBN 9780525558835. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780525558842. F
[DEBUT] In the hopes of fixing their troubled marriage, Caroline and Francis try a house swap. Francis is still recovering from crippling depression and a pill addiction. Caroline, having sought comfort in the arms of her coworker Carl, is now newly committed to her spouse. Because things are still tense, they decide a week away from their son and their home will help. Right away, Caroline senses that something is wrong with the swap. What was supposed to be a cozy suburban London townhouse is mostly empty of personal effects. The items that are there remind Caroline of her affair with Carl, and she starts to worry that something more than a mere house swap is happening. As Caroline tries to assemble the pieces of this mystery, the narrative flashes back to her time with Carl two years previously. Readers slowly realize the reason that the house and the affair still haunt her.
Verdict This debut psychological family drama is perfect for fans of domestic thrillers who do not mind a slower pace. Although slightly weakened by the poorly defined character motivations and the relationship between Caroline and Francis, there is still enough creepiness here to keep the pages turning.--Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pearson, Lynnanne. "Fleet, Rebecca. The House Swap." Xpress Reviews, 18 May 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540330852/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b8c7c87e. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540330852
PSYCHO THRILLERS. By: CHRISTENA APPLEYARD, Daily Mail, 03077578, 5/18/2018
THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet (Doubleday €15.65) THIS story of an obsessive love affair isn't quite as gripping as Apple Tree Yard — but it comes close. Thirtysomething Caroline leaves her toddler son with her mother and swaps her house in Leeds for a flat in Chiswick, London, for a week's holiday, in a bid to mend her marriage.
She then discovers that the person she has swapped with somehow knows the secrets of a tumultuous affair Caroline had two years ago. The swapper sets about creepily destroying particular items in Caroline's house and sends her menacing clues.
The story is told in three voices: her husband Francis, the mysterious swapper and Caroline. But it is the latter, as the conflicted mother and lover, that is the most compelling. In this debut, Fleet shows skill in timing the gradual reveal of Caroline's past. But her real talent is the ability to transmit the sheer exhilaration and naked danger of obsessive love.
The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet
May 3, 2018
IMG_0789.jpg
Rebecca Fleet: The House Swap
Published By: Doubleday 3rd May 2018
Buy It : here
What The Blurb Says:
‘No one lives this way unless they want to hide something.’
When Caroline and Francis receive an offer to house swap, they jump at the chance for a week away from home. After the difficulties of the past few years, they’ve worked hard to rebuild their marriage for their son’s sake; now they want to reconnect as a couple.
On arrival, they find a house that is stark and sinister in its emptiness – it’s hard to imagine what kind of person lives here. Then, gradually, Caroline begins to uncover some signs of life – signs of her life. The flowers in the bathroom or the music in the CD player might seem innocent to her husband but to her they are anything but. It seems the person they have swapped with is someone she used to know; someone she’s desperate to leave in her past.
But that person is now in her home – and they want to make sure she’ll never forget . . .
What I Say:
The House Swap is a novel that I had heard a lot about – Psychological thrillers are everywhere at the moment, each with a unique twist or new take on a genre that is highly popular and always looking for the next new angle or theme.
I have to admit that when I was sent a copy, I did have some preconceived notions about what I would be reading. I also have to say that I wasn’t sure how there was anything different to be said, and was ready to be underwhelmed.
I was absolutely wrong!
The House Swap tells the story of Caroline and Francis, who swap their flat in Leeds for holiday in a house in Chiswick. They are not at a good place in their marriage, Caroline has had an affair with a work colleague, and Francis has been battling an addiction. With Caroline’s mother offering to look after their son, Eddie, the house swap offers them the chance to finally spend some time alone, to work on their marriage.
So far, so normal..until they open the door. The house is exactly that – not a home, but a sparsely furnished house, with little signs of someone living there day to day. The sense of unease that Caroline instinctively feels is played out brilliantly in the understated and calm narrative.
The tension is subtly increased through the novel, and the cleverness of Rebecca’s writing is that you are completely disorientated from the start. Like Caroline and Francis, you know that things aren’t quite right, but also things are not so obviously wrong that you can’t put your finger on it…and that is one of the many reasons why I really enjoyed this story.
As the novel progresses, we go backwards and forwards in time to understand how Caroline and Francis ended up at this fractured point in their marriage. We learn how the choices they made and the secrets they hid from each other means that they are now at a critical point in their relationship, where neither completely trusts the other. I thought that this was also a clever plot device, because I have to admit, I wondered if one of the couple was attempting to get revenge on the other – but I was very wrong..!
With this sense of estrangement, the house now starts to reveal its own secrets; music that means something to Caroline is heard, a bouquet of familiar flowers unsettles her.
