Review: House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 400 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 14 2015)
• Sold by: Random House Canada, Incorp.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00N6PENN6

Book Description

Akin to Jennifer McMahon’s The Winter People and Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box, House of Echoes is a debut thriller populated by achingly sympathetic characters, charged with psychological suspense, and rich with a small town’s strange history.

A young New York City couple with a boy and a baby in tow, Ben and Caroline Tierney had it all…until Ben’s second novel missed the mark, Caroline lost her lucrative banking job, and something went wrong with 8-year-old Charlie. When Ben inherits land way upstate from his grandmother, the two of them began to believe in second chances. But upon arriving in Swannhaven, a town that seems to have been forgotten by time, they’re beset by strange sights and disconcerting developments…and they begin to realize they might have made their worst mistake yet. But what dark secret is buried in this odd place? And will Ben and Caroline figure it out soon enough to save their young family?

 “Brendan Duffy's House of Echoes is one of those wonderful stories that come along only once in a while, a beautifully nuanced and riveting family drama set within a terrifying landscape that has you turning pages long past bed time. But keep the light burning and read to the end. That's when you realize you've been in the hands of a very clever storyteller, and that what you thought you'd been reading was all along something else.”—Carla Buckley, author of The Deepest Secret

About the Author

 http://www.brendanduffybooks.com/

 Brendan Duffy is an editor. He lives in New York, where he is at work on his second novel.


My Review

House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy is a well written tale that will keep the reader riveted to its pages. What a fabulous thriller. I could not go to sleep last night until I had finished it.

House of Echoes is a brilliant thriller. I was so wrapped up in the main characters with all of their flaws and idiosyncrasies that I missed a few clues about the true depth of terror in the novel. 

Ben and Caroline along with their two young sons move to a small town in upstate New York. Ben's family were original settlers in the area but all of his family had moved on from the area. Caroline's banking career was stalled due to the economic slowdown and they were looking for a change. Purchasing a huge home to turn into an inn was an incredibly ambitious project that wore on both of them.  Caroline's bipolar condition did not help with the situation.

The dark woods surrounding them held hidden terrors and provided a menacing tone. What was in the woods? And was it the woods that they should be wary of?

Fabulous thriller from a new-to-me author. I loved Houses of Echoes. I know you will too!