Carolyn Walsh 's Reviews > The Housekeeper

3.5 Stars I enjoy books by Joy Fielding, a Canadian best-selling writer of domestic suspense. She writes in an engaging manner, and her books are easy, quick reads involving domestic drama and mystery. This is a fast-paced, entertaining, character-based psychological thriller. The story is based on twisted family dynamics with unpleasant, flawed characters. Even the most appealing, Jodi, who narrates this compelling tale, has some annoying personality traits.

Jodi has always been searching for approval and is subject to harsh, undeserved criticism from her parents, who clearly preferred her sister Tracy. Nevertheless, she visits her aging parents regularly, a duty avoided by her sister. Tracy is supported by her parents in a lavish style.

Jodi's husband is regularly finding fault with her, and she is hurt by his lack of appreciation. She has an exhausting real estate position and two children to care for. Her husband often isolates himself in the den, trying to complete a book he has been writing for ten years or absenting himself to teach classes for aspiring authors. Jodi is the sole source of household income, but her husband resents the time she spends at her real estate job. Jody is always apologizing for unfair criticism from her husband and father, failing to stand up to their constant fault-finding.

Jodi's father is a spry, dapper man approaching eighty years of age. He quit a lucrative position to care for Jodi's mother, who has Parkinson's disease, and her condition is deteriorating. Jodi realizes that her cranky, controlling father is approaching the stage where caregiving and house maintenance is becoming too much for him. Jodi hires Elyse, an attractive, outwardly pleasant, obliging sixty-two-year-old woman. She seems perfect for the job and goes beyond her required duties, offering to care for the children, working weekends, and quickly charms Jodi's children and her father.

We know from the beginning that Jodi has strong regrets about hiring Elyse and concedes it was a huge mistake. Soon she notices that the housekeeper is wearing her mother's expensive jewellery and fashions. She is not surprised that her father makes excuses and takes Elyse's side when confronted about helping herself to the mother's possessions. After her mother's tragic death, Elyse and her besotted father soon marry. A tangled web of lies, scheming, and deceit becomes apparent.

Jodi and her sister join forces to try to stop some alarming developments in their father's home. They can find no help from lawyers or police with merely their suspicions and without concrete proof. Jodi is concerned her father may be in mortal danger, and Tracy is worried that her inheritance will be lost to her.

Added to the story of a dysfunctional family, this book addresses some very real and significant social problems, such as elder abuse and defrauding senior citizens of their wealth and property.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Canada/Doubleday Canada for the ARC of this compelling thriller.