"Still, it felt to Mila as if Elisabeth's anxiety, real or imagined, had pervaded the very fabric of the house. It was contagious".
The Sea House by Louise Douglas is a captivating psychological thriller, set in the fictional town of Morranez in Brittany.
The Sea House is the third book in the Toussaints Detective Agency series. I have read the first book (The Lost Notebook), which introduces Mila Shepherd, the main protagonist, and tells the story of how she ended up in Morranez.
The blurb:
The Sea House
A mysterious bequest and the legacy of a tragic love - only one person can unravel the hidden secrets of the past before it's too late...
When Elisabeth Quemener dies, she leaves a small parcel with the instructions that it must only be opened by Astrid Oake. The trouble is, no one knows who Astrid Oake is...
Elisabeth's family turn to Touissants detective agency for help but, when Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson try to track Astrid down, their frustration soon mounts. Their only clue is a photo of two young women holding the hands of a tiny child. The women are smiling but Mila is haunted by the sadness in their eyes. Is this Astrid and Elisabeth and if so, who is the child? And why are there signs everywhere in Elisabeth's home that the old woman was frightened despite her living a quiet life with no known enemies?
As Elisabeth and Astrid's story slowly unfolds, Mila feels the walls of her home The Sea Houe closing in. And as the secrets finally begin to reveal themselves, she is ever more determined to carry out Elisabeth's final wishes. Because what is inside that unprepossessing parcel might just save a life...
Louise Douglas is back in the Brittany seaside town of Morranez with a heart-stopping, heart-breaking, brilliantly written and utterly compelling mystery. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Eve Chase and Lucinda Riley.
Mila Shepherd has moved to Brittany to look after her orphaned teen niece Ani, following the tragic death of her step-sister Sophie. They live in a big secluded house on the outskirts of Morranez on their own. Mila works in the Toissaints detective agency, which specialises in tracking down lost family members etc.
When the agency is approached by the daughter of the local lady who has recently died and left a strange request, they take on the case to find the recipient of the mysterious package - someone named Astrid Oake. The instructions are pretty bizarre: if the recipient is not found, then the package should be buried within the grave, and never to be opened.
Who is Astrid Oake? Nobody knows of her, she can't be found on any social media, and any search brings no results.
Mila is starting her search for clues in Elisabeth's house, and feels very uneasy. The empty house has spyholes, security cameras, burglar alarms, a number of bolts on bedrooms and panic buttons.
"... Being alone in a dead person's house had never made Mila feel vulnerable before... Everything pointed towards Elisabeth having been afraid of someone or something. And that, Mila concluded, was what was making her scared now: fear by proxy."
The investigation seems to draw blanks. The only clue left in the house is an old photo of Elisabeth and Astrid as young women, holding a hand of a little girl. They are smiling in the camera, but their eyes are sad.
"It was, superficially, a lovely picture, with the two young women smiling, but when she looked closely, Mila could see the smiles were guarded; as if they were for the camera; not from the heart".
The investigation's progress is slow, yet there is a development, which brings Mila to the UK, in search for Astrid's story, as well as getting answers to Mila's personal life issues.
On top of the problems of finding the elusive Astrid, Mila has to deal with very unsettling discoveries in her family's past, related to the death of Sophie and her husband Charlie.
Will Mila find the elusive Astrid Oake? What's inside the mysterious parcel?
The setting of the sea resort in winter works perfectly as a bleak background to the dark drama that is going to be revealed, both in Mila's family life and the investigation she is conducting for the agency.
This is the fourth book by Louise Douglas that I've read, and as always I admire how the author sets the scene. The backdrop - descriptions of the seaside town out of season, the eerie house, the sinister farm in the English countryside - are evocative, vivid and atmospheric.
The story is gripping and emotionally-charged, though I couldn't warm up to any of the main characters. Mila is rather insipid, still in thrall to her late step-sister's bossy and selfish behaviour. While reading this story, I remembered how much Sophie irritated me in the first book.
You know this self-obsessed, fickle and capricious type in real life and try to avoid them at all costs. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, left by her egoistic father, unloved by her narcissistic mother, Mila is looking for crumbs of affection anywhere she can find them, and is not able to assert herself.
Mila has to decide what she is going to do with her life in the long term. She left her boyfried Luke behind in the UK, he is expecting her to come back at some point, yet Mila is uncertain about what she really wants. You feel sorry for Luke, who's been more than patient. The position which was supposed to be temporary until the solution is found turns into an indefinite one.
Mila is not a maternal material, having no children of her own, and her niece Ani is a moody teen, self-centred, totally unappreciative that Mila has sacrificed her job and personal relationship to look after her. Given her own parents' egoism and her sad upbringing, it comes as no surprise that Mila finds it hard to set the necessary boundaries.
Themes of love and loss, bereavement and coping with grief, continue running through the book. These topics are dealt with sympathetically and sensitively, and resonated with me, as I lost a very dear friend this year, who was like a family to me. Her death has affected me, and I'm feeling very emotional every time I think of her.
One last quote from the book which I found very true and heartfelt,
"How easy it was to take people for granted when they were alive. Even when you didn't see someone often, still they were there, living and breathing, laughing and loving... But when they were really gone; when they were dead, and there would be no seeing them ever again, no chance to call them, or even to exchange a quick message, then the absence was something different; the missing became deep-rooted. And the world was different too. It was colder. It was lonelier; lacking something; less than it had been."
The Sea House is a gripping story, full of twists and turns, emotionally-charged and deeply sad at times.
When I see Louise Douglas's name on the book cover, I know it will be a tense psychological read, moving and immersive, and incredibly evocative.
Many thanks to Louise Douglas, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/seahousesocial
Author Bio –
Hello! I'm Louise, author of 12 novels mostly set in the
Somerset countryside close to where I live and Sicily. I'm thrilled to have won
the RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller award 2021 for The House by the Sea
which has sold more than a quarter of a million copies.
Social Media Links –
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@louisedouglasauthor
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