An Ordinary House
An Ordinary House
It’s less than a week until the publication of An Ordinary House, written under my new pen name, Rae Starling. If you like dark thrillers that tackle big themes, please consider preordering it now. Preorders help authors become visible on Amazon.
As well as from Amazon, the paperback can be ordered from bookshops and Waterstones online.
Last week the opening page featured on Front Page Fridays. As I don’t have a guest this week, I’m presenting instead a sneak peek at the last few lines of Chapter 1 and the whole of Chapter 2.
Here’s the rest of Chapter 1:
There’s static in this blanket too, pricking and sudden. A flicker of another journey enters my thoughts. Another blanket over me long ago, but I can’t be sure. CeeCee would know. She remembers everything from our childhood. Where is she now?
Where is Techy? Bridget?
Get a grip, Bruce snaps.
I stiffen in the darkness, glad to hear my brother’s voice but scared too. What if the policewoman hears? I gulp breaths to stay quiet, pain rigid in my throat.
This is your chance to tell, Bruce hisses. Don’t bottle it.
‘Take it easy, nearly there,’ the policewoman says, making a fleeting touch, over the blanket, on my arm. On my scar.
I squirm, fizzing for action, ready to flee. Despite what Bruce wants, I have to return to our room.
‘Everything alright in the back?’ a male voice calls from the driver’s seat.
The fight in my belly freezes.
Here’s Chapter 2:
City News Online, Wednesday 8 June 20X2
Breaking News: Police raid house in Town by Conor Blackburn (Reporter)
Caught on camera: police raid on a suburban house.
Cops swooped on an address on Beech Avenue in the Town area of the city at around 2.30 p.m. today.
The dramatic scenes, captured on a neighbour’s mobile phone and sent to City News, show police officers escorting a figure covered by a blanket into a police vehicle and paramedics loading a stretcher into an ambulance. At least three squad cars can be seen parked on the quiet, leafy road.
Police sources have so far confirmed only that they are questioning a forty-nine-year-old man. Neighbours believe the man to be the homeowner.
One woman, who did not wish to give her name, told City News Online: ‘A police officer knocked at my door and asked how many people lived at the house across the way. I told him I’ve only seen one man in all the years I’ve lived here. I couldn’t believe my eyes when they brought out what looked like a body bag. Apparently, people were living hidden upstairs. He liked to keep his shutters closed so I never suspected a thing.’
The raid is believed to be the result of a tip-off by a member of the public. As we wait for a police statement, rumours are circulating that those found in the property were being held in squalid conditions against their will.
Click here to view the amateur footage of police activity in Beech Avenue.
Contact our news desk here to upload your photos and film of the incident.
Your Comments:
Clive: What a dozy lot of neighbours! I can’t believe they didn’t hear cries for help.
Geena For The Win: Squalid? Probably just sleeping off a student party.
Honest St George: Bound to be illegals. More needs to be done to stop them coming. For their own good.
Mrs A. Perks: Not what you expect in a good area, but modern-day slavery is everywhere. Shame on our society.
Leonard: Let’s not jump the gun. It could well turn out to be a feckless mother who can’t keep her house in order. Not a police matter. Social Services, maybe.
Keith Marden: My mate used to do deliveries round there. One time he heard ear-piercing squeaks coming through a shuttered window. Then sudden, complete silence. Scared him shitless.
Sandi Laing: A burglar alarm?
Keith Marden: More like a newborn baby.
About An Ordinary House
We lived in a house on Beech Avenue.
Outside-People say we're safe now.
But one of us wants to go back.
Back to that house and the darkness it held.
Police raid an ordinary house in a quiet suburban street and find a traumatised teenager held captive with his family. They call him a survivor, but he doesn't know what to believe. His memories don't match what his siblings and the press tell him about his home.
As he struggles to make sense of his new world, he must find and face the truth.
With one of his siblings set on revenge, should he forget his family, or turn from victim to killer?
Purchase Links:
Waterstones
Also available from bookshops.
Here are snapshots of how authors I admire have described An Ordinary House:
'extraordinary… and immersive’ Julie Anderson
‘sympathetic, nuanced, eye-opening’ Charlotte Bigland
‘darkly powerful’ Nicola Blackwell
‘Claustrophobic, compelling and unforgettable’ Sheila Bugler
‘thought-provoking and complex’ Sarah A. Denzil
‘gripping and imaginative’ Jo Furniss
‘exceptional’ Ruth Gilligan
‘Timely, topical and beautifully structured’ Rob Gittins
'haunting’ Linda Huber
‘utterly addictive’ Charlotte Leonard
‘astonishing and riveting’ Maureen Myant
‘jaw-dropping’ Lauren North
‘Terrifyingly brilliant’ D.E. White
‘deeply emotive’ Michael Wood
If you think you might like it, please consider preordering a copy. I don’t understand the hocus pocus of the algorithm but apparently preorders increase a book’s visibility, so that would be a big help.
It would also be great if you marked it as Want To Read on GoodReads or requested a copy from your library or on the Libby app.
After it’s published, it will also be available from bookshops.