House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy

House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

In this enthralling and atmospheric thriller, one young family’s dream of a better life is about to become a nightmare.

Ben and Caroline Tierney and their two young boys are hoping to start over. Ben has hit a dead end with his new novel, Caroline has lost her banking job, and eight-year-old Charlie is being bullied at his Manhattan school.

When Ben inherits land in the village of Swannhaven, in a remote corner of upstate New York, the Tierneys believe it’s just the break they need, and they leave behind all they know to restore a sprawling estate. But as Ben uncovers Swannhaven’s chilling secrets and Charlie ventures deeper into the surrounding forest, strange things begin to happen. The Tierneys realize that their new home isn’t the fresh start they needed . . . and that the village’s haunting saga is far from over.

House of Echoes is a novel that shows how sometimes the ties that bind us are the only things that can keep us whole.

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House of Echoes is not a book for those that can't stand a story that takes its time to get to the action. Sometimes slow buildup works and sometimes it doesn't and I think the slow buildup worked quite well, for the most part, even though even I felt sometimes that I wanted to get to the point.

But what I really liked about this book is despite how normal everything seems and how lovely the Crofts and the close town Swannhaven seem to be, you just know that something is wrong. You just don't know what it is, but there seems to be some big secret the people in the village have. You get some clues in the letters that are alternating the chapters from the 1800 century during the terrible Winter siege when Swannhaven was attacked by Indians and the people starved.

I was quickly pulled into the story, I have a weakness for books with families moving to an old house with a history and the Crofts sure has been true a lot since it was built in 1800 century. The two sisters that were the last Swann's died two years prior and Ben and Caroline are the first to live in the house that is not part of the family. And at first everything is just fine, but slowly, slowly things start to happen until the very end when everything is revealed. The ending is really no big surprise, I mean there are clues throughout the book that there is something very wrong. I admit that it felt sometimes like it took some time to get somewhere despite how well-written the book was. I did enjoy the story, but I felt sometimes a bit impatient and it never got truly thrilling though it got a bit intense towards the end. I think I actually was most worried about the dog Hudson throughout the book. Animals in books like this have a tendency to perish.

I'm impressed with this debut book by Brendan Duffy and will without a doubt read more from him.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!