Safe as Houses

by Carol Anne Davis

Davis writes with dangerous authority about the deadly everyday. Her work is dark in ways that Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters can only dream of. This is our world, skewed and skewered, revealed in its true sanguinary colours."" - Ian Rankin. ""Lays bare the twisted soul of a psycopathic killer.... A searing, potent, unsettling story reminiscent of Ruth Rendell at her darkest"" - Booklist. Davis follows up the success of her first novel with this feminist thriller. Women are vanishing from the streets of Edinburgh and only one man knows the answers. David is a sadist with a double life. He divides his time between his home-shared with his devoted wife, Jeanette, and his young son-and his Secret House. David's fantasies would become horribly real in his Secret House, where the screams would go unheard. Slowly, Jeanette begins to realize that all is not well with their home, and her husband.

Genres: Thriller

252 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

Reviews

[Susan Hoyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savage and brutal but a good story. Not for the faint hearted

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

More impressed by than 'liked' given the subject matter. Impressively well-plotted with a neat dove-tailing of characters surrounding David Frate. His personality, thoughts, background, lacks and self-deceptions are gradually revealed in small details of thoughts and behaviour, and in some ways he could be said to be not as monstrous as his mother-in-law.

Refreshingly the cover is innocuous compared to most in this genre (I'd been lent, and highly recommended, this.) Davis' Introduction suggests that an earlier edition received much criticism, apparently for suggesting that nurture was as responsible as nature for a sadistic killer. She certainly succeeds in her exploration of a killer's mind.

[Nick Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Having read three books by this author a few years ago, I ordered this online and my high expectations were not disappointed.

This is an explicit story, with a fair amount of sexual violence and murder, but what elevates it above many other thrillers in the genre for me is the accuracy and believability of the situation and characters - Davis's background in both crime fiction and non-fiction allows her to create powerful contrasts between the mundane everyday lives of people, and the secret sadism beneath. There is a highly convincing portrayal of a normal and naive woman who does not know the depths to which her seemingly normal husband has sunk, and the psychology of the characters is also well explored. Upsetting and stunning.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!!!!

[Andrea]

Very good up to now!