The Stranger in my House

Grateful for this review from https://www.lovereading.co.uk/

“This gripping story of harrowing behind-closed-doors coercion has tremendous emotional pull.”

LoveReading Says

Domestic thriller fiction at its most heart-wrenching, Judith Barrow’s The Stranger in My House is also utterly un-put-down-able — readers will be desperate for a family broken by cruel coercive control to be reunited.

The novel opens in 1967 when twins Charlie and Chloe are introduced to their “new mummy” Lynne while they’re still bereft at losing their mother to cancer. Early on, Lynne’s behaviour causes alarms bells to ring for the twins — and readers — which only adds to the mounting tension and fear of where things are going, with their father, Graham, vulnerable to emotional manipulation, rendered powerless to do anything to stop his life from careering out of control, which it does at alarming speed.

Before Graham can catch his breath, he’s lost everything, as have his children, who are separated from their father and each other, while Lynne and her bully of a son continue their campaign of cruelty.

Years later, the twins are living separate lives in different parts of the country, both scarred but their hearts lifted by kind souls. And then comes a race-against-time to find each other and save their dad.

Though weighty and harrowing in subject, The Stranger in My House is grippingly easy-to-read in delivery, which makes it a powerful page-turner that will have fans of family drama thrillers reading long after they’d planned to turn out the lights.

Joanne Owen

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Primary Genre	Crime and Mystery
Recommendations:	Books of the Month

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Honno’s Story

Honno is an independent co-operative press run by women and committed to bringing you the best in Welsh women’s writing.

It was established in 1986 by a determined group of volunteers who wanted to increase the opportunities for Welsh women in publishing and bring Welsh women’s literature to a wider public. They asked the people of Wales to show their support for the new enterprise by becoming shareholders in the cooperative and in the first six months more than 400 people bought shares. Honno continues to be supported by hundreds of individual shareholders who believe in its work.

True to its roots the press still only publishes work by women of Wales. Most of Honno’s titles are novels, autobiographies and short story anthologies in English as well as Classics in both Welsh and English. We have in the past also published poetry, children’s and teenage titles and books in both Welsh and English.

Over the years the Press and its titles have been awarded many prizes.

It is guided by the Honno Committee of volunteers who set the strategic direction of the Press, decide the publishing programme and manage the office and staff. The Honno office is located in the mid-Wales coastal town of Aberystwyth.

Honno receives financial support from the Books Council for Wales.

Many people have asked me what was the inspiration for The Memory and my answer is always – memories: memories of being a carer for two of my aunts who lived with us, memories of losing a friend in my childhood; a friend who, although at the time I didn’t realise, was a Downs’ Syndrome child. But why I started to write the story; a story so different from my other four books, I can’t remember. Because it was something I’d begun years ago and was based around the journal I’d kept during that decade of looking after my relatives.

But what did begin to evolve when I settled down to writing The Memory was the realisation of why I’d been so reluctant to delve too far into my memories. The isolation, the loneliness, that Irene Hargreaves, the protagonist, endures; despite being married to Sam, her loving husband, dragged up my own feelings of being alone so much as a child. That awareness of always being on the outside; looking in on other families, relationships and friendships had followed me; had hidden deep inside my subconscious. And now, as content with my life as I am, it unsettled me.

Many people, and as an occasional creative writing tutor I’m one, say that writing is cathartic. Working through Irene’s memories; especially that one memory that has ruled her life, made me acknowledge my own. And that’s fine. I always say to my students, if you don’t feel the emotions as you write, then neither will your reader.

In The Memory I’m hoping the reader will sense the poignant, sad times with Irene, but will also rejoice with her in the happier memories.

Over the last few years I’ve moved from writing the historical family sagas of Haworth trilogy, that moves through the decades from 1914 – 1968, and The Heartstone, set during WW1, to contemporary fiction such as The Memory (which was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2021 The Rhys Davies Trust Award) and domestic thrillers, such as Sisters.

My next book, due to be published in November 2024 is The Stranger in My House:

“A gripping ‘cuckoo in the nest’ domestic thriller.”

After the death of their mum, twins Chloe and Charlie are shocked when their dad introduces Lynne as their ‘new mummy’. Lynne, a district nurse, is trusted in the community, but the twins can see her kind smile doesn’t meet her eyes. In the months that follow they suffer the torment Lynne brings to their house as she stops at nothing in her need to be in control.

Betrayed, separated and alone, the twins struggle to build new lives as adults, but will they find happiness or repeat past mistakes? Will they discover Lynne’s secret plans for their father? Will they find each other in time?

The Stranger in My House is a gripping ‘cuckoo in the nest’ domestic thriller, exploring how coercive control can tear a family apart. Set in Yorkshire and Cardiff, from the 60s to the winter of discontent, The Stranger in My House dramatises both the cruelty and the love families hide behind closed doors.