The Safe Place
A Novel
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4.0 • 148 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Superbly tense and oozing with atmosphere, Anna Downes's debut, The Safe Place, is the perfect summer suspense, with the modern gothic feel of Ruth Ware and the morally complex family dynamics of Lisa Jewell.
Welcome to paradise...will you ever be able to leave?
Emily is a mess.
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.
Emily is desperate.
Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.
Emily is perfect.
Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Almost overnight, struggling London actor Emily Proudman, the protagonist of former actor Downes's atmospheric, fitfully gripping debut, goes from being fired from the office temp job that's barely paying her bills to being hired by the same boss, no less, dashing investment firm CEO Scott Denny for a gig as housekeeper/personal assistant for his reclusive wife, Nina, and their six-year-old daughter, Aurelia, at the family's estate, Querencia, in the French countryside. At Querencia, Emily is initially bewitched by both the unimaginably lush estate and Nina, who's fiercely devoted to a child whose issues seem to go well beyond a supposed extreme sensitivity to sunlight. But as wine-soaked summer weeks pass with Nina remaining as emotionally tightly defended as the gated grounds, the girl either mute or howling during one of her tantrums, and no sign of Scott, even someone as naive as Emily suspects there's something rotten in paradise. At her peril, she starts to snoop. Though plenty of surprises await the reader, Aurelia's palpable suffering casts something of a pall over this mix of romantic escapism and gothic menace. Ruth Ware fans may want to check this one out. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
Customer Reviews
Loved it
I actually didn’t want to stop reading which is rare for me! Loved this book
Lackluster ending
Great book until the end. Completely lackluster. Shame.
Solid Thriller
I really enjoyed reading this book. The story unfolds at a great pace keeping you guessing, but leaving enough breadcrumbs to satisfy you. It is also revealed in a way that makes sense and feels natural. It all flows really well.
The characters are interesting and the setting is the perfect summer getaway we are all missing right now. Even after everything that happens in the novel, I would still run away to this location in a heartbeat.
I really loved the main character Emily. From the beginning it’s clear that she does not always make the best life choices, but she is trying to make a better life for herself and I found her to be really endearing.
There are definitely a few loose ends that I wish had been tied up by the end of the book, but nothing that’s going to keep me up at night. The book was a quick but satisfying read.