3.5/5!
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day. Scott Denny is a successful and charismatic CEO, who just happened to be the one to fire Emily from her job. He now sees her in a new light, as a possible solution to a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn’t play along, the consequences could be deadly.
THE SAFE PLACE is a light, popcorn suspense read filled with tension and intrigue. From the moment the reader picks this one up, you can tell something is wrong. From the timing of Scott’s offer to the stunning paradise location to the seemingly picture perfect wife, everything has a catch. Finding out just what the catch to everything is was a fun mystery to solve and while not terribly complicated, it was plenty to keep my attention. I would have loved to have seen this story take a less predictable route. There was so much opportunity to use the setting to escalate the tension to the next level. The upside to this is that THE SAFE PLACE can easily be a beach read or a lighter suspense novel for someone looking to get started in the genre. At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun with THE SAFE PLACE and I’ll definitely be looking forward to Downes’ next release!
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day. Scott Denny is a successful and charismatic CEO, who just happened to be the one to fire Emily from her job. He now sees her in a new light, as a possible solution to a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn’t play along, the consequences could be deadly.
THE SAFE PLACE is a light, popcorn suspense read filled with tension and intrigue. From the moment the reader picks this one up, you can tell something is wrong. From the timing of Scott’s offer to the stunning paradise location to the seemingly picture perfect wife, everything has a catch. Finding out just what the catch to everything is was a fun mystery to solve and while not terribly complicated, it was plenty to keep my attention. I would have loved to have seen this story take a less predictable route. There was so much opportunity to use the setting to escalate the tension to the next level. The upside to this is that THE SAFE PLACE can easily be a beach read or a lighter suspense novel for someone looking to get started in the genre. At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun with THE SAFE PLACE and I’ll definitely be looking forward to Downes’ next release!