The House on Rectory Lane by Stuart James

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Five "Tension Terror" Stars

Wow! This was a great psychological crime thriller!

A taste of what lies within:

Jake and Kate are tired of London with all the traffic and noise so they move out to the country where they can get away from it all and have some peace and quiet. The house that they find through a real estate agent is perfect for them as it is tucked away behind some iron gates and just has a couple of so neighbors. 

With any house though nothing is perfect and they find out that the previous occupants of the house - the Prescott's just vanished from the house and no one can seem to find them. That gives them an unsettling feeling as they wonder what happened to them and even thoughts of the house being haunted flitted through their minds. 

With some trepidation they go ahead and settle into the house along with meeting their neighbors Pete and Linda who seem to be very friendly as they welcome them to the neighborhood.  

But even with nice neighbors and the secluded house, Jake feels that there is just something "off" about the house, but when Jake and Kate find a dvd in their house that is a film with the family of the Prescott's is when things become weird and the more they try to find out what happened to the previous family the more they become entrapped within a mystery so entangled they will be fighting for their lives by the time it is all over as you never truly know who your neighbors are and Jake finds out more than he wants to know before it is all over. 

Thoughts:

This is my first time reading this author and was happy to finally read one of his books as I have been wanting to read this book for a long time. I was captured right away with the characters and the mystery surrounding the Prescott's as I was wanting to know why they disappeared. The mystery was so deep that I thought this book would make a great movie as there were so many twists and turns that I had a hard time putting the book down!

The author sets up a slow and building tension within the story bringing the mystery of what happened to the Prescott family finally to life near the end of the book. During the meantime though the mystery and suspense is built up along the way and I felt for the characters as they tried to figure out what they had landed themselves into. 

Other things happen within the storyline to the characters Jake and Kate as they try to dig up what is going on with their house and the neighbors. This book kept me intrigued throughout the story which I ended up reading the last 50% within a few hours as things started to escalate within the story and I just kept reading to see what would happen next. There is a major twist that I didn't see coming which sent this book into overdrive. I have some more books by this author simmering on my kindle that I will need to step into this coming year. 

Attached is the author, Stuart James, profile page from Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17131046.Stuart_James

Attached is the author, Stuart James, profile page from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Stuart-James/e/B07MWZYMZR

Attached is my review from Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2166702458