The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon (2023)
What a grand slam of a thriller. I'm still breathless from the read.
Put simply, "The Quiet Tenant" is textbook example of everything you want in a stay-up-all-night, page turner. By the time you reach the final chapters, you realize the book has you completely by the throat and racing to the finish at 'Star Wars' hyper-drive speed.
Author Clemence Michallon picked a well worn (some would even say worn out) genre - the sick twisted path of a serial killer who stalks and then keeps his victims as sex slaves until he decides he's finished with them.....and then he finishes them.
And of course, this inhuman soul, as many of them do, lives a life as a beloved, friendly, upstanding member of his community, a respected dutiful single dad to his 13 year old daughter. Following his wife's cancer death, the town reaches out even more to embrace this poor tragedy stricken dad and child.
The story unfolds from three viewpoints......the currently enslaved, abused woman,, kept in a shed and forced to call herself "Rachel" by her captor, 'family guy" Aiden Thomas......Aiden's daughter Cecelia, painfully lonely from being cut off from almost all socialization by her father........and lastly Emily, a young bartender/restaurant manager who's become overwhelmingly smitten by Aiden, unaware he's selected her as his next victim.
The narrative belongs primarily to "Rachel", and her heart rending account of how somehow she's managed to stay alive longer then any of the women who came before her. Sensing her time's running out, she sees a desperate chance in a sudden, drastic change for Aiden and Cecelia.
Forced to vacant his house, (and its shed), Aiden must move to a home with no secluded hiding spot, He's put in the position of imprisoning "Rachel" in the new house itself and passing her off to Cecelia as a good friend needing 'quiet time' to recover from some shattering trauma.
Author Michallon sure knows how to suck you in to these characters and totally invest you (and fear for) the ultimate fates of Rachel, Cecelia and Emily. The suspense steadily builds to near excruciating levels and once the endgame commences, I don't know how anyone could possibly put the book down.
Even if there's readers who think they've read every variation of a story like this, I still say don't miss this one. A thriller that thrills like "The Quiet Tenant" is a 5 star(*****) essential and a "must have" for this year.
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