The House in the Pines
Ana Reyes
Hachette, $32.99
Maya was in senior high school when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of an enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d spent time with that summer.
Seven years on, another woman from Maya’s hometown has died in the same sudden, inexplicable way.
Guided by her hazy memories and an unfinished book by her late father, Maya returns home to try to unravel the mystery and save the next girl from becoming a victim.
She has also been trying to end her secret addiction to Klonopin which has been helping her to cope with what happened years ago. She has been withdrawing from the drug without the support of her loving boyfriend (who she lives with in Boston) and her behaviour has become erratic.
The You Tube video Maya watches of a woman keeling over dead in a diner shows Frank sitting across from the woman – but too far away to be touching her. His presence at the scene galvanises Maya but also casts her back to the past … and to the house in the pines.
Although she once felt this cabin in the New England woods was idyllic, warm and welcoming, she now knows it poses dangers. Nonetheless, she still feels compelled to visit the cabin in the hope it will help her work out how Frank has committed the murders.
Ana Reyes debut is a taut, psychological thriller that swirls with mystery and veers into fairy tale territory, which I confess strained my patience a bit. While I enjoyed the book’s clever suspense and its exploration of the role of memory and the intricacies of addiction, I found the ultimate premise a little unconvincing. Readers who like magical realism will probably enjoy the novel more and overall Reyes offers a pacy tale brimming with deft and dream-like description.
