Book Review: IT WAS HER HOUSE FIRST

Title: It Was Her House First

Author: Cherie Priest

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Pages: 349

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Bartholomew Sloan, a celebrity detective who never loses a case, becomes the sole heir to the home and estate of his best friend, Oscar Amundson, who was executed by the court for the murder of his wife, the silent era star Venita Rost. Venita was found dead at the bottom of a rocky overlook, supposedly murdered by Oscar. Sloan believes that she died by suicide and framed Oscar because he didn’t blame Sloan for the death of their eight-year-old daughter, Priscilla.

When Sloan enters the Amundson house after Oscar’s execution, he drinks a peg of his favourite gin, which the couple always stocked for him, and drops down dead.

In the present time, Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Mitchell, a woman with severe anxiety issues, buys the house sight unseen with the insurance money from her brother’s untimely death. Ronnie doesn’t know that Venita haunts the house, along with Sloan, the man she hated the most. Then a man comes along, Coty Deaver, Sloan’s grandnephew, with strange intentions regarding the house. Will Ronnie’s dream of a forever home come true? Or does she face danger from both the living and the dead?

 

The story is written in the past tense PoV of Sloan and Venita (in the form of a diary) in 1932, and that of Ronnie in the present time.

 

WHAT I LIKED/WHAT I DIDN’T:

I love stories set in old houses, and I was looking forward to this read. In keeping with the theme of renovation, there is a scene (and this isn’t a spoiler) where everything that Venita’s ghost touches appears restored to its full glory. I liked this extension of the theme.

I liked Venita from the diary. The mix of personal observation and dialogue was interesting.

I liked the last part of the book, when all the main characters came together, more than anything that preceded it.

I liked the writing. Here’s a sample:

On a staged performance of spinning plates, thirty might pirouette correctly—but if even one should wobble and fall, the magic is shattered and the trick has failed.

Naïve is a word that powerful people use to shut you up.

Heavy and limp, like a fortune teller’s pendulum

 

The author did a fine job with the description of the house but didn’t quite manage to create a sense of menace or dread, which was absolutely required in a haunted house story. The scenes relating to the remodeling of the house were interesting at first. But then they just went on and on. The narrative took a long time, nearly the 67 percent mark, to get to the point. The ghost story should have started playing early in the book.

 

I didn’t know what to make of Ronnie. She narrowly missed being insufferable thanks to her sense of humour. But she could have been fleshed out better. She doesn’t google the house, even though the real estate agent pointedly tells her to. She tells us about losing her brother, about feeling crushing guilt with reference to his death, but then she doesn’t give him much of a thought, except in relation to Kate, Ben’s fiancée, and Coty. While Ronnie acknowledges her loneliness in a roundabout way, the themes of grief, regret and guilt aren’t fleshed out enough, given that Venita too is grappling with grief and Sloan with guilt.

Also, while Sloan seems to keep raising the matter of Ronnie’s sexual orientation, just because of her nickname, her profession and the way she carries herself, Ronnie herself shows nothing of the kind. There’s no talk of past partners, lovers, nothing. Surprising, given that she is in her mid-forties. Not even one line saying she’s single, whether by compulsion or by choice. In fact, the first time, she meets Anne, Ronnie tells us that the woman is a lesbian plumber. That meeting is unremarkable. Days later, however, when Ronnie has to tinker with the pipes to get the water running, she tells us that she knows what to do as she had observed the “cute plumber” at work. Cute? Where did that come from? No attraction was visible at the first meeting.

The back story regarding Ben isn’t introduced organically. Ronnie tells us readers the story directly.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Ronnie never reveals the insurance amount but she keeps investing in renovation and repair activities, as if the money is limitless.

 

The blurb wasn’t entirely true. For the most part, Venita’s spirit is too silent, displaying no malevolence. Nor is the house teeming with paranormal activity, so the claim that the “once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls” is just as false. Inspector Bartholomew Sloan is referred to as Venita’s “eternal nemesis” which again makes no sense as, in the afterlife, he is quiet for the most part, exhibiting no nemesis-like actions. “And a deadly game unfolds” – again, not quite.
“Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's scepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion.” Only half-true. The living threat was ruthless but the ghost showed no malevolence towards Ronnie.

 

The long list of items that Ronnie says can potentially scare her didn’t sound natural. It sounded like something downloaded off the Internet. And then, having mentioned this long list, suddenly Ronnie isn’t worried about anything, despite being off her medication.

 

I found it odd that both Venita and Sloan referred to Priscilla as a duckling. Twice each. Separately. In their own individual accounts, not in conversation. How strange is that! 

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The premise of this book, with themes transcending life and death and the value of a soul, was interesting, but the execution didn’t quite do it for me. If only there had been more of Venita and Sloan and less of the home improvement show.

  

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)