The Scare Salon

The story is told in the third person, but from the sole perspective of a woman named Megan. About ten months prior to the events of the novel, the home belonging to her and her husband Justin burned down, killing the couple’s two young sons, Felix and Sebastian. The blaze, while ruled accidental, occurred after Megan drank too much one evening, took a sedative on top of that, and evidently turned on a faulty heater, which set the curtains alight and spread the flames quickly to the rest of the house.

Megan, of course, is inconsolable; not only has she lost the two most precious things in the world to her, but she blames herself for killing her children. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the story was in all the papers, meaning that the public largely blames her too. So not only has she been dealing with the devastating loss, but she’s also been getting death threats from members of an outraged populace.

Her marriage to Justin is strained, of course, but it seems as though their shared grief has brought them closer together. Although Megan suspects that Justin also subconsciously blames her carelessness for the boys’ deaths, he stays with her and seems to really step up, becoming the perfect, supportive husband. Megan doesn’t know what she would have done without him.

Since the couple’s house was severely damaged in the fire, the pair have obviously been staying in rental properties until they can get an assessment on whether their house will be able to be salvaged, and how long the rebuild will take if so. Justin informs Megan that a remote cottage in Cornwall that he used to stay in over the summers when he was growing up has become available for long-term rent, and since Justin has so many pleasant memories there, he decides to rent it without really consulting with Megan first. He also figures that getting away from the city for a while will do them good.

The cottage is located on an isolated estate called Treloar, owned by an aristocratic family who are away in France most of the year. When Megan and Justin first arrive, Megan is less than enthusiastic; the house is a few miles from any civilization, it’s a bit dated, and it hasn’t been maintained to a high standard. Justin is disappointed that she doesn’t seem to like it, and tries to cajole her into seeing how awesome it is. She tries to pretend she’s as excited as he is, but he isn’t fooled.

And to make matters worse, when they explore the upstairs, they discover that someone has been squatting in the house; they find a sleeping bag, old food wrappers, and a funky smell in one of the bedrooms. It doesn’t appear than anyone has broken in or stolen anything, but Megan absolutely does not feel comfortable staying in the house until everything is cleared out and checked. She insists they stay at a hotel while the rental agent, Harriet, gets property overseer Colin to come in and make the place livable.

Not long after moving in, Justin has some kind of emergency at work, necessitating him being gone for a few days. Megan is beside herself and a bit resentful, as Justin actually promised to take at least a week off work to stay with her while she got acclimated to her new environment. She had also been hoping that the two of them would have some couple time and reconnect. But instead, she’s left in this gloomy old house completely alone, with a possibly dangerous squatter lurking around, far from the life she once knew. Although she does have one lifeline in the form of Harriet, the sympathetic rental agent who befriends her, she’s a bit at sixes and sevens.

And then one day, while Megan is straightening up, she hears a sound that resembles an old cell phone ringing from somewhere in the cottage. Searching furiously, she discovers an old Nokia that still has a charge, stashed in the attic loft. Did this belong to the squatter or the former tenants? Who possibly could have left it, and clearly very recently? She looks at the messages to see if she can determine whose phone it is, but instead finds a chilling text telling her not to trust her husband. At first, of course, she thinks the message must be directed at someone else; it’s not her phone (or her house, really), after all. But shortly afterward, the texts start referring to him by name, and Megan is forced to contend with the possibility that someone is trying to either warn her about something, or plant ideas in her head for some nefarious purpose.

Previous to this, Megan never had any reason to fear her husband, but the messages definitely give her pause. Also causing her to doubt herself are the seemingly hostile reactions of the other people on the estate—mainly Colin, and the members of the aristocratic family when they eventually return—to Justin coming back to the cottage. They all remember him from years back, it seems, and definitely not fondly. But Justin only told her about the happy times he enjoyed here as a teenager, so what exactly is going on?

As the tale unspools, the mystery deepens, though I will say right here (and this isn’t exactly a spoiler, but potential readers may want to skip this paragraph if they want to go into the story completely blind) that it’s fairly obvious that Justin is hiding something, but for a long time you’re not entirely sure what it is. One of the aforementioned issues I referred to earlier was that because you’re seeing everything from Megan’s point of view, it’s immediately clear to the reader that Megan is constantly making excuses for Justin’s controlling and gaslighting behavior; it’s a little infuriating, because he’s so plainly a jerk, but she refuses to see it. I guess this isn’t really an issue per se, because this is the way a woman in a relationship like this would likely think and behave in real life, but sometimes as you’re reading it, you just want to slap her and tell her to get a clue already. She also makes some exceedingly dumb decisions as the story progresses, but again, this is not surprising given how long she’s been steadily undermined by this dude over their twelve-year-long marriage. It is sort of frustrating to read about sometimes, however, and even though it’s uncharitable, I kept wishing she would hurry up and grow a spine.

The story isn’t as straightforward as it seems at first blush, though, and the author does throw in some curve balls that I didn’t necessarily see coming (though I did get in the ballpark, I admit). The only other issues I had with the novel concerned some of the peripheral characters that I thought were going to tie into the story more but didn’t, and the slightly unbelievable turn the events took toward the end (although I’m not going to get upset about that, because a lot of thrillers have outlandish plot twists and crazy third acts, so this one is no different in that regard, and might even be a bit more restrained). But overall, I had a great time with this one; it hooked me right away, and I found myself unable to put it down until I’d finished all 400 pages. Although I did find the character of Megan a little bit pitiful and maddening at times, I was rooting for her, even while I was wishing I could step through the pages and give her a kick in the pants.

If you’re feeling a hankering for a good, classic-style domestic thriller with some interesting twists and turns, then this is a quick, compelling read; it’s nothing you haven’t read before, and it had a couple of small negatives, but it’s really entertaining and engrossing, and I’d recommend it if it sounds like your jam.

Until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.