Talk about the neighbours from hell! This novel explores how utterly helpless the law and the community are when a Bad Egg inherits a house in a quiet, gentrified London street and proceeds to rip it apart. Everyone in the street loses their sense of safety, security and serenity. Throw in the nasty, unspoken element of class (“those people”) and a detrimental effect on the value of nearby houses and you’ve got sufficient tinder for a mighty metaphorical fire. How far will the neighbours go to protect their sense of security and their biggest asset? Which of them will take the most radical step?
In this and the excellent Our House, Louise Candlish specialises in taking a jackhammer to the foundations of the human psyche by threatening her characters’ homes. In doing so she reveals the insecure foundations of who they are; the way in which those homes are so inherently connected to the owners’ sense of self. And most of us, if we’re honest, can relate to that.
Well played Candlish, and well written.
