House Guest

The perfect family. The perfect chance. The perfect lie.
A stunning novel about motherhood and betrayal, for readers who love Sarah Vaughan and Louise Candlish.
‘Deliciously dark and totally twisted’ ERIN KELLY
‘Very acute on class, aspiration, women and status’ SARAH PERRY, author of THE ESSEX SERPENT
Kate trusts Della, and Della trusts Kate.
Their downfall is each other.
When Kate moves to London after the disappearance of her sister, she’s in need of a friend. A chance meeting leads Kate to Della, a life coach who runs support groups for young women, dubbed by Kate as ‘the Janes.’
Della takes a special interest in Kate, and Kate soon finds herself entangled in Della’s life – her house, her family, and her husband. It’s only when she realises that she’s in too deep that Della’s veneer begins to crumble, and the warnings from ‘the Janes’ begin to come true.
Why is Della so keen to keep Kate by her side? What does Kate have that Della might want? And what really lies beneath the surface of their friendship?
A twisty psychological thriller for fans of Louise Candlish and Harriet Tyce.
‘This twisty thriller is jam-packed with tense moments and a growing sense of unease’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘Dark, smart and classy’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER
‘Northedge is good at portraying the distinction between the real insecurities of some young women and the minor problems of the privileged type’ DAILY MAIL
‘Charlotte Northedge turns the psychological thumbscrews with relish’ THE TIMES
‘Full of twists, The House Guest spirals towards its dark conclusion, wrong footing the increasingly uneasy reader at every turn.’ THE OBSERVER

Reviews

‘This twisty thriller is jam-packed with tense moments and a growing sense of unease’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘Northedge is good at portraying the distinction between the real insecurities of some young women and the minor problems of the privileged type’ DAILY MAIL
‘Charlotte Northedge turns the psychological thumbscrews with relish’ THE TIMES
‘Full of twists, The House Guest spirals towards its dark conclusion, wrong footing the increasingly uneasy reader at every turn.’ THE OBSERVER
‘The tension slowly builds up to a heart-racing end.’ WOMAN’S OWN
‘Northedge demonstrates a keen grasp of psychology, and her characters are drawn with suitable vividness, but the real achievement here is the slow-burning tension, building at an adroitly maintained pace – a pace, moreover, which is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock in his vintage years’ BARRY FORSHAW, CRIMETIME
‘This is ace. Very acute on class, aspiration, women and status and all those agonising negotiations and anxieties’ SARAH PERRY, author of THE ESSEX SERPENT
'The House Guest is that delicious kind of novel, a slow-burn thriller that carefully draws the reader in, catches fire in the middle and burns with an intensity until the end' FIONA CUMMINS
‘A dark and intriguing debut that simmers with tension and unease’ LUCY CLARKE
‘Dark, smart and classy – I was totally gripped’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER
‘A deliciously dark and totally twisted look at the lengths some people will go to project a perfect life’ ERIN KELLY
‘Compelling, dark and twisted!’ KAREN HAMILTON
‘A dark and addictive thriller with compelling characters and an original story exploring motherhood, obsession and lies’ JENNY QUINTANA
‘An electrifying debut’ ROBIN MORGAN-BENTLEY
‘Believable and chilling’ ROZ WATKINS
‘Unsettling’ LOUISE JENSEN
‘Complex and gripping, the darkest revenge-noir I’ve read since Gone Girl’ POLLY SAMSON