Homewrecker by J. M. Dalgliesh

​When a television presenter's daughter starts to show signs of being disaffected, the answer is to employ a home-based tutor. But this teacher integrates into the family too well and the insecure presenter believes that she wants to steal her life.

Following a very brutal and gruesome prologue, the novel gets off to a slow start demonstrating the shallow world this family lives in, with cliques and an obsession with appearances. Easy to skip the pages of description of clothes and gazing into the mirror - not that I did of course,  but I really wanted to. Around the halfway mark another narrator joins in and then the option arises that perhaps the petty grievances are not so outlandish after all.

The entire premise of Homewrecker relies on a private, claustrophobic domestic setting. It tracks a young, wealthy family (including an overworked, high-profile celebrity mother and a successful father) living in a luxurious, grand country-style family home. The plot follows a sinister, calculating live-in private tutor who infiltrates this private estate to deliberately manipulate the family from within, subverting the peaceful, cosy countryside lifestyle. 

This is an easy read for the most part, written in the first person and despite being a tad frivolous at times, it is totally believable. There is a section in the conclusion that is a little over the top, but it makes a tense psychological thriller. Furthermore, situations such as this do exist in real life. A story about power and control as well as resilience.​

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Published by Bookouture on 8 August 2024.
​Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.

​Pastoral Ideal: Villages and Estates