Charlotte Williams's debut novel, The House on the Cliff, takes readers to the rocky coastline of Wales for a mystery driven by the inner turmoil of two families.
Jessica Mayhew thought she had it all: a loving family and a successful career in psychotherapy. When her husband confesses to an affair with a much younger woman, though, she finds the betrayal difficult to forgive. At the same time, a charismatic and dramatic new patient shakes up Jessica's routine. Handsome young actor Gwydion Morgan seeks Jessica's help, supposedly for koumpounophobia (the fear of buttons). Soon, though, Jessica receives a call from Gwydion's controlling mother, who claims her son is suicidal and begs Jessica to make a house call. At the Morgans' beautiful and remote coastal mansion, Jessica is pulled into the family's scandalous mystery and the roots of Gwydion's trauma: did his childhood au pair really drown accidentally, or did his father murder her within the boy's earshot when she spurned his advances? As Jessica and Gwydion's attachment and attraction grows, she is driven to solve the mystery, but her determination may cost her her life.
Although Williams's pacing is more of a slow burn than the usual thriller, her ability to build an eerie atmosphere and her attention to characters' psychology create a more immediate and intimate feeling of suspense. Readers will hope Jessica saves her marriage even as she struggles to save Gwydion, and the mystery's satisfying solution leaves hope for the futures of the innocent. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Latah County Library District and blogger at Infinite Reads