The Au Pair: A spellbinding mystery full of dark family secrets

by Emma Rous

Helen Keeley (Narrator)

***COSMOPOLITAN 'BOOKS OF 2019 TO BRING TO YOUR BOOKCLUB'***

***NOW AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER***

'Entrancing, compelling, atmospheric, reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier. A beautiful read that delivers a shocking and satisfying ending' Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs Parrish

'Delicious and spellbinding . . . absolutely absorbing and scandalous' Booklist

'Enthralling and addictive' Lisa Ballantyne, bestselling author of The Guilty One

Seraphine Mayes and her brother Danny are the first set of twins to be born at Summerbourne House. But on the day they were born their mother threw herself to her death, their au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of a stolen baby.

Now twenty-five, and mourning the recent death of her father, Seraphine uncovers a family photograph taken on the day the twins were born featuring both parents posing with just one baby. Seraphine soon becomes fixated with the notion that she and Danny might not be twins after all, that she wasn't the baby born that day and that there was more to her mother's death than she has ever been told...

Why did their beloved au pair flee that day?
Where is she now?
Does she hold the key to what really happened?

'Don't just pick up and read Emma Rous' The Au Pair, dive into it and get washed away with it' A bookseller

'Filled with mystery and intrigue. I was gripped until the very last page!' Fiona Valpy, bestselling author of Sea of Memories

'This will keep you turning those pages. The characters are still playing on my mind' Jane Corry, bestselling author of My Husband's Wife

'One hell of a ride' New York Post

'Vivid characters, a magical setting and a tightly knitted plot . . . jaw-dropping climax' Bookpage

'Family secrets come to light in this compelling debut with a gothic touch and a shocking denouement. Enthralling and addictive' Lisa Ballantyne, bestselling author of The Guilty One

'A page-turner' Publisher's Weekly

'A juicy and compelling read by a promising new author' Shelf Awareness

• ISBN10: 1405542810
• ISBN13: 9781405542814
• Publish Date: 6 December 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Little, Brown Book Group
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 10 hours and 45 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Caffeinated Reasons to grab your headphones and listen to the Au Pair

• The story unfolds in two timelines until the past meets the present. It gives us the narratives of Seraphine (present) whose mother leapt to her death the day of her birth and those of Laura (past), the au pair who was there that fateful summer.


• Seraphine's father dies unexpectedly and as she sorts through things she comes across a photo of her mother. Taken on the day of her and her brother's birth, it shows only one babe with her mother and father. She knows nothing about that day, and with her father gone she realizes she may never know. This sparks her to ask questions. When she realizes the au pair must have taken the photo, she begins there. However someone seems to warn her off.


• Townsfolk believe there is a curse affecting twins at Summerbourne. Whispers surround the twins and they refer to Seraphine and her brother as the "Summerbourne Sprites"


• Family, friends and the local doctor assist or attempt to deter Seraphine, even Laura. I must admit I became swept up in searching for clues and trying to determine who wanted her to stop digging into the past.


• Emma Rous shared the POV of the au pair, Laura with us. It added a gothic vibe I found incredibly addictive Sometimes one narrative or timeline is slower, but this wasn't the case.


• Much went on at the Summerbourne Estate, and signs of how dysfunctional things were within its gates drew me in.


• Twists, turns, and danger kept me listening to the present. The events of that fateful summer in the past held me equally spellbound. I thought Rous did an excellent job of keeping me guessing and weaving her web. I admit things took me by surprise. Occasionally, I felt she took the easy route with clues but she ended up leaving me stunned.


• From pacing to tone The Au Pair was brilliant, thanks in part to narrators, Elizabeth Sastre and Nicola Barber. Having two distinct voices for our POVs captured the characters' emotions and enhanced the atmospheric tone of the storyline.

This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[girlinthepages]

*Many thanks to Berkely and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review!*

In today's over saturated world of mediocre thrillers, it can be hard to find one that simultaneously manages to surprise me and that's well written. So many thriller novels I actually find work better for me in a movie format, so I'm always on a hunt for a solidly written mystery/thriller that manages to create an unsettling, atmospheric world on the page. That's exactly what I experienced with The Au Pair to my delight, and found myself completely immersed in a mystery that not only enveloped me in its setting, but actually had an ending that I didn't foresee in advance.

The Au Pair is a mystery told in a dual timeline story, switching back and forth between Laura, an au pair for a wealthy British family at their country mansion, and Seraphine, a daughter from the same family who wasn't watched by Laura but who is determined to find out the truth about her family's shady past after the death of her father. Seraphine believes the family's previous au pair, Laura, may know more than she's letting on about her family's history (is she adopted, why did her mother commit suicide hours after giving birth, etc.) Of course, this leads to Seraphine making bad, impulsive decisions to try and trick Laura into meeting with her and she's like NOPE and does the classic "never speak to me again" while also receiving a threatening letter about keeping quiet about the events of Summerbourne all those years ago which of course just makes Seraphine dig deeper into the tragic past of her family's estate.

While I enjoyed both narrators, I was especially fond of Laura's timeline and seeing the Summerbourne estate at the height of its infamy when it was bustling with drama and intrigue. Laura, a single child from a middle class family in London, becomes so entangled and entrenched in her posh employer's family dramas and her journey into becoming unhealthily enmeshed in the family is both believable and compelling. I was also particularly fascinated by the fact that she was such a neutral character, who I neither liked nor disliked and who was both a good person (she was wonderful with Edwin, her toddler charge) and who also made really terrible decisions at times. She was a character who was perfect as the protagonist in a mystery because her neutral personality made it hard to guess her motivations and how she would respond and react to the twists and turns in the narrative.

My absolute favorite thing about the book, however, was the atmospheric setting. Summerbourne itself felt like a character, a beautiful yet slightly eerie house set on the cliffs in the countryside that's been the site of so many tragic events, and yet is such a defining and magnetic force for both the family and the community. It's sprawling grounds, dangerously rocky beach and sense of grandeur slightly gone to seed was a deeply beautiful and yet unsettling backdrop for the mystery, and it felt like the mansion itself was playing a role in keeping secrets and pushing the characters into their questionable decisions. I also liked the slight fairytale esque thread throughout the narrative due to the lore that surrounds the myth of the Summerbourne twins, and the curse that plagues them and the rumors of sprites and changelings. It lends itself to the overall unsettling and anxiety inducing feeling I had throughout reading the entire novel which is a great feeling when reading a mystery novel!

Obviously when reviewing a mystery/thriller I can't speak too much to the plot details or twists, but I will say that I didn't guess the ending or the antagonist which is so refreshing! The ending did however get a little far fetched at the end to tie all of the plot threads together (it was definitely possible, just not very probably) however I did like how the big reveal didn't fall all on one character but rather it was the culmination of several character's motives and actions.

Overall: The Au Pair is one of the best mystery stories I've read in a while. It's cleverly crafted with all of the family entanglements and every character was complex. While the ending was a little far-fetched and convenient, I overall enjoyed the twists and adored the setting, and highly recommend The Au Pair to readers who love slow burn unsettling thrillers. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages