Catherine Steadman's Look in the Mirror is a riveting puzzle of a thriller. The novel opens as Cambridge University English literature professor Nina Hepworth receives the news that her recently deceased father has left her a house in the British Virgin Islands--a house she never knew about. Nina flies to BVI, with all her travel expenses covered by her academician father's estate (how wealthy was he?), and finds a gorgeous home overlooking a private beach. It has tight security, automated control systems, biometric door-lock panels, and one locked room in the basement that Nina can't access. There's a glitch in the room's electronic lock, and no one can tell Nina what the room holds. When she eventually finds out, the terrifying ordeal makes her question whether she knew her father at all and if she'll emerge from the house alive.
Nina isn't the only person confronting the locked room; some of the novel's chapters are from the point of view of a nanny named Maria, who is staying at the house as part of a two-week contract for a family who eerily never shows up. Nevertheless, she's told she can enjoy all the luxuries the house offers--except for the room in the basement.
Steadman (Mr. Nobody), an actor whose credits include roles on Downton Abbey and The Tudors, effectively keeps readers in the dark about the room and Nina's and Maria's timelines, infusing the novel with dread amid all the beauty and sunshine. The eventual revelations are somewhat far-fetched and don't answer all the questions raised, but Steadman is a clever writer who knows how to hold readers hostage. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, reviewer and freelance editor at The Edit Ninja