I generally like to go into mystery novels completely blind, so I knew absolutely nothing about Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell when I picked it up. What I found was a cunning and sinister, if utterly predictable, mystery that moves at a breakneck pace.
The Swann family patriarch has died, sending his family, especially his twenty-five-year-old daughter Ash, into a complete tailspin. Then Nick Radcliffe enters their lives, romancing her mother Nina, and Ash can’t ignore the very bad feeling that invades her at his presence.
With two different timelines, past and present, a series of dastardly schemes play out, and Ash is left trying to figure out just what is really happening to her family.
Don’t Let Him In has multiple questionable and unsettling characters that make for extremely unreliable narrators. Nick is the only character I really felt I had a strong reaction to, probably because he’s the character the readers get to know best. Even Ash, the supposed protagonist, remains a bit of an enigma for much of the book.
There is a feeling of dread infused in the prose and plot here that is common in Lisa Jewell’s writing and one of my favorite things about reading her books. From the very first chapter, the reader can feel these characters hurtling unknowingly into something dark and twisted.
The chapters are pleasantly short, and in combination with a fast-moving plot that never rests, it keeps this story moving at an incredible speed. I read a full three-quarters of this book while sitting in a tattoo chair because it moves so quickly.
I also really enjoyed the essential message of this story, which was: heed your daughters’ instincts about the men in your life. Listen to them. They are right.
If you’ve read Lisa Jewell before, this book might feel familiar. It reminded me a great deal of The Family Remains, in tone and aspects of the plot. However, I think The Family Remains was far more memorable and managed to surprise me a bit more with the plot twists.
Reading Don’t Let Him In, I was pretty sure I had this all figured out after only a few chapters. I wound up being correct on all counts. This story, while extremely predictable, was nonetheless entertaining and engaging. I knew where it was going, but still enjoyed the trip.
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