The House in the Pines: A Novel

Product Information

In the past, some mystery and thriller readers have been left a bit perplexed by some of Reese’s “thriller” picks. The doctor who had prescribed it back in LA never said anything about addiction, while my new Baton Rouge doctor treated me like an addict when I asked her for it.

The only other person to see Aubrey die was Maya’s love interest, Frank, but he swore up and down he had nothing to do with it, even though Maya had seen the two of them speaking moments before Aubrey’s death. I thought I figured out how Frank was involved yet I just couldn't figure everything out so that was a plus.The House in the Pines is a fast-paced powerful thriller that really pulls the reader unlike anything I have read before. My youngest student is in her mid- to late 50s and my oldest student is 94,” Reyes said in a phone interview. The police had agreed with Frank; after all, Frank had not made any physical contact with Aubrey and it really isn’t possible to kill someone with just a look. She struggles to understand the sounds she hears, but realizes they are coming from Frank, who appears suddenly behind her, and she wakes, drenched in sweat.

She’s written about what that was like as a child, having to be separated from her parents and going to live in the countryside with a foster family, essentially, that took her in during the war. The secondary characters of Maya’s mom, her friend, Aubrey, and Frank play pivotal roles in the story. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer–the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey. Reyes reacted to her book’s selection on Instagram, writing, “I don’t have the words right now for how thrilled and honored I am to make this announcement. I believe in the unique abilities of human brain and how it could be manipulated but some parts of the explanations about events seem a little illogical for me!

Some students are working through intense and dramatic experiences for the first time in my class,” she said. There is peril aplenty, as we take Maya’s word that Frank is a killer, so all her activity might be putting her in mortal peril. Thick psychological tension is heightened by Maya’s memory lapses and reality-bending perceptions, lending the story a dark, supernatural feel. This novel tackles heavy topics such as addiction, family trauma, abusive relationships, and the fragility of our own memory. One night while not being able to sleep, Maya witnesses a woman drop dead in front of her ex boyfriend on a YouTube video.