#Bookreview – A House Without Windows by Stevie Turner

What Amazon says

Newly-pregnant Dr. Beth Nichols is happily engaged to Liam Darrah, a fellow doctor. She has no idea she is being stalked by ex-patient Edwin Evans as she makes her way home one evening after a late shift at the hospital. After being anaesthetized, she wakes up in Edwin’s basement, held against her will, and eventually gives birth there without medical help. However, Beth tries to stay positive, and somehow knows that Liam will still be out there searching for her. Every night, she looks up at the light bulb that is never switched off, and prays that one day they will be together again.

This romance/suspense story is written from different perspectives; from Beth’s nine-year-old daughter Amy, born in captivity, from Beth herself, unwillingly pregnant again years later with Edwin’ s baby; from Liam and Edwin; and 16 years later from Joss, Beth and Edwin’s son.

My review

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Wendy Anne Darling. I thought Wendy did a very good job. She has the perfect accent for this particular book set in the United Kingdom and I found her narration to be clear and easy to follow.

I found this story to be very touching and emotional on two levels. One, because I found the idea of the abduction of a young, professional woman by a patient she had tried to help absolutely awful but also alarmingly possible. Two, the mental illness demonstrated by Edwin in this book strikes a deep cord with me as I have had a few brushes with people suffering from mental illness. The thought of how parents, either good or bad, impact on and shape the destiny of someone with problems and leanings towards obsessive compulsive disorder and probably autism, as are exhibited by Edwin, together with the fact that his childhood abuse was never discovered or noticed in a country as progressive as the UK is very poignant and sad. The neglect and physical and metal abuse that Edwin suffered, impacted heavily on his own life and also on the lives of his abductee, Beth, and her entire family. The complexities and enormous difficulties faced by medical practitioners in attempting to treat these sorts of disorders in government facilities without the support of family and friends is also tragically apparent.

I enjoyed Turner’s style of writing and the use of a children’s book given to Amy, Beth’s young daughter who was born in captivity, to draw parallels between her life, living as a prisoner in a house without windows to the lives of the children in the book who have a lot of freedom, experience boating on the ocean and a great adventure. Amy learns a lot about life from reading this book and it makes her restless and unsettled in her own life.

This is a book about a terrible experience by a woman and how it impacts on the man who loves her, her children and her family. The effects of Beth’s abduction are far reaching and last for many years into the future of those around her.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book and rated it five out of five stars on Amazon.

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