"The Safe Place"

“The Safe Place”

Written by Anna Downes

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia of Bookworm Banter

For its emergence as Anna Downes’s first novel, “The Safe Place” succeeds as one of the best thrillers I have read this year so far. Mind you, I’ve been quite busy, as most of us have been. However, I do feel that this novel will cement into most readers’ minds. Feeling similar to a V.C. Andrews novel meets “The Girl Before” and “Parasite”, the thrills in “The Safe Place” also strike me as nuanced. Downes creates realistic characters, dialogue, and plot devices and unfolds them in extremely natural ways, creating an entertaining yet clever and calculated guilty pleasure.

The novel follows the perspective of two of its main characters: Emily, a poor actress, and Scott, a businessman who hires Emily to be his at-home personal assistant. Emily is desperate to make ends meet, but she is also lazy. Scott hires her, but the third person narration allows us to think that he has dark intentions for her. Emily is whisked off to his fancy French home, where she meets Nina, his gorgeous yet strange wife, and his sick, possibly disabled daughter, Aurelia. Emily soon realizes that she naively assumed a dangerous position as she starts to unveil secrets about the bizarre Denny family.

Although I think some plot elements could have been written more completely, “The Safe Place” provided interesting plot devices, including many that are not usually incorporated into books of this genre. I believed that knowing from the beginning that there are dark secrets allowed for the suspense to build even more, even though I usually do not enjoy plots that take this approach. The story plays out in a satisfying way, with a few different twists and turns, making this feel similar to a few famous true crime family headlines, in a way that does not feel exploitative. The final climax and conclusion of the story were executed in a flawless way, leaving no questions or open-endings, which I felt to be effective.

The only issue I have with this story is that the plot felt a bit rushed with its pacing. We are introduced to the house in the introduction, then are tossed back before Emily met Scott properly. Then, we continue the story, with details revealed through a third perspective, of Nina’s. The actual thrills and mystery could have been told in a much slower and suspenseful way. I felt that the small number of red herrings and suspicious actions from the main characters led to a little absence felt. I usually like a few more strange moments and eerie scenes.

I highly recommend this novel. I think it also reminded me of a few other enjoyable thrillers, including “The Girl in the Rearview Mirror”, “Angel of Mine”, and “Mind of Winter”. I would love to see this adapted into a film or mini-series. I will be seeking out Anna Downes’s work in the future, because I believe her writing skill to be fantastic. Again, I loved the nuances that she brought to this genre.

I rate this novel at four of out five stars.

I thank Minotaur Books at St. Martin’s Press for an advance proof. Thank you for the opportunity.