Fiona (Fi) Lawson discovers strangers moving into her home. Her estranged husband and her sons are nowhere to be seen. This is only the beginning of the nightmare that will turn her life upside down. Fiona “Fi” Lawson loves her house in the posh Alder Rise neighborhood almost as much as she loves her picture-perfect family: husband Bram and rambunctious sons, Harry and Leo. As hard as the author tries for suspense and compassion with Fi, she comes up empty with this character. Her almost stubborn cluelessness about the state of her marriage...even though it is well known that Bram is a serial adulterer, among other things. Also her insistence on being a victim, she even goes so far as to go on a podcast called "The Victim". It makes her a sour protagonist at best. When Fi catches Bram having sex with someone else in the children’s garden playhouse, she throws him out but decides to try a custody arrangement known as a "bird’s nest". This allows the children to stay in the family home and the parents alternate living there as well as at a rented apartment. The setup seems great on paper, but it doesn’t take into account the depths of Bram’s lies, or the yearlong driving ban he’s hidden from Fi, which soon becomes the least of his concerns. The lengths he goes to save himself is unbelievable. The chapters are confusingly split into sections from Fi’s podcast segment, a Word document that’s allegedly Bram’s suicide note, and perspectives from both spouses, making it’s difficult to keep a firm grip on the timeline and to really care as Bram enters into an unnecessarily complicated blackmail scheme. Fi remains annoyingly oblivious to everything even when Bram disappears. I also had a bit of trouble believing that he sold the Alder Rise house without her knowledge. Wasn't her name on the deed? I'll give the story a maybe it could happen on that as things may be done differently in England. For a novel concerned with connections and trust, this one fails to connect on either level, The characters are so wrapped up in their own problems that the word or the meaning of “family” means nothing to them. ( )

This novel has so many twists and turns, you can't read it without ending up trusting no one. It begins when Fi returns home to find someone else is moving in to their south London home. Told through a podcast, a written testimony and straightforward narrative the reader finds out how Fi's husband, Bram, got the family into this situation. But in a plot where nothing is straighforward, the reader encounters unexpected twists even on the last page. Interesting and fun, even though many of the characters are unlikeable and a crime that seems inevitable with such silly house prices. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an early copy of this book. What a great plot with plenty of twists! Told from both Fi and Bram's POV, these separated spouses are cleverly written, especially Bram's part. He's a bad boy you can't help but root for, or at least feel sorry for when things go so horribly wrong for him.
The book was a bit long but well written. It has an unusual plot concept and surprises that you won't see coming, or at least I didn't! ( )

This is a page turner of a book, you really want to find out the outcome and why it happened. I gave it 4 stars as I felt that one I think that Bram could have extricated himself from the situation and also I saw one of the reveals a mile off. But really enjoyed my six days reading this book. ( )

Lots of twists. ( )