Six Thrillers in Which the House Hides a Sinister Past

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A house whose sordid history plays into a storyline is catnip to my reader’s soul. I will invariably pounce on any cover featuring an old house—especially one whose size foreshadows infinite nooks and crannies in which secrets galore are hidden. Gothic house on a tidal island, posh Paris apartment building, glamorous Manhattan one, a Brooklyn neighborhood with homes clustered tight, an old-money family retreat in upstate New York, and an English country manor—I don’t discriminate; give me all the sprawling, sinister abodes. Perhaps the origin point for this proclivity is having spent my childhood poring over glorious Nancy Drews, many of which center around grand country estates whose secrets are unfurled one by one. For my newest book, my debut in the suspense category, The Chateau, events that occurred in and around the palatial Chateau du Platane in Provence seep into its stone walls, informing both plot and characters and illuminating historical evils and their continued reverberations on the present. Chateau du Platane stands as a character in and of itself, and so do the houses with sordid pasts in the following delectable thrillers.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

I had to keep reminding myself to breathe as I flew through this eerie, heart-pounding thriller. A young woman down on her luck accepts a housesitting gig for an apartment in one of New York’s most ritzy buildings. But the plum job comes with strange rules: no visitors or nights away from the apartment permitted. Physical elements of the complex—an old dumbwaiter and a hidden wing used for nefarious purposes—contribute to the menacing ambiance and ratcheting tension. As a fellow resident disappears and the housesitter digs into the building’s terrifying past, she must expose its twisted history before she is targeted next. This one is super dark and mines unique motives—I loved it!

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

This clever reimagining of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None takes place in a crumbling gothic house on an island cut off from the outside world for eight hours after the tide comes in. A family gathers to celebrate Nana’s eightieth birthday, and one by one they begin to die. A hidden crawl space and the property’s gardens factor into the mounting creep factor and body count, and the family’s old bedrooms in which they are again situated sport telltale clues from their past. The ending gave me whiplash; it is a marvel you won’t see coming.

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

This thriller is masterful, both gripping and, rare for the genre, deeply illuminating. It toggles perspectives between a Black woman and her white neighbor who live in Gifford Park, a historically Black neighborhood in Brooklyn, as a big corporation plants itself in their midst, and neighboring homes are rapidly sold to white people. Stoops, windows, and even old mementos discarded on the streets enable the protagonists to easefully observe their neighbors. And a walking tour of the neighborhood further brings its history to life. Instead of an isolated setting as in Daisy Darker, here we have a neighborhood with residents huddled close, which creates its own creeping paranoia and also facilitates an insightful examination of gentrification, systemic racism, and white privilege. The book’s conclusion can only be described as a triumph—twisty, original, and hugely thought-provoking.

Curtain by Agatha Christie

Poirot’s final hurrah is one of my very favorite Christies, but best saved for readers who’ve already covered the breadth of the famed detective’s previous exploits. Christie ingeniously selects the rambling country house where Poirot and his sidekick solved their first mystery together for the site of their last. A mind-blowingly twisty plot makes use of the property’s gardens, windows from which suspicious acts are viewed, and bedrooms where the guests slumber—or don’t—in close quarters. In Curtain, Poirot may be old and relegated to a wheelchair, but his little gray cells are as sharp as ever.

The Family Game by Catherine Steadman

This imaginative and truly creepy thriller sets its apex scenes at The Hydes, an old-money family retreat in upstate New York transplanted brick-by-brick from Hungary. A woman relocates from England to New York for love and is immediately embroiled in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with her new in-laws. At The Hydes, some truly terrifying family games proceed, including one where our protagonist must rush around the expansive retreat to escape a man dressed as a demon, and the final hurrah, where she competes against her new family for her Christmas gift. In so doing, she traverses the rambling property, lured to the bottom of an old well and to the massive maze comprised of towering hedges in which it is easy to get lost, lending Steadman many stealthy spots in which to spring traps and dead bodies. The result is highly imaginative, nail-biting, and great, rollicking fun.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Foley is skilled at crafting settings which assume main character status, but her latest thriller is her first to layer in a mysterious abode. Namely, a luxe Parisian apartment building sporting a bevy of secret-harboring residents. Our protagonist arrives to visit her half-brother but finds him missing, and the other residents aren’t too happy when she starts poking around. Featuring a mysterious caretaker’s shack, a basement that hosts a spooky Halloween party, and windows overlooking the courtyard from which bad deeds are glimpsed, Foley utilizes the physical aspects of the building in shrewd ways—especially in a final, exquisite twist I didn’t foresee.

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