The Vacancy in Room 10
A Psychological Crime Thriller
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The Most Anticipated 2024 Book Releases by Nerd Daily
Most Anticipated Crime Fiction Novels of 2024 by Novel Suspects
"[An] entertaining thriller [that] maintain[s] tension and intrigue through to the satisfying end. The author’s fans will devour this.” —Publishers Weekly
The Paris Apartment meets The Wrong Family in this thrilling tale of crime, passion and murder set in a run-down apartment complex packed with shady characters willing to go to deadly lengths to keep their darkest secrets from the stranger in their midst.
When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all?
But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A widow uncovers dangerous secrets at a seedy apartment complex in this gripping and suspenseful thriller. After unexpectedly losing her husband, Henry, Anna searches for answers at the threadbare Sycamores, where he had used an inexpensive apartment as his painting studio. As Anna closes in on the truth, she risks unearthing other deadly skeletons hidden inside the rat-infested closets. Edgar Award–nominated author Seraphina Nova Glass twists the screws as suspicions run high among the eccentric—and sometimes unsavoury—tenants at the Sycamores, not to mention the complex’s cagey manager, Cass. We especially enjoyed the friendships between the “pool girls” (Rosa, Crystal, and Jackie), as well as eager young handyman-in-training Frank. Plus, the nail-biting final twist is one of the most satisfying surprises we’ve read in ages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two women face violent relationship troubles at a seedy apartment complex in this entertaining thriller from Glass (The Vanishing Hour). Struggling New Mexico reporter Anna Hartley receives a frantic call from her husband, Henry, who confesses to "ruin everything" and killing someone. Then she hears a bang at the other end of the line, and Henry drops dead; when authorities recover his body from the Rio Grande, they rule his death a suicide. Anna responds by moving into the Sycamores, the dilapidated apartment complex where Henry rented an art studio, and trying to decode his final moments. She quickly becomes entangled in the Sycamores' many personal dramas, and before long, begins receiving threatening messages urging her to stop her investigation. Might one of the Sycamores' residents be responsible for Henry's death? Meanwhile, Sycamores property manager Cassidy Abbott flounders to get back on her feet after the end of a bad relationship, and begins blackmailing unfaithful or violent men for personal catharsis. Glass paints on a broad canvas, working with perhaps too many characters and subplots, but she still manages to maintain tension and intrigue through to the satisfying end. The author's fans will devour this.
