Great then became tedious . ( )

En lite udda thriller. Börjar riktigt bra. Faller till ointresse men bygger sedan upp en riktigt bra intrig. Helt ok. ( )

Cecelia Wilborg has a nice life. She lives in Sandefjord, Norway with her husband and two daughters. They have an almost idyllic life....enough money, a nice house, good school for her girls...everything is carefully manicured and perfect. Until....

One night after her daughter's swim lesson is done, Cecilia is asked to give a boy a ride home. Nobody ever came to pick up Tobias. The 8-year old has been patiently waiting.....but he has seemingly been forgotten. When Cecilia arrives at the address Tobias gives as his home, she finds an empty house. Not only is nobody there, but it appears the house has been vacant for some time. Little does Cecelia realize at the time that this one little thing -- giving a forgotten boy a ride home from the pool -- will bring all her secrets and lies into the light. Her carefully manicured life isn't as perfect as she thinks it is.

I found Cecilia to be a completely toxic person. She thinks of herself first.....and is willing to do almost anything to keep her life and what she has intact. She doesn't think of the feelings, emotions or needs of others -- not even her own children or her husband. She's just completely unlikable. Watching her life unravel and her make horrible decisions to try and stop it from happening was disturbing and dark. Secrets and lies just have a way of coming home to roost. A person can only hide who they really are on the inside for so long.....

This story kept my attention from start to finish. As much as I really disliked Cecilia, I wanted to know what happened! The plot is disturbing, but engaging. Very well written!

I will definitely be looking for more by this author! Great read!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

3.5 stars.

The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl is a dark, twisty-turny Scandinavian mystery.

On the surface, Cecilia Wilborg appears to have it all. Her husband, Johan, is a wealthy banker, and they have two daughters, Nicoline and Hermine. Cecilia works part time as an interior designer and she has a cadre of friends whom she meets with on a regular basis. However, Cecilia's perfect life is only surface deep and she is harboring quite a few secrets. She relies on a cocktail of prescription and illegal drugs and alcohol to make it through the day and she is desperately afraid of allowing anyone to see the cracks beneath her perfect facade. Cecilia is the novel's primary narrator and her inner thoughts reveal the depths of her self-absorption, manipulative behavior and narcissistic (or perhaps sociopathic) tendencies. Her world begins to crumble when young Tobias enters her life and the shaky foundation of her lies, deceit and secrets inch closer and closer to completely collapsing. After Cecilia's attempts to reunite Tobias with his mother are unsuccessful, the Wilborg family becomes his temporary foster family. The local police search for his mother culminates in a shocking discovery but their investigation soon comes to a standstill.

The chapters from Tobias' perspective are particularly heartrending and his life with drug addicted Annika "Anni" Lucasso and Krysz Mazur is a blur of substance abuse, frequent moves and violence. Anni's back-story is revealed through a series of diary entries which detail her life-long battle with addiction, prostitution and an unhealthy relationship with Krysz. Since her life is so very different from Cecilia's, there is quite a bit of suspense surrounding how their lives intersect. As Cecilia's carefully fabricated deception regarding her past begins to converge on her life in the present, she is on a downward spiral that is virtually unstoppable. A stunning revelation provides a certain amount of clarity but the truth is not fully exposed until the novel's conclusion.

Although the premise of The Boy at the Door is intriguing and quite clever, the pacing of the novel is excruciatingly slow until about the halfway point. Cecilia is a particularly unpleasant protagonist and it is nearly impossible to feel much empathy for her plight. Anni is moderately more sympathetic than Cecilia but readers will have a difficult time understanding her choices. Tobias is a wonderful little boy whose life is completely at the whim of those around him. Alex Dahl does a fantastic job keeping readers guessing exactly how everything will work out for Cecilia, Tobias and her family until the novel's unexpectedly satisfying and surprising conclusion. ( )

Cecilia Wilborg has everything a woman could want. She's married to a handsome, caring man, has two bright, wonderful daughters, and lives in the posh Norwegian suburbs. She's blessed with the perfect life. Her life begins to unravel when she's asked to drive a young child home from the pool after his mother fails to pick him up. When she arrives at the address given, she finds the house is abandoned and there's no sign of his parents. Cecilia's story proves that secrets hide behind the closed doors of even the wealthiest homes and those secrets always come out.

At first glance, and even after some in-depth reading, Cecilia comes across as a bitch. And not even one of those ladies who you hate, but can find some secret, soft hearted inner core that you can respect. She's vicious, manipulative, self-centered, and a horrible mother. But she's also fascinating. I simply couldn't put this book down and ended up reading it in almost one sitting. The self-induced drama that she inflicts on herself and others is a train wreck I just couldn't look away from. The cold, dark Norwegian setting is fantastic and lent the book an eerie quality. The characters were very detailed and felt real. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to more by this author.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book which I received in exchange for an honest review. ( )