‘The Stranger in my House’ by Judith Barrow

Published by Honno Press,
14 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-91682122-4 (PB)

Does it count as crime fiction if nobody dies? That’s a moot point. In Judith Barrow’s new domestic drama there’s certainly a crime; it’s called coercive control and carries a five-year prison sentence. But if you’re looking for murder and mayhem and a police investigation you’ll be disappointed. 

But not if you keep reading. You’ll find yourself gripped and drawn into the lives of twins Chloe and Charlie and their hapless dad Graham. And I guarantee you’ll be after the blood of Graham’s second wife Lynne, who really is a wicked stepmother. Graham is taken in by her blandishments, and pays a high price for doing so, but first Charlie and then Chloe see her for what she is: a cruel, conniving hypocrite who has an agenda very much her own, which definitely does not include caring for two lively eight-year-olds.

She persuades Graham that these perfectly normal eight-year-olds need specialist attention, Charlie in a succession of care homes for ‘difficult’ children, Chloe with foster parents who prove unexpectedly beneficial. Separated by both circumstances and Lynne’s design, and seemingly abandoned by their unfortunate father, the twins follow very different paths.

Judith Barrow has a talent for creating characters who live and breathe and draw her readers into their lives and making us care about them. Her stories have a powerful emotional pull; this one made me cheer when Chloe makes something of herself and I feel desperately sorry for Charlie who is less lucky. I was ambivalent (as I’m sure was intended) about Graham who allows himself to be woefully abused, and most of all I wanted to see the appalling Lynne get her comeuppance.

The supporting cast is as strong as the leading players. Lynne’s own teenage children couldn’t be less alike: Saul the self-centred bully whom she adores, and gentle Evie who sees straight through her and incurs her contempt. Evie is a support to the twins throughout, and though Charlie finds himself in the worst possible children’s home, Chloe’s foster families are the nurturing kind. Later, when the twins are eventually reunited and set about rescuing their father, it’s with the help of Simon, who offers Charlie a new life, and Graham’s business partner Phil, his wife Margaret and son Mark.

Conventional murder mystery it isn’t, but the most heinous crimes are often the least visible. When they’re portrayed in a believable story inhabited by characters so well drawn you want to root for them or beat them to a pulp, it can only make you wonder what really goes on in other people’s families.

It’s all thanks to Judith Barrow, and I urge you to read it for yourselves.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Judith Barrow originally from Saddleworth, a group of villages on the edge of the Pennines, has lived in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for over forty years. She has an MA in Creative Writing with the University of Wales Trinity St David's College, Carmarthen. BA (Hons) in Literature with the Open University, a Diploma in Drama from Swansea University. She is a Creative Writing tutor for Pembrokeshire County Council and holds private one to one workshops on all genres. 

https://judithbarrowblog.com

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.