From this point on, Caroline and Francis’ world quickly starts to unravel, the couple are increasingly at war with each other, every thought and word between them is examined and evaluated, gestures and reactions are interpreted and misconstrued. As they attempt to work through their issues, any chance of tenderness is destroyed as Caroline realises that the woman across the road she befriends is living with her ex-lover, Carl.
Coupled with this awful coincidence, we are also party to the thoughts and actions of the person who has swapped houses with Caroline and Francis. The truly staggering ease with which that person exacts their revenge is plausible, because they do it in a quiet and controlled way that doesn’t ever seem too extreme or unrealistic. They tap into the things they know will cause the most damage for the couple, such as hijacking their social media, and cutting up family photographs to physically remove Caroline from their gaze. They even attempt to strike up a friendship with Caroline’s mother and son to get closer to Caroline and Francis- the most possibly chilling and calculated move possible, to destroy the most precious thing they have.
However, the difficulty in reviewing a brilliant novel like The House Swap, is that to tell you too much will spoil it for you. Do you need to read this novel? Yes, absolutely! Will you guess who has moved into Caroline and Francis’ flat and is their tormentor? Absolutely Not! I genuinely had no clue, and for me, that it the brilliance of The House Swap and what I want from a novel. I don’t want it to be safe, or for me to work out in the first few chapters what has happened, I want to be thinking about it afterwards too.
As the novel races towards its conclusion, Francis finally meets the person who has made it their lifelong mission to destroy him and Caroline. For me, this was one of the most poignant scenes in the novel. Why? Because you finally understand why this has all happened – and interestingly, that I didn’t hate the person for doing it. It also makes you realise that all actions have consequences, and the far reaching effects of them go way beyond what we can often comprehend at the time.
If you are looking for a very different type of psychological thriller, a novel which cleverly plays with the genre and portrays characters who are flawed, but who are all looking for a sense of peace and resolution, then this is the novel for you. I loved The House Swap, and hope that you do too.
I was given a proof copy of The House Swap, in exchange for an honest review of the book.
Thank you to @PoppyStimpson at Transworld Books for my proof copy and a chance to take part in the brilliant book blog tour.
Review: The House Swap, by Rebecca Fleet
March 8, 2018Vicky
Who knew a holiday could be so stressful? In Rebecca Fleet’s debut, we get secret affairs, past transgressions, drug addiction, and a failing marriage all wrapped up in one story- plus a few twists that you might not see coming.
At its heart, this story is about relationships: how hard should we work to save the ones we have, and what happens when you start to drift apart? What happens if you find somebody else- and what effect does it have on both of you? In short, it’s angst personified, as we delve into the relationship of Caroline and Francis, a couple who decide on a house-swap holiday to work on their relationship- but quickly realise something more sinister is going on.
Fleet takes us back into their past in alternating chapters to explore the dark undertones that we see in the present. A few years ago, Francis was depressed and addicted to narcotics, whilst Caroline sought solace in the arms of another man, whom she still secretly pines for. Now, when mysterious ‘messages’ from her past start showing up in their holiday house, she has to question- who is it whose house she’s in, and why are they tormenting her?
.I loved the interludes that we had with the intruder in Caro’s house, giving us brief snapshots of what they were up to, and the chaos that they were sowing, even though it was obvious from the start (for me at least) that it wasn’t Carl, Caro’s ex-lover and perhaps the blatant choice. Fleet foregoes tension at the start in favour of exploring the relationship between Caro and Francis instead, creating a complex, detailed and above all realistic past that influences and underpins everything they do in the present. It’s moving, relatable (kind of) and paints them both as flawed humans trying desperately to reconnect. And as the tension slowly builds, that relationship starts to warp and buckle under the strain.
The place where the book fell down for me, slightly, was the ending. Though the tension builds slowly, the grand reveal wasn’t ever as big, as plot-twisty, or as well-signposted as I’d hoped it would be. There was no ‘ah!’ moment, where everything fell into place: instead, barring a brief crescendo, it was just sad (can’t say why!). I also found Caro’s relationship with Carl to make uncomfortable reading. There was absolutely no remorse from either of them about what they were doing- indeed, in the flashbacks, Caro revels in it- and that, combined with writing erotically charged enough to make me squirm, hammered it home: Caro is not a very likeable character. It just made me feel sorry for Francis, as Caro obviously can’t move on from her past for the vast majority of the novel.
Overall, though, this was an intelligently-written, tense exploration of relationships- and how far we’re willing to go for them. Fleet has a knack for crafting complex, layered, painfully real characters, which makes for a dark, sexy, charged and tense first novel: more please!