The Quiet Tenant — Clemence Michallon

A pulse-pounding debut thriller about a small-town serial killer and the one woman he spared.

Local electrician and ex-marine Aidan Thomas is beloved in his small upstate town: the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. When he loses his wife to cancer, leaving him to raise their 13-year-old daughter Cecilia by himself, the community rallies behind him, hosting fundraisers and holiday festivities in his honor.

But Aidan has a dark and awful secret: he's a serial killer who has already murdered nine women. And there's a tenth, whom he's renamed Rachel, still alive, but held  prisoner in a backyard shed. When Aidan moves to a new house, after his wife's death, he brings Rachel with him, reluctantly introducing her to Cecilia, as an “old friend” and keeping her handcuffed in a spare bedroom at night. He is betting that after five years of captivity, Rachel is too brainwashed and fearful to attempt an escape.

When Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, Aidan manages to add one more layer of deceit to a life built on lies. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation and begins to gain Cecilia's trust, Emily comes dangerously close to discovering Aidan's secret and risks putting all of them in mortal danger.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the physical and psychological violence undergone by each woman and the bonds they build with one another. Both a searing thriller and astute study of trauma, survival, and power, Michallon's debut is an electrifying novel written by a most promising new talent.