The House of Whispers by Anna Kent makes for a gripping summer read

If you’re looking for a gripping summer read, you need go no further than this nail-biting new release.

Written in the first person, the novel tells the story of talented artist Grace, who has rebuilt her life after turbulent teen years and is living in a lovingly restored town house with her husband Rohan.

Grace has ‘welcomed’ former university best friend Abi back into her life and into her home while Rohan is working away in New York, years after her suffocating, toxic friendship culminated in the two falling out bitterly and spectacularly.

As the two women rekindle this unhealthy, dark friendship, author Anna Kent intersperses the tight, absorbing chapters with excerpts from interviews with Rohan, which clearly take place after the events of the book have unfolded.

Is he being interviewed by a police officer, by a doctor? We don’t know... but something clearly went very wrong and these interludes all add to the suspense and intrigue of this wonderful book.

Meanwhile, Grace is painting for a forthcoming exhibition. While Abi unwittingly serves as a muse for her best works yet, the overall effect she has on her friend is quite different as Grace’s world and the perfect life she has built with Rohan starts to fall apart.

As she drowns deeper and deeper into the depths of Abi’s unpleasant spell, the book races into two delicious, unexpected twists, the first catching me totally unawares, the possibility of the second only dawning on me as it was about to be revealed.

Jeremy Ransome