#BlogTour The Other Tenant – Lesley Kara

 Marlow has always lived in unusual places. But when she accepts a position as a live-in property guardian, she finds herself moving somewhere she swore she’d never return to.

Right from the start, she knows it’s a terrible mistake. The elegant Victorian school is due to be turned into luxury apartments, but its eerie, empty corridors are full of Marlow’s worst memories.

And now something sinister is happening on the site. One of the other tenants has disappeared without warning, and Marlow suspects that the nine other guardians know far more than they’re letting on. She’s determined to find out what happened to the missing woman – but which of these strangers can she trust?

And can she uncover the truth before her own past catches up with her?

The Other Tenant is a deliciously creepy read. The setting for the story is well chosen: an old school linked to one of the lead character’s pasts. Even if your school days were unlike Marlows, and you have an abundance of happy memories, I suspect there are still one or two which make you shudder on reflection. For Marlow, the past holds real tragedy and returning the the location is a difficult choice. However she has limited options and needs somewhere to live. She is a property guardian so lives in unusual places to prevent squatters in exchange for low rents. The lifestyle isn’t perhaps what she was expecting to be doing but this is where she is. At her new location there are quite a few other guardians as the site is large, but there’s an air of oddness, particularly surrounding the reason a room has become free for Marlow.

The story opens with a bang and an event which sets the tone for the rest of the book. There’s an eerie atmosphere which persists throughout. This is built upon when we meet the other guardians. It’s a situation where it feels like everyone is hiding something but whether they truly have nefarious intent is unclear. I had great mental gymnastics trying to decide who, if anyone, was involved and who was just a different personality and actually perfectly safe. I love a story which lets the reader wonder and keeps them on edge. I felt quite a lot of the characters were written in a way that makes it hard to like them and this adds to the complexity of who is truly presenting themselves as they are.

I think I have read all of Lesley’s books so far and have always enjoyed the stories she creates. I think she’s a great choice for a thriller and brings fresh ideas to a busy genre. She’s another author who I feel could pull you from a reading slump. The Other Tenant is a great read and one to add immediately to your TBR list!

About Lesley Kara: Lesley Kara is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rumour, Who Did You Tell?, The Dare and The Apartment Upstairs. The Rumour was the highest selling crime fiction debut of 2019 in the UK, and a Kindle No.1 bestseller. Lesley is an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course. She lives in Kent.

You can follow Lesley on Twitter @LesleyKara or visit her website at www.lesleykara.com