The Safe Place
Anna Downes, 2020
St. Martin's Press
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250264800
Summary
Superbly tense and oozing with atmosphere, Anna Downes's debut, The Safe Place, is the perfect summer suspense, with the modern gothic feel of Ruth Ware and the morally complex family dynamics of Lisa Jewell.
Welcome to paradise … will you ever be able to leave?
Emily is a mess.
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.
Emily is desperate.
Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.
Emily is perfect.
Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool.
But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Anna Downes was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but now lives just north of Sydney, Australia with her husband and two children. She worked as an actress before turning her attention to writing.
Downes was shortlisted for the Sydney Writers Room Short Story Prize (2017) and longlisted for the Margaret River Short Story Competition (2018). The Safe Place was inspired by Anna’s experiences working as a live-in housekeeper on a remote French estate in 2009-10. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Downes keeps the sense of foreboding building…. Emily is a compelling character who arrives in France scatterbrained and immature but find the inner strength to save herself.
Washington Post
Gripping, satisfying and also promising first suspense novel. Psychological suspense, really, but in a setting where we expect a "gothic romance'—isolated house, mysterious owner, troubled child needing care.… But a larger cast than that, and characters that, even though we are in close point of view with each in turn, continue to surprise us.
Shawangunk Journal
It all adds up to an intriguing and addictive read. A real page turner; I couldn't put the book down once the secrets began to be unveiled.
AU Review.com (Australia)
[A]tmospheric, fitfully gripping…. Though plenty of surprises await the reader, Aurelia’s palpable suffering casts something of a pall over this mix of romantic escapism and gothic menace. Ruth Ware fans may want to check this one out.
Publishers Weekly
Downes' debut novel is a slow burn of a story with Emily picking up on snippets of conversations as a breadcrumb trail leads her to an astounding conclusion. A great read for those looking for a side of mystery with their women's fiction.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion … then take off on your own:
m. In hindsight, what makes Emily the perfect person for Scott Denny to hire as an au pair for his wife, Nina, and daughter, Aurelia? Consider the state of Emily's life at at the onset of the novel—her lack of money, her family relationships, and her prospects (or lack of) for the future.
m. At first, Querencia is idyllic. When did you you begin, however, to suspect that things were not quite so perfect? What was your first clue?
m. Talk about Scott and what we know about his various machinations.
m. How does Emily's nascent attraction to Scott confuse her growing intuition that things are seriously amiss?
m. The story is told through multiple perspectives—that of Emily, Scott, and Nina. How do the different viewpoints affect what we come to know and when we know it? Did the narrative strategy increase or decrease your surprise at the end? In other words, was the final revelation surprising or predictable?
m. Did your opinion of Emily change by the end of the novel? Does she rise to the level of heroine by meeting the challenges thrown her way?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)