Such dread inside me. It was very well written, to the point that I was glued to the book. This is a real thriller. Not a mystery, because honestly the protagonist was the only one that didn't understand what was going on. A bit of plot: Jenny, divorced with two little girls, works in a art gallery in New York. At the start of the book she's displaying the paintings of Erich Krueger from Minnesota. Looking at the big portrait of his mother Caroline, that died when he was ten, everybody thinks it's Jenny. She resembles Caroline so much that even Erich himself says so, and here to me started to get weird. How could Jenny be so light about it? She should have stopped to think about how obvious it was that he liked her so much because she was identical to his mother. Which is not normal! I mean, she didn't just cook like Caroline, this would be a good thing for a man. She physically looked like her!
Anyway, she believes everything he says because he appears to be so kind, gentle and full of attentions towards her and even more important towards her precious babies, and so she consents to be his wife a few days after meeting him. He takes her to Minnesota, away from her world, and she finds justifications for everything he does, telling herself that they love each other, and that he's done so much for her, and that he's so kind to little Beth and Tina, but I didn't. I knew it was creepy and sick. He was scary, he wanted everything as it was thirty years ago, nothing can be changed in the house, and every little stain is a tragedy. He only makes love to her if she wears his mother's nightgown, and doesn't let her do anything without him. He interceptsw phone calls or letters addressed to her, doesn't let her talk to people or drive the car. He is insanely jealous of everyone. He is obsessed with order inside the house and day after day she becomes tense when he's around, worried that he might be disappointed or displeased by something she did wrong. It's all very difficult, but at least he appears to be very kind with the little girls, and Jenny's happy to see them happy. I wasn't. I didn't like it when it came out that 'Mummy is bad. Daddy would have let us', it seemed to me like he was trying to steal their love for her away from her.
Things starts to get really serious when her ex-husband disappears and is later found dead, and everything points to her. Nobody believes her, and Jenny's hurt that Erich doesn't seem to believe her either. Still, she forgives him and justifys him because she's pregnant and still thinks they might have a happy life together. When the baby's born, he has the same red hair as his little sisters, and this brings more problems. Instead of giving him his own name, Erich calls him Kevin like Beth and Tina's father, and never gets really close to the little thing. Apparently everyone believes the baby is not Erich's, while Jenny knows it is, because she knows she's not been with anyone else, least of all Kevin.
Still, the baby brings so much joy to Jenny that she thinks of nothing else, now. A tragedy awaits her though, because one morning she finds him dead, and is devastated, but rumours go around that she might have killed him herself. Everything and everyone is against her; she can't go on like this anymore. Erich's insane jealousy doesn't let her live, she's afraid of saying or doing anything that might upset him, so she finally plans to leave him. They were planning a trip because he had another gallery to go to, but when the time comes, he takes the girls to the car and drives off without her. He knew all about her plans, and prevented it. Now that he has her girls, she can't leave him. He wants her to sign a full confession, but she won't, and she tries to find out what really happened, instead. She suspects a couple of women, but realises both the theories are not good enough. Finally, she wanders off in search for his secret hideout, where he said he always go to be alone and paint. She finds it, but also finds much, much more. Lots of paintings signed Caroline! He's putting his own signature to cover hers, and is selling her paintings as his own. But this revelation is nothing compared to what she finds upstairs. A horrible painting, done by Erich this time, where he is shown while he strangles Beth and Tina, sort-of dressed as Caroline. She understands everything now, and runs back to tell Mark and the sheriff the truth of how it was Erich all along. The sheriff is not sure what to believe, but she takes them to the chalet and they can see for themselves. He has killed before, a girl who saw him in there and his own mother when he was ten years old because she wanted to leave. Now Jenny's scared sich for her babies, hoping he won't kill them. She waits in the house for days, until she impersonates Caroline to lure him in and he comes: to kill her. She's saved just in time by the woman whose daughter he had killed and it'll also be her who will find out where he left Beth and Tina. They are still alive, and the book ends on a happy note. Living in a smaller house, with the money she inherited from Erich, with Beth and Tina with her, and 'uncle Mark' ofter coming to visit :-)
It was a really good thriller. Not a mystery at all because frankly Erich screamed psycopath from the first moment, but an excellent thriller. It didn't matter at all that I knew it was him, absolutely sure, never had any doubt, because that was not the real point. We follow her story, suffer with her, wait with her, wondering what he'll do to her before the end, and how she'll get her life back.
Too much descriptions, for my taste, but still an excellent thriller. It would be a great movie, if they did it well, focusing their attention on the right things and characters. Erich should be beautiful and sort-of charming, but Mark should be sexy. Jenny should be pretty but no top-model.
Poor mad Ronnie should be someone really good, because she is crazy and sometimes a bit boring, but people should like her.
I really enjoyed reading this book, and it has also filled me with anxiety at some points. That's what a good thriller should do :-)
The happy note at the end did leave me with peace, though :-D
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