A woman's latest move jump-starts the deliciously creepy plot in The Shadow House. This second superb psychological thriller from U.K.-born author Anna Downes (The Safe Place) smoothly incorporates a foreboding house that may be haunted, nosy neighbors, domestic suspense and a soupçon of the supernatural--all occurring in a seeming utopia that could spiral out of control at any moment.
Single mother Alex Ives copes with stress and bad relationships by fleeing, jamming her belongings and her children, Oliver, age 14, and Kara, eight months old, into their aging car. Her latest move is to the new "ecovillage" of Pine Ridge in the Australian countryside--a decision made after taking a pamphlet from a stranger. Pine Ridge with its "Lego-spill of buildings" promises isolation and "absolute" safety, far from city chaos, but the real chaos may be within Alex. Before she even opens the door of the demo house she's renting for three months, she finds a box with a dead bird on the doorstop. She then hears rumors of a witch haunting the woods, sees weird carvings on the trees and learns about a teenage boy who disappeared from the mysterious empty farmhouse on the grounds. Most of her new neighbors seem friendly, especially helpful Jenny, who lives in the upstairs unit, but a few are downright rude and seem angry that Alex has arrived.
Tensions are high as the mentally fragile Alex vacillates between staying or leaving and Oliver's teenage angst escalates. Downes makes Pine Ridge simultaneously a paradise and a frightening enclave. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